Hi,
I am building a game where at some point you can book a time slot on a specific day on a specific place (think of it like a laser game booking).
Is this a scenario I can handle with IAP (it’s the first time I use some sort of in-app purchase).
Should I create a product like “time slot”, consumable, and associate it to all the time slot buttons? Or should I create multiple non-consumable time slots each of them unique on (time-date-store) so I can eventually allow the user to cancel and this would be handled by the restore/refund of the IAP?
Or there’s a third option I don’t know? Or perhaps this is a totally wrong approach to the scenario and it’s not covered by the default IAP (or adaptable from it) and I should use a different approach like a direct integration with stripe and paypal and handling everything with a custom integration?
Thanks for any information you will provide me, or direction you will point me at
Hi, first off if your app will be available on mobile App Stores but you are trying to sell a “product” or “service” using IAP outside the game, your app will be removed as that is not allowed.
For time slot booking the native IAP system does not really fit, since as you mentioned consumables are gone immediately (harder to refund later) and with non consumables your users would not be able to book the same time twice.
If the product is offered outside the app, this seems like a good use case for PayPal where you can include the selected time in the order. If you do not have unlimited capacity, you would want to check the time slot prior to booking on your server though.
Side note, PayPal and hundreds of local payment providers via Xsolla are integrated in my billing asset on the Asset Store.
Hi Baroni and thank you for the answer
Btw it’s a really good asset, I’ll absolutely consider it for my case.
I still have a couple of question, what do you mean with “sell a product or service using IAP outside the game”? If I make for instance a real-life laser game booking manager in unity, can I use IAP to handle the payment? Or this is an “outside the game” scenario?
This is just out of curiosity, probably I will move to a direct paypal/stripe/your asset integration at this point.
Exactly that would be an “outside the game” IAP. You are not allowed to use the native billing (e.g. Google Play) IAP to sell something outside the app, such as services or physical products.
