Smartphone Purchases

So, something that happened with my very first game...

I released it as paid, no-one downloaded, so re-released it as free with purchase full version option. The people that updated 'lost' the paid version and ended up with the lite version, effectively having to purchase it again if they wanted the full version. This was quite a while back... wasnt a great loss as the purchase count was pretty low... anyway..

So my question is, what is the best/proper way to deal with re-installs of your application for people that have paid for a premium version? (so that they get the full version without upgrading). Going to be releasing a new game soon that will have a get-rid-ads upgrade.. want to make sure I dont run into this problem again.

 

Nothing? There's no common standard/framework/api?

 

unlock code generators maybe? Cloud purchase saves? Not sure about standard/framework/api...

 

You could store purchase data in the cloud. Linked either through a device id, or through a linked Facebook, GameCenter or Google Play account.

When the player authenticates with one of the above methods, do a lookup in your DB and if there was a previous purchase, do the the unlock.

Server-side is the way to go.

 

Yeah I was thinking of doing it that way (linking to gamecenter/google play). The only downside to that approach is people need to sign-in/have an account.

Or I could roll my own through my website/db... was trying to avoid that, but might be the best option.

 

Take a look at playfab.com

They have a sweet API with lots of built-in authentication methods.

 

yeah that looks pretty good. Cheers.

 

Yep, usually the purchase is assigned to the account Windows/Apple/Android. Each platform, of course do it their own way.
The benefit of rolling your own, is that it'll work on all platforms, and if you're nice you could allow something that was purchased on a android device work on a apple device. You could use that as a marketing advantage too.

playfab.com does look like a good idea.

 

Yeah I doubt ill support multiple devices for one purchase. That would require users to sign up for an account under a service I provide, which is all overhead and work I'm not that interested in.

 

Tooting our own horn (I work on PlayFab); if you just want to unlock purchases on the same device that the original purchase was made on, you can log the player in with the device ID so they don't have to manually enter a username/password: http://api.playfab.com/Documentation/Client/method/LoginWithIOSDeviceID, for example.

One easy way to link accounts across devices is to encourage players to log in with Facebook; then they still don't have to enter a username/password but you'd be able to transfer purchases across devices: http://api.playfab.com/Documentation/Client/method/LoginWithFacebook

Email info@playfab.com if you have any other questions; it does look like we'd be a good fit for what you need but of course I'm going to think that.