Hi, I have an in game shop where the player can purchase items with coins - and has the option to use real money to purchase coins. So obviously, I need to connect to a service like PlayFab to make sure the inventory is in a server that the player can’t just edit and change and cheat with.
Are Unity IAP and PlayFab frequently merged together to achieve this purpose?
Your use case is very common and comes with another advantage: players can switch devices and still keep their coins and inventory. Without a cloud service including login (like PlayFab), you would store coins only locally and since they are consumables, players would not be able to restore them on a different device using the same credentials.
Also, as you mention, the local storage of coins could easily be tampered with to receive an unlimited amount of coins, or just sending save games across devices to achieve the same. PlayFab does indeed prevent this as all player actions regarding shop interaction happen and are validated on their servers, before crediting any inventory.
The implementation of such a service means that the user needs internet access not only when using the shop, but also when launching the game and logging in to receive your initial inventory. Depending on your game, the gameplay itself could be offline. That’s a limitation to keep in mind.
(#ad) I’m the publisher of Simple IAP System, which (optionally) fully integrates PlayFab for syncing player inventory or only validating in-app purchase receipts. Many other developers are using this integration in their live games.
Hi, Unity is currently working on taking the technology from ChilliConnect to build out a new suite of game backend services that will be more directly integrated with the Unity ecosystem, including Unity IAP. These services will be a collection of managed cloud services that host and run content for your game.If you would like participate in this beta to see the latest on these services, please email mahraan@unity3d.com for more instructions.
If you join, you will also get access to several other products that are in beta, including an updated version of Unity Analytics.
Damn really? Do you know when this will launch? I can probably incorporate this into my next game.
Happy to know that PlayFab prevents this. Thanks for the info and link?
We will post more information when it’s available. Stay tuned! This may help to get you started https://docs.unity.com/analytics/Content/GetStarted.htm
Hi, we launched last Thursday. You can have a look here for Economy specific information, or look at the general Backend Services subforum for more information about the complete offering.