amazon services for games, with unity

Amazon Services for Games

Peter Heinrich, Technical Evangelistheinrich@amazon.com

February 27, 2013

Amazon’s Kindle Family

Kindle Fire

Kindle Fire quickly became the most successful product launch in the history of Amazon.com

• Earned over 10,000 5-star customer reviews• Remained the #1 best-selling product on Amazon• Captured 22% of U.S. tablet sales in just nine months

Breakthrough Technology• Stunning HD displays• World class audio with Dolby Digital Plus• Fastest Wifi of any tablet• 20 million songs, over 120K video titles, over 100K audio titles• Free month of Amazon Prime• Whispersync for books, movies, voice, and games• X-Ray for books/movies• Revolutionary 4G (250MB/month for 12 months - for $49) on 8.9” 4G

Kindle Is Good for Games

Amazon Wants to Help

• In-App Purchasing• Achievements• Leaderboards• Data Syncing• Insights Analytics• Maps• Device Messaging

COMING SOON

In-App PurchasingFriction-free Customer Experience

In-App PurchasingContent Types

Consumable• May be used only on device where purchased• May be purchased repeatedly

Entitled• May be used anywhere, once purchased• May only be purchased once

Subscription• May be applied to any entitled content• May be used anywhere, once purchased• Associates restricted time period with access• Multiple periods may be defined (only one purchased at a time)• Supports auto-renewal

In-App PurchasingMaintaining Relationship is Key

Engage users early• 16% of a customer's value is realized on the first day

Keep them in the game• 48% of repeat purchases happen within one hour of

the previous purchaseGive users a reason to come back

• 52% of revenue occurs after the first 7 daysProvide enough content for your most active users

• 2% of customers generate 30% of revenue

GameCircle

GameCircle

Supports social gaming by allowing players to connect, compare achievements, and compete for higher scores.

• Achievements• Leaderboards• Whispersync

GameCircle: Achievements

• Up to 100 different items• Shows partial completion• Can be hidden until

unlocked• Fully customizable

• Title• Locked/unlocked

descriptions• Locked/unlocked icons

GameCircle: Achievements

Players can compare their achievements with others.

GameCircle: Leaderboards

• Up to 50 different boards• Show player’s high score

and relative position• Fully customizable

• Title / Description / Icon• Units• “Cheat” threshold

• Cheat threshold helps discourage hacking

• Scores can be reset from Developer Portal

GameCircle: Leaderboards

Players can check their daily, weekly, or all-time standing, including absolute score and global percentile rank.

GameCircle: Whispersync

• Uninstall / reinstall games without losing progress• Synchronize progress across multiple Kindle Fire

devices• Revert to one of 5 historical progress points

Insights Analytics: A/B Testing

Allows experimentation with content and feature deployment, limiting access before widespread launch to a larger audience.

Tests are configured in the Developer Portal.

Insights Analytics: A/B Testing

• Variations are collections of variables sent to a device• Different variations are sent to unique groups• Statistical methods are used to determine if the results

from each variation differ

Insights Analytics: A/B Testing

A 95% confidence interval for conversion rate is computed from view and convert events defined for each A/B test.

The gold check indicates significance has been achieved.

Maps, Device Messaging

• No Unity support (YET)• Maps

• Replaces Google service• Kindle Fire 2 and Kindle Fire HD

• Amazon Device Messaging (ADM)• Beta program open (see website)• Free to deliver messages• Up to 6 KB per message

Common Setup

• Download SDK• Create Unity project• Import Amazon plug-in as Custom Package• Set up game in Dev Portal• Add test nicknames to sandbox

Common Setup: Dev Portal

• Add new application• Whitelist binary

• Package name/Signature

• Package name comes from Android-specific Player Settings pane (Bundle Identifier)

• Signature is generated from the command line:

keytool -exportcert -alias androiddebugkey –keystore ~/.android/debug.keystore | openssl sha1 -binary | openssl base64

Common Set Up: Test Nicknames

In-App Purchasing

In-App Purchasing

• Content Types• Setting up Test Environment• Receipt Verification Service (RVS)• Initialization• Integration

In-App Purchasing: Content Types

Consumable

In-App Purchasing: Content Types

Entitled

In-App Purchasing: Content Types

Subscription

In-App Purchasing: Test Environment

SDK Tester App + JSON Catalog

In-App Purchasing: RVS (Optional)

Allows transaction validation outside app

In-App Purchasing: Initialization

Set up your catalog in the Dev Portal

In-App Purchasing: Integration• Unity plug-in will handle registerObserver() call, wires up

AmazonIAPEventListener• You should override:

In-App Purchasing: Integration• Purchase is two-step process• First, check items in catalog in response to action:

In-App Purchasing: Integration• Next, initiate the purchase request:

GameCircle

GameCircle

• Initialization• Achievements• Leaderboards• Whispersync for Games

GameCircle: Why?

GameCircle: Initialization• Subscribe to GameCircle events• Init with desired features

GameCircle: Achievements• Create draft achievements in Dev Portal

GameCircle: Achievements• Send Achievement update:

GameCircle: Achievements• You can bring up the Achievement overlay at will:

GameCircle: Achievements• Publish Achievements when ready to go live:

GameCircle: Achievements

Best Practices (may be obvious)• Provide meaningful descriptions• Have separate locked/unlocked

descriptions• Use different icons for locked/unlocked• Ordering matters; list achievements in the

order most likely to be completed• Mix achievements for regular play and

special actions

GameCircle: Leaderboards• Create draft leaderboard in Dev Portal

GameCircle: Leaderboards• Send Leaderboard score:

GameCircle: Leaderboards• You can bring up the Leaderboard overlay at will:

GameCircle: Leaderboards• Publish Leaderboards when ready to go live:

GameCircle: Whispersync

GameCircle: Whispersync

• At first run (and you have no data), synchronize from the cloud:

GameCircle.whisperSyncSynchronize(GameCircleConflictStrategy.AUTO_RESOLVE_TO_CLOUD);

• Subsequent calls can be simpler:

GameCircle.whisperSyncSynchronize();

GameCircle: Whispersync

Best Practices• Set useful descriptions when synchronizing

progress (helps user choose restore point)• Always use cloud data when synchronizing

to a device with no data• You don’t have to synchronize all the time,

but you should do so at major checkpoints• Synchronize when a player pauses or exits

Portal:https://developer.amazon.com/welcome.html

SDK: https://developer.amazon.com/sdk.html