Underworld: first AppStore MMO featuring in-app purchase micro-transactions
Today, a new version of Underworld appeared in the AppStore. The one unique feature you will notice there is
Right now, Underworld is the first MMO in the AppStore that has
Workaround of the early days: points, points, points
As you know, the AppStore didn’t possess any kind of
It has worked pretty well for us and as far as we can tell, for other developers too. Although there are issues with this scheme, we didn’t like. The most inconvenient one is that players can only buy each Point Pack once: after you buy an app in the AppStore, all the subsequent downloads of the app are free of charge. It is not intuitive from customer’s point of view and we got a lot of feedback on this. Well, we decided to switch to
An obvious decision was to base the micro transaction system on the same UW points: to sell the point packs right in the game and give extras in exchange for the points.
There was only one tiny problem with that: Apple restricts that kind of usage of
Feature packs instead of Point packs
Well, good thing is that you can at least sell «an item for
- Small Protection Pack (4 items of
one-hour protection from cops) - Large Carry Space Boost Pack (50 items of 30% carry space boost)
- Super Large Combo Pack (lots of protection, carry space boosts, and other stuff)
All items are of «Consumable» sort, so players can purchase them more than once. Everything what the player purchases appears in his Inventory list thus can be used any time.
That’s what Apple says. Not sure, what is the reason for this, but only paid apps are allowed to implement
In Underworld, we are detecting when the player has first launched a certain version of the game. As soon as the player downloads and starts the Premium version, he gets a handful of extra stuff. Sweet deal!
Was it worth it?
As it comes to financial side, we don’t know yet. But one thing is for sure, the whole system seems to be much more convenient and intuitive for players. Let’s see how it will work out.
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If you want to review Underworld: SweetDeal Premium, we’d be happy to supply you with a
September 30th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Great features Andrey, the new UW screen looks impressive too.
I just tried to make a purchase and got the following error:
“This is not a test account”, “Please create a new account in the sandbox environment”.
Are you aware of this?
September 30th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
barteh, nope, you’re the first getting this. It seems like other players are purchasing stuff OK. Any chance you were using iTunes StoreKit test account (if you have one)?
September 30th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
@andrey I just payed the “protection pack m” and everything worked fine for me! …hope your part of billing works too!!
however, thanks for the really fast & helpful support you gave me a couple of weeks ago! really appreciate this! keep up the great work!
September 30th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
riggz, cool, I’m glad you like the game and our work!
What comes to billing, we also monitoring it in UW Control Center: purchases are made alright.
barteh, let me know in case there is any update on your case. Feel free to contact me directly at andrey@a-steroids.com.
September 30th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Hi Andrey,
Ive no idea what ITunes storekit is?
When I click the purchase combo pack, it confirms what it is, asks if I want to buy, I press buy, it prompts for my normal itunes password and then gives the above error message.
September 30th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
barteh, your iTunes account, what country is it connected to?
September 30th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
UK.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Andrey, I just signed out of my Store on the Iphone, signed in with the same account info, tried to purchase again and it now states:
“This account is not valid for sandbox. Please log in with a different account”.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
barteh, thanks for details. We’ll look into this and get back to you as soon as we figure out something.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:50 am
By the way, please give us some feedback on the Premium version.
October 1st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I just changed to a 3GS and my account didnt move - how can I get it over?
October 1st, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Hey, Chris! Download the game to your new device and create an account there. Then drop us a note to support@a-steroids.com, providing the following:
Your old & new nicknames (mind the case!)
Where are you located (country / city will be enough)
Approximate amount of cash you had on your old account (we need it for safety issues)
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:13 am
[...] A-Steroids adjusts point system to meet Apple iPhone guidelines Jump to Comments Game developer A-Steroids “reworks” their point/currency system for MMO game, Underworld to feature packs in order to comply with guidelines by Apple. PocketGamer.biz article here Check out the A-Steroid blog post for additional details here [...]
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:19 am
My Feedback:
Can you please disable the stupid Knight Rider Bar at the bottom? It’s really annoying. And hopefully the app will then use less resources. The whole buying process should be a little faster…
October 6th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
I just spent my $25,000,000 to upgrade to level 20.
NOW IT”S GONNA COST ME $100,000,000 to upgrade again?!!
It should cost $50,000,000 Come ON!
October 7th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Got the same error message above when trying to purchase a pack. “This acct is not valid for sandbox…” What could be going on? I’m in the US if that helps any. Thanks.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
CatDaddy, it’s because the 21-st level is an Utimate Boss Rank, you know
At least for now.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Sorry getting the MSG “This is not a test user acct. Please create…in sandbox environment.” Help!
October 7th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Reba, please check your e-mail. I’m wondering if you could provide us a bit more info on the issue.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
This “not a testing account” keeps coming up in other AppStore products. One weird issue if you ask me.
October 19th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Hi Audrey,
I enjoyed very much on the game after downloading the free version when I got my Iphone. I have a few questions that required your help to response.
