Lite to Full version upsell

Solar2D Monetization (in-app purchases, ads, etc.)
#1

Hi all,

I have planned a Lite version of my game and a Full version. In the Lite version I would like to put an upsell screen that links to the AppStore Full version of my game. Is this possible?

I’m posting this in In App Purchases because I’m not sure if this is already taken care of with the In App API. It looks like the In App API is for purchasing items and such in you game, unless I’m reading it wrong.

Any suggestions on how to accomplish this?

Thanks!

-John [import]uid: 27145 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 307647[/import]

#2

You could easily include a link to the app store to purchase a full version of your game.

Check out this thread:
http://developer.anscamobile.com/forum/2011/03/01/directing-review-page#new

Now aside from that, one cool thing you could probably implement as an in app purchase is the full version.

I am not sure if it could work this way, but make your game free, and include an in app purchase of the full game.

Use a variable along the lines of IS_FULL_VERSION. When the user purchases the full app, have it set this variable to true and save it in a file. Check every time the game loads if this is true.

Either divide your main logic into an if statement or if using the director class, have it direct to either game logic scene.

The great thing about this is your game is free, so it might get some more attention, and all the user has to do to get the full experience is perform an in-app purchase and be done!

I have not actually used this method but it is worth taking a look into. [import]uid: 9968 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 27164[/import]

#3

Great ideas here. :smiley:

Thanks for the help on this and for taking the time to put out your thoughts.
[import]uid: 27145 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 27246[/import]

#4

Hi again,

I’ve decided to go with adding the remaining levels via an in-app purchase instead of going the Lite game route. It seems more sensible. However, I’m having a heck of a time getting this working. I’m still relatively new to Mac so I’m probably just being a dork…but here is what I’ve got:

1 - The game is complete except for the in-app upgrade bit
2 - I’ve created a new App on iTunes Connect for this
3 - I’ve created a new in-app purchase item and have made sure that it shares the same ID layout (com.gamesoftomorrow.etc…) and I did not use any asterisks. And I waited more than 24 hours before trying anything.
4 - All the contract stuff is done with apple too
5 - I uploaded a binary to iTunes Connected. It still says “upload received” (maybe that is the issue?)
6 - I put in the basic code giving in the in-app purchase instructions just so I can see something happen. (from: http://developer.anscamobile.com/reference/in-app-purchases )
7 - When the callback is called I output a message to screen with just the title and price of the item.

The problem is that the callback never gets called, so I’m definitely missing something somewhere.

I tried following this: http://troybrant.net/blog/2010/01/in-app-purchases-a-full-walkthrough/ … but it’s not really Corona specific, and not being a Mac/XCode developer I keep getting lost.

Questions:
1 - Is it okay to use an AdHoc build for testing or does it need to be a normal dist?
2 - Does it need to be a production distribution or is development okay?
3 - Is there any way to see what’s happening on the device while the app is running? Like a debug window on the mac that shows debug information if the device is connected. I tried this: http://developer.anscamobile.com/code/enable-real-time-device-debugging-ios … but it doesn’t seem to be working.
4 - Does anyone happen to have a walk-thru for Corona specifically? Following the directions on the http://developer.anscamobile.com/reference/in-app-purchases link doesn’t seem to cover everything. I’ve tried it verbatim but without luck yet.

Thanks! [import]uid: 27145 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 32689[/import]

#5

Well…I was right: I’m a dork. I spelled a variable incorrectly and it goofed everything up. Instead of “storeProducts”, I had put “stsoreProducts”.

Anyway, the in-app stuff seems to be showing my products now. Yay! [import]uid: 27145 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 32771[/import]

#6

Grats, theres so many steps to work through to get it working correctly its a great feeling when it finally works! [import]uid: 9428 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 33743[/import]

#7

Just wanted to ask how its going?

I have yet to take my own advice and I’m curious as to how the implementation went and exactly what you did?

Congrats on getting it done though! It is a great feeling! [import]uid: 9968 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 33833[/import]

#8

Hey!

It’s going pretty well. What I did was just follow the http://developer.anscamobile.com/reference/in-app-purchases steps and navigate through the apple site to build up the in-app purchases.

It was actually pretty straightforward until I had that brain fart where I goofed up on the variable name. Then it was a couple of days trying to find where I went wrong. :slight_smile:

Main thing that helped was just doing a dummy app that showed text on the ipod about what was going on. That made it a bit tedious, but once I got that working, I refactored a bit to clean things up and then had a little bit of a base to use in the game. Of course this base is almost identical to the one provided in the http://developer.anscamobile.com/reference/in-app-purchases text, with just some tweaks to fit my particular needs.

Thanks for asking! :slight_smile: [import]uid: 27145 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 34683[/import]

#9

Don’t forget to gracefully handle situations where there is no connection, or the user/phone drops out part way through the transaction etc.

Also, if you’d like to see console debug info from the live device, you can use the ‘iPhone Configuration Utility’ and the Console tab shows any output from the device (this is also how I install/uninstall my test builds to my iPhone).

Make sure to disable all your ‘print’ commands before your final build as well!! You don’t need other people to see all your debug info and print commands can actually slow down your app.

You can do this by having the following line at the top of your main lua file:

print = function() end

You just comment the line when you want to debug. [import]uid: 9428 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 34700[/import]

#10

Lilarcor: Excellent advice. Thank you for the tips! :slight_smile:

[import]uid: 27145 topic_id: 7647 reply_id: 34949[/import]