So, you have a free-to-play game and chose in-app purchases (IAPs) as a way to monetize it. In the first place, you need to create an in-game store to display your offerings to players.
This article will give you an overview of what basic elements your in-game store should include and how to fill it with content in minutes without writing a single line of code.
How does an in-game shop usually look like?
A good store usually has a wide variety of items players need during the game to improve their progress or personalize their game experience. For the convenience of navigation, developers usually split all the content into different pages, such as ‘gems’, ‘gold’, ‘limited offers’, ‘super packs’, ‘event items’, etc. Each page contains several slots with different price tags.
What to sell in the shop?
Every free-to-play game has a virtual currency sold in exchange for real money, called hard currency. The most common names are Gems or Gold. Make sure to have multiple offers for your players with different prices to meet expectations for different payers’ segments. Depending on the game, you can also sell in-game items, boosters, and even subscriptions.
We recommend carefully researching your competitors if you are making a new game. Using their experience is the best starting point, and once you start getting some traction from the market you might be able to understand where to move next.
You are going to sell what your players need most. Don’t overwhelm your stores with trash that no one buys. If a player wants to buy something in your store, they most likely have been studying all the products you are offering. If there are too many products, you would be at risk of getting into the ‘paradox of choice’ — a situation when a customer leaves without buying something. The good rule of thumb is the more complex your game is, the more products you should be selling.
A typical in-game bank has six positions:
$0,99, $4,99, $9.99, $19.99, $49.99, and $99.99 – historically they are tied up to kinds of dollar banknotes, that everybody has seen and is familiar with. This is a way to make your prices easy to read and agree with.
It’s very important to give a discount for higher price tiers. Such discounts can go as high as 50% for the most expensive tier. Diablo Immortal developers seem a bit greedy as they offer only 20% discount for the highest tier.
How to organize an in-game shop?
Usually, the shop contains several categories:
- Hard currency. Here you sell packs of gems/gold for real money.
- Soft currency. Other currencies or resources are being sold for gems/gold.
- Special offers. Usually the sweetest purchase for all players. Offers change from time to time depending on the player’s progress, in-game events, etc. They can be sold for hard or soft currencies, but usually, they are sold for real money with good discounts.
How to add a shop to your game with Balancy?
Adding a shop to your game used to be a big headache. Today with Balancy, it’s a feature you can implement in a couple of hours, or minutes if you already use Balancy. Watch the following 1-minute video to learn how: