Rejections based on iAP - In Game Currency

Hi
I'm hoping you can give me some guidance here.
I've had several rejections from Apple. I've handled most. But this last one has me stumped.
It deals with iAPs.

I have set up:
1. Non Consumable - Remove Ads
2. Consumable - Coins 5000 & 10000
A restore button also installed.
I tested restore and the "Remove Ads" is restored but not the Coins.

Apple complains the following:
---------------------------------------
Hello,

Thank you for your response and clarification. After further review we have found that your application is in compliance with the 22.2 guideline and that it contains a restore mechanism for the non-consumable In-App Purchase product.

However, we still noticed that your app uses intermediary currency to purchase items that function as non-consumable products.

It would be appropriate to modify your app to include an optional user registration feature that allows users to restore the purchases that are made using virtual currency to all of their iOS devices.

We are unable to proceed with the review of your app until this issue has been addressed.

If you have any additional questions about the information provided, please reply to this message and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Best regards,
App Store Review
----------------------------------------


Does the code in BB only restore non consumable? Should I change the coins to non-consumable as a work-around? How have others handle this?


Also,
After uploading the first build, I wanted to upload another build and I am getting a message I have never seen before. (Same machine, same Bundle ID, Same Xcode version 6.4 - just a new BB iOS output.) Please see attached. Have I missed something?

 

looks like a great disturbance in the App Store, as if millions of coins suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. Perhaps you can't sell coins anymore without a backend server to manage how many coins the user owns so they can restore. I've thought in the past what happens if you buy a $99 bucket of coins and your device crashes before you use them. maybe terms and conditions are changing for iOS 9...

 

If I understand correctly it means that you can purchase no ads with in-app currency? Apple says: your app uses intermediary currency to purchase items that function as non-consumable products. You say the non-consumable are Remove-Ads. You should change the no-ads purchase to in-app purchase.

 

You cannot restore Consumable IAP. That is not BB, that is Apple. Non-Consumable is like removing Ads (forever) or purchasing a level or character (forever). Once user bought that they will have that, that is why Non-Consumable...

Consumable in the other hand are like bullets or coins etc. You cannot restore those as Apple does not know how much coins customer consumed already.

Their problem is with your game is that you buy coins (which is consumable), then using that coin user can "purchase" a character or something which os non-consumable... So if the app needs to be reinstalled, or for any other reason the non-consumables needs to be restored, then you cannot do that as you did not use iTunes / AppStore so Apple does not even notified that user purchased that non-consumable thing. So lets say your game needs to be deleted and reinstalled, user will not only use whatever coins they have left from their last purchase, but also lose their game levels or characters etc so they will be super frustrated... That is what Apple wants to avoid... They do not care about your game btw, but they do not want user have a bad experience and think "Oh, iPhone is crap, now I lost everything I have previously purchased"...

All they ask is to have the functionality to restore non-consumables (stored on either iCloud or on your own server). I am not sure if BB has this option, and if not you should find a different way for monetization, maybe by dropping the game currency.

 

@Christoph, The remove ads iAP work fine as they are set up and are non-consumable. Restore works for Remove Ads. The problem I am having is that the "Restore" button does not restore coins purchased. So, if I buy 10,000 coins and purchase the 2 other characters, then delete the game and reinstall later, I cannot Restore the Characters purchased with the coins, because I cannot restore the coins that were set as Consumable. So my only recourse may be to reset the coins as Non-Consumable coins... because it would seem only non-consumable is the only iAP that BB restores.

 

@trudnai, So, it looks like I should just delete the coin purchase iAPs altogether. Let the player play their @rse off to gather coins to earn enough coins to purchase other characters. Maybe increase the value on the coins to make it a little easier to achieve that goal. Higher user engagement maybe. Monetize with ads and remove ads.

 

However, if the is non-consumable, you will not be able to purchase that again...

