How to create site for free-to-play game

How it works

Free-to-play is a business model for the distribution of computer and mobile games that allows users to play without having to pay for it. The main way to monetize free-to-play games is through in-game purchases. Many popular and commercially successful games use free-to-play monetization. Site Builder allows you to monetize a game through selling the following items on the game’s site:

  • virtual currency packs
  • virtual items
  • subscriptions

You can sell in-game items in two ways:

  • On site with block Store. In this case, you need user authorization on the site.
  • Through template Web Shop. In this case, users can make a purchase after authorization or by logging in with their user ID.

User flow

Flow for template store

Note
To make a purchase, a user needs to autorizate on the site with click Login.

  1. The user goes to the free-to-play game’s site and navigates to the store section.

  1. The user selects items they want to buy. The purchase payment process depends:
  2. The purchased items appear in the user’s game account.

Purchase different quantities of items

  • Single item. To buy a single item, the user clicks Buy Now and pays for the item in the payment UI.

  • Multiple items. To buy multiple items, a user clicks the cart icon and adds the item to the shopping cart. After selecting all the items, the user goes to the shopping cart, clicks Go to checkout, and pays for the items in the payment UI.

Purchase of different item types

  • A virtual item. After the user logs in, the system can start the payment process depending on the type of currency the item is sold for, and initiate the payment process.
  • A virtual currency pack. After the user logs in, the system can start charging virtual currency to the user balance and initiate the payment process.

Notice
Virtual items that are priced in virtual currency cannot be added to the shopping cart. After clicking the Buy Now, money is automatically subtracted from the user’s balance.

Flow for Web Shop

User needs to login through ID or password to buy items. This instruction describes how to set up a Web Shop template via Login with game ID. This is the same process as setting up login with password in Flow for template store.

  1. The user goes to the site where the top-up solution is implemented.
  2. The user clicks Login and enters their gamer ID.
  3. The user chooses items and proceeds to the payment.
  4. The user chooses a payment method and pays for the items.

Note
After the user selects a payment method, Xsolla sends a validation webhook to verify the user ID is valid. If the validation is passed, the user can proceed with the payment. Otherwise, the user receives an error message. If the payment is successful, Xsolla sends you a webhook about the successful payment.

  1. The purchased goods appear in the user’s game account.

How to get it

Prerequisites

  1. Sign up for Publisher Account.
  2. Create a project in Publisher Account and open Site Builder.
  3. Create a site with one of the following templates:
    • Store. Allows you to create a store on the site with in-game items and sell them via user authorization.
    • Web Shop. Allows you to sell in-game items via the user ID from the game.

Integration flow

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Last updated: March 21, 2023

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