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Google Play Entitlements

This guide will show you how to set up your game up on Google Play Console and mod.io website for mod.io to process entitlements on your behalf. The mod.io platform will use the Google Play Android Developer API to verify purchases and grant associated entitlements to users who have purchased creator credits in your game. Conversely, if a user requests a refund, mod.io will revoke the entitlements associated with the refunded purchase.

note

To revoke entitlements after refunds, you must tick the remove entitlements checkbox in the refund request, you can also set this value to true programmatically. Voided Purchases Documentation.

Glossary of Terms​

  • Google Play Android Developer API: The Google Play Developer API allows you to perform a variety of publishing and app-management tasks. It provides the functionality to manage in-app products and subscriptions.
  • Service Account: A service account is a special type of Google account intended to represent a non-human user that needs to authenticate and be authorized to access data in Google APIs.
  • Service Account Credentials: Service account credentials are used to authenticate the service account when it calls the Google Play Android Developer API. This refers to a JSON file generated on the Google console that contains information to authorize mod.io's servers to communicate with Google Play API on your behalf (To get information about an in-app purchase for verification or consumption purposes).
  • Google Play Console: The console provided by Google that allows developers to publish and manage applications or games and in-app products on Google Play.
  • Package Name: The package name is a unique name for your game on the Google Play Store. It is also known as the application ID.
  • Product Id: The product id is a unique identifier for an in-app product on Google Play. It is used to identify the product when making purchases.
  • creator credits: Creator credits are consumable virtual currency that can be purchased within your game and exchanged for game mods on the mod.io platform.

Use cases​

In-app virtual currency credits purchases for a game published on Google Play Store running on an android mobile device. Credits are consumable in-app digital products that can be used to purchase mods on mod.io.

Prerequisites​

  • A play console developer account with a published game on Google Play.
  • A game APK uploaded to Google Play Console. For more instructions on how to upload an APK, see the official documentation.
  • You will also need to have a Google Cloud Console account to create a service account and enable the Google Play Android Developer API.
  • A game set up on mod.io with monetization marketplace enabled.

Setting In App Products on Google Play Console​

This section assumes you have a game set up on Google play console. Follow the official guide if that's not the case.

  1. To set up in-app products on Google play console, go into your game's dashboard, then navigate to the Monetise > In-app products section on the Google Play Console and click Create product. Create new in-app product

  2. Fill in the product id, name, description and price for the product.

  3. Under tax and compliance settings, select Digital content, then select This is not a streaming product and then click Apply. Create new in-app product

  4. Click Save to save the product then click Activate to make the product available for purchase.

  5. Repeat steps 1-4 as needed based on how many products you offer for purchase in your game. Take note of the product ids as you will need it later.

Register your product on mod.io​

  1. Go to the mod.io dashboard and navigate to Admin > Monetization, marketplace must be enabled to access this screen.

  2. Navigate to Settings > Manage Skus and select the virtual currency pack you'd like to associate with the Google Play product.

  3. Select Google from the dropdown and enter the Google Product Id(s) from Google Play Console (from the previous section), click save. Google Cloud project enable APIs & Services

Processing Google Play entitlements on mod.io​

  1. Go to Google Cloud Console and select your project. On the Enabled APIs and Services tab, click Enable APIs & Services. Google Cloud project enable APIs & Services

  2. Select Google Play Android developer API and enable it for the project. Enable play android developer API  

  3. Click create credentials and select application data as the option value, then click next. Create a service account

  4. On the service account screen, fill out the required information i.e., Service account name, id, and description. Click Create and continue  Create a service account

  5. Grant this service account access to the project as either an editor or owner in the roles dropdown as illustrated below, click done.  Grant the service account access to your project  

  6. Next, go to Credentials > Service accounts and select the service account we just created. Click the keys tab and add key.  Create service account key

  7. Select the JSON option and click Create to generate a service account JSON file. Save this file securely to be used later on mod.io. Create a key for the service account

  8. Go to the menu tab and scroll down through the available products to the pubsub service, click on it.

  9. Create a topic, you can use the default settings provided by Google console. Create a topic

  10. Navigate to the topic created and click on the add subscription button, fill in the subscription name, select push and insert https://mod.io/v1/notifications/google as the endpoint url then click create. Create a subscription

  11. Go into the subscription we just created and add google-play-developer-notifications@system.gserviceaccount.com as a principal to the subscription, granting it the role of pubsub publisher and save. Add pubsub publisher

  12. Navigate to Google Play console and select users and permissions, add the service account email address to the list of users with access to the Google Play Console from Step 7. Add service account to Google Play Console

  13. Go to the App Permissions tab click on the Add app button, select your app and click apply. Grant service account access to app

  14. Go to the Account Permissions tab and grant the service account access to Financial data, orders, and cancellation survey responses, click invite user. On the next screen, click send invitation. Grant service account access to financial data

  15. Select your app and navigate to monetization setup, scroll down to real time developer notifications and click edit. Enable the notifications and select the topic we created in Step 9. Click send test message to verify your setup. Select Get all notifications for subscriptions and one-time products then save changes.

Configuring your games Google Client ID and Package Name on mod.io​

  1. On the mod.io website, navigate to your game's admin dashboard and go to the Settings tab.

  2. Under Admin > General Settings find and click on the Platform Entitlements. mod.io set up external entitlements configuration screen

  3. Enter the Google Client ID, Google Package Name and service account JSON file contents we saved in Step 7, and Save Changes.

References​