 

What I would do is to follow what @TreySmith is teaching us: Analyze competition (other successful games basically) and see how do they do the monetization and remodel it. Most Kechapp games I have seen use only iAP for remove the ads... You can also use direct iAP purchase characters...

And you can create a feature request in this forum, and hopefully BB team will prioritize it high enough to get it soon... (to make the game currency purchase acceptable by Apple)

Oh btw maybe on Google Playstore and other market places you can use this? So you may only need to sacrifice on iTunes...

 

Going to give it a go and see how it works out.

 

I would wait for someone of the Buildbox team to join in. If it's something new it for sure will be handled in no time. I for sure would also be interested in the solution since I have set up something similar too.

@Andy?

 

Currency (coins) are ALWAYS consumable and never able to be restored. Possible issues...

1) There is an issue with your configuration.
2) Apple is confused for some reason.
3) There is a seemingly "new" rule that has to do with purchasing items with currency.

I'm guessing the issue is some combination of #2 and #3. I would first ask them for the specific guideline you are violating.

 

@Andy, I'm trying a work-around...
I've set in the store just the two images of the characters and set as iAP with bundle ID for non-consumable.
But these are linked to an Action Image that is 5,000 coins each. So, when the character is purchased as iAP, 5000 coins shows up as available in the Game over screen where the characters are chosen. Click on the character and it is activated.
Restore button now restores in-game currency to repurchase characters. I think this might work

 

Great, thanks for this info, I have been trying to figure this out and you solved it for me

 

Can you please explain it a little more? I didn't really understand what you did.

 

Are you also allowing the use of coins to remove advertising? Like Andy said, perhaps Apple is confused

 

I don't really understand the work around... it should not be necessary. Currency cannot be non-consumable to my knowledge. I think it's important to understand the exact guideline they are rejecting you for. They have not given that information to you based on the info in this post.

 

@darren No the coins do not purchase Remove Ads. That is a separate Non-Consumable iAP.
@Andy, I know coins are usually a Consumable iAP. Most of my other non-BB apps are set up that way.
Apple was rejecting me originally because if I reinstalled the app on a device, the Coins would not register as an item that could be reinstated with "Restore" button. I tried. Coins = 0 after Restore. So that must be something in the Xcode.proj that could be fixed, because it is not an issue with Unity.
Basically I tricked the system into believing that it was buying a character, when in-fact it was buying 5,000 coins. Seeing that you don't activate the new character until the GameOver screen, where you see the character price and coins available. Slide, choose, done.
So the bundle ID was: com.companyname.gamename.charactername (Non-Consumable)
But the delivery was: 5,000 coins in the GameOver screen
Here are the steps I took...
1. On stage build screen, drag n drop any .png item and add as an Action Button. Name it "Unlock Character", Action type: "Coin", Reward Coins: "5,000". Then delete image from build screen as you don't need it anymore.
2. Navigate to Shop on BB and install background, back button, Remove ads button and place Character Image as a "Purchase" button.
Link it to your action button you created in step on. Choose "Buy and Use" and name your Bundle ID.
3. Set up iAP in iTunes as "Non-Consumable" Bundle ID was: com.companyname.gamename.charactername
4. Test on device. Buy character in shop, use coins to pay for character in GameOver. Uninstall game from device. Reinstall and test "Restore" Voila!!!

 

I still don't get it, but its ok if it's working for your. Perhaps i just don't understand what you were originally trying to do. BB is no different from any other game in this respect. If there was an issue it was with your setup or Apple was confused(or just not clear in the rejection).

 

The App just got approved by Apple a few minutes ago. Yay!!
Probably still processing in the store, but here is the link:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pumpkin-man-halloween-adventure/id1046399533?ls=1&mt=8

 

I think it is actually a good idea to make the in-app currency purchase a NON-consumable item. But I never thought that Apple would approve it. It seems something has changed. Did you put several 5000 buttons with different bundle IDs, did you put several 5000 buttons with the same bundle ID or simply one and once the user purchase the 5000 coins does your button disappear? How did you resolve this design wise?