Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
In-app purchase
A common feature being implemented in most of the games these days is in-app pur-
chases. This feature is simply your paid shopfront within the game to unlock levels, pur-
chase rare items, or remove unwanted features such as ads.
In some cases, in-app purchases have been used to implement the trial functionality; pub-
lishing the title as free, and then offering an in-game unlock option. On consoles such as
Ouya, this is a standard practice.
Note
Note that with the trial system, be upfront if your game is sold as a trial. Players do not
like this and will aggressively mark down and slam titles that appear free until they are
forced to pay to play!
In-app purchases on most of the platforms come in the following two forms:
•
Durable/nonconsumable
: This platform provides the items that the player can
purchase and have a real-world item they can own. These are generally single-use
items, and you can verify with the marketplace of the platform to check whether
the player has purchased them or not. It is advised that you also manage the in-
formation locally to ensure that you don't slow the game down on startup while
checking. You can also keep this information on a backend service, just in case
the user resets their device or transfers to a new one; this is not mandatory
however.
This platform can only be purchased once
•
Consumable
: Effectively, consumables are in-game currency, items that are
meant to be recharged and replenished over time.
The big difference between consumables and durables is that consumables are not
tracked on the server (other than in the payment history, but the payment history
is not available in apps/games)
These can be purchased many times over
Besides the store/marketplace for each platform, there are some online services that will
create payment systems for you, saving you from recreating everything for each platform
you support. One such service is called
Lotaris
(
http://www.lotaris.com/
)
, which offers
