koobas.hobune.stream
How to generate free iOS market/Google Play access codes?
I'm about to publish my first game on google play and soon the iOS marketplace, and I really wanted to offer free access codes for the game (which will ordinarily be $0.99) as promotional material. I've been doing research on this for the past couple days but pretty much everything I can find is at least 2 or 3 years old and insists that its not possible. I see a lot of apps on the Google Play store that have a place to enter coupons/access/discount codes though.
My question is this; is it possible to generate free access codes or coupons for my game on the Google Play store and if so, how? Is it a similar process for the iOS market?
Finally if it is possible, am I going to need to implement something on my end in the build that unlocks the game or is that entirely through the google play store? If anyone even knows of a resource I can look at that answers these questions or if you know definitively that it isn't possible please let me know!
I'll keep looking into this and update this post with an answer if I find one but I almost don't even know where to start looking.
Thanks!
The short answer is, no, its not possible at current date to my knowledge. I believe it only may be possible through your own service.For example, a game like Game Of War processes all of its purchase requests through their servers, and then contacts Google Play for the correct package. The same can be done with a promo code, but it has to be "decoded" by your server first, before it grabs something from Google Play such as an IAP that is mapped to your discounted content. I'm not sure if this method can be used however with free content, because I haven't tried it myself. If its free content, it can be done using a server, but I wouldn't know how. Alternatively, but not particularly recommended, you can program these codes right into the application. It relies on you updating the source code to reflect future codes and to change codes/deactivate codes. I used this method with the beta build of my app using a simple Dictionary and if statements.
