PC in game real money shop solution

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
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1

I have endlessly looked through so many posts and all I have come up with is next to nothing on this subject like it’s being avoided or people simply don’t need it but that has to be impossible…

PLATFORM: PC

DISTRIBUTION: Steam

SALE PRICE: Free, so i need a way to generate money

PROBLEM:
I need an api or way for the user to purchase things with real money. Even a gem system like in mobile where the user will not purchase single items they get the gems then use those. (REFER: League of legends(pc))

The League of legends shop for the PC is a perfect and stunning example of what I need for my game but it’s like unreal cannot actually do it?

OTHER SOLUTIONS: I would also accept a work around from someone on how to generate money on PC without selling the game for real money (because I need the player base of free to play or the game wont survive)

WHY NOT JUST MAKE IT MOBILE?
the fact is that mobile is different for programmers, to make a mobile game you need more than just knowledge of how to make a game on PC.

Not only that you’d have to customize controls and make it extremely user friendly because of limiting factors such as the fact you don’t have a keyboard or mouse.

The game I am making expects the user to dedicate about 2 or less hours to a session of play, this for mobile wouldn’t go across very well.

BUT IN APP PURCHASES WORK ON MOBILE EASY YOUR GAME WONT HAVE TO DIE: yes but again I really don’t want to go to mobile, steam has the player base I need and the dedicated constructive gamer that would help rally a community around my game so that it lives on instead of dies out.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Anything helpful or some kind of work around or solution would be gratefully accepted.The reason I am so desperate is that at the end of the day I have spent a month working on something that now looks impossible to profit from meaning no one will ever get to play it… and those that do it would be short lived… because without funding even a small humble amount through donations I would not be able to continue the work and feed my family…

I truly don’t see why a solution for this isn’t already in the public… this is such a big deal now for free to play and everyone does it but it’s so hard to believe there’s no option for unreal a timeless