1. Is the information provided for us to know what the next upgrade will be? Example carry space.I want to upgrade from car trunk to helicopter, what is carry space alloted? There are other in the Equipment whcih I like to have more info so that I can decide which one worth to upgrade
2. Do you pictures to show what the different features between the new version premium and the 3.version. I am contemplating to convert but would like to know more info.
3. From where I was situated, apparently there is not much of high lab owners around, can you explain to me how the lab owners are designated?
Many thanks in advance. A very innovative and stimulating game indeed. Keep it up!
Warm Regards,
Greedy
Singapore
October 19th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Hey Greedy, glad you’re enjoying the game!
1. I’m afraid right now the game doesn’t provide such info on equipment upgrades. We should totally think about implementing that.
2. Downloading the Premium version will give you some extras: basically the small bit of every paid bonus in the game. Like, a full protection from police or temporary carry space boost, etc. You can find the full list of given extras in the AppStore description of Underworld Premium.
3. Labs & addicts basically present a local economy of a game zone (tile). Both labs & addicts are changing from time to time. The changing period is close to 10 hours normally. Say you need to find a Waffles lab. You can either wait for it to appear in your own tile or walk to another place and try to find it there. That’s the drill.
By the way, just in case, here is a dedicated game forum. And here is FAQ.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 am
Supply and Demand forecast seemed not so useful. Could it be better to have different color smileys to show mood of Addicts. Suggest - Yellow = high mood, Blue = somber mood, Red = Bad mood, so we can decide our sell price. Just a suggestion if it’s ok.
October 24th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
So, it took away the Underworld 3.0 tile on my screen with one that says FREE. I don’t want one that says free on it. I payed for the 3.0 and I want it to stay there. But now it’s gone? A little confused on why you took it away vs. Just updating it.
October 24th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Courtney, the previous version (Underworld SweetDeal OS 3.0) was free as well, how could you pay for it?
October 24th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Oh yeah, I forgot it was free because I had to update my iPod to get it. My bad. I just REALLY hate how this on says FREE on it. Anyone else feel the same way?
October 25th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Courtney, well, if the game is free to play indeed, why not say so on the icon?
After all, you can always switch to the Premium version. Only $0.99 in US Store, and you will get a handful of extra stuff, like police protection, carry space boost, etc. Enjoy.
October 28th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
HI Audrey,
Many thanks for your response to my earlier queries. I have paid and upgraded to the new premium version.
I have further questions which I like to consult you.
1. I noticed that once I have upgraded the equipment, trade area to level 5. I do not know what is the difference I can get. I only noticed that under the map quadrant, it had enlarge. do you concurred?
2. Is other player situated in other countries posting their prices of sweet are able to see to our local addicts? if the answer is yes, how come I am unable to see their addict in their country.
Thanks once again for your help to response to my questions. Already addicted to the game.
Warm Regards,
Greedy
Singapore
November 1st, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Hey Greedy,
1. Trade area equipment increases a number of tiles you see around you. Which means it enlarges your supply base, giving more chances to find some cheap stuff offered by other dealer far away from you. If you open the Map screen and tap the Tiled mode button, you will see that the number of visible tiles around you is pretty big right now (~18-20). That’s it.
2. Addicts and labs are only visible when you are situated on the same tile as they are. So, you cannot see them in other countries, and the dealers from other tiles cannot see your labs & addicts.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Btw, sorry again for the delay with my response.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:47 am
Are old UV packages still can be bought or no? The se are those packages before upgrade where you buy UV points and use them for different options.
November 11th, 2009 at 3:03 am
Got your reply Andrey in forum. Thanks for the info.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I downloaded the 250 point pack through itunes. my game was never credited those points (cost 10 bucks man wow). itunes charged me but i didn’t get the points. so i went and downloaded the premium pack. i was credited with the contents of the premium pack but not the 250 point pack. my name on the game is LocaChica if that helps any. i tried to purchace the protection pack M in-game but after it confirmed that i wanted it and i clicked buy and put in my itunes password, it game me the following message: “This is not a Test User account. Please create a new account in the Sandbox environment. [Environment: Sandbox]. any info as to what i should do would be appreciated. i love playing this game! i made it to level 19 and would love to keep going
hope to hear back soon. congrats on all the hard work paying off.
November 13th, 2009 at 8:39 am
tknlyg, check your email!
December 7th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Hi
i can’t get into the premium version of the game any more - I press the icon, it goes to the front page, hangs for about 10 seconds then goes back to the menu page. Can still access through the original free version. Is this something to do with release of the free premium version?
Thanks x
December 18th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
hello!
I had the premium version and i saw this “Item” business and kept buying them to uselessly… I thought that THEY TAKE AWAY 2 ITEMS from your inventory.. So they will take 2 MINTS if all you have is MINTs. I couldn’t figure out what these ITEMs were.
Please put the items back, and you might want to tell the newbies like me.
Thanks.
January 30th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Guys
same thing here regarding the combos, simply cant’t buy them. The ” this is not a test account” pops up every time. Any clue??
Tks
February 8th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Hey guys. There is a section on the UW FAQ page regarding “This not a test-account…” issue. Unfortunately, it seems like there is nothing we can do.