Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
The technical side of things is relatively easy, and I provide links to reference material in the
resources section of the topic. I do want to briefly talk about some strategies for adding IAP
into your game.
The first thing you should understand about IAP is that it allows you to make your game free
and still find ways to make money by selling additional features. This is an incredibly power-
ful monetization strategy since it allows your game to show up in the free game listing,
which doesn't happen if your game is for sale with a trial mode. That means it is even more
likely for people to download and play it. From there it is your job to incentivize them into
paying more for missing features.
The reality is that IAP needs to be added to a game from the initial design process so, if you
are porting over a game from the Web, chances are you may not have an existing IAP system
in place. While you can easily add a basic way to buy more of an in-game currency, I suggest
considering the following options for easily adding value to a game that was not originally
designed for IAP:
▪ Additional Levels - Selling additional content or add-on packs is a great way to take ad-
vantage of IAP and not make players feel cheated as they play the initial round of levels
you supply with the game.
▪ Additional Characters - Over time you may decide to add new playable characters to
your game. These could be to coincide with an event, such as a holiday, or just to add
some additional replay value to your existing levels.
▪ Unlock Features of the Game - You can easily use IAP as a full replacement for trial
mode. Simply lock out features of the game, such as multi-player, and allow the player to
buy the feature if they want it.
▪ Remove Ads - Why not use IAP to remove the ads from your game. We discussed the
technique earlier in the chapter with trial mode, but taking advantage of IAP would prob-
ably be a better solution.
As you can see, there are lots of ways to add on IAP to an existing game. Just be careful to
not overdo IAP or that will really turn players off of spending money on your game.
