How do I distribute a free copy of my game using the google play store? I’m running a kickstarter campaign and I would like to offer investors a copy of my game, how do I give them a free copy? Does anyone know about how this works? Any advise?
The only solutions I’ve discovered for this so far are:
- Create a user account system and pre-register each backer.
- Create a key system and send unlock keys to each backer.
- Purchase the app for each backer and eat the fees.
- Distribute a backer version of the APK for them to download
1 and 2 may upset Google, since you’re effectively cutting them out their fair share of the sale. 4 will lead directly to pirating.
If someone has better ideas, I’d like to know too.
Thanks for the reply there’s got to be a way to So option 3 is possible? I wasn’t aware that I could buy a copy of the game for each backer… How would that work exactly?
Actually, ignore 3. Even though you can technically do that, you would still need a way for them to confirm that they are backers, which means a code, which means you would need to do #1 or 2 anyway.
I’m afraid I don’t know of any simple methods. You could give them the APK separately and have the exact number of keys built in. They have to enter their code to unlock it. If you get wind that a code has been leaked, you can disable it in the next update. Other than that, a user account system would be the most efficient.
That’s all I can really think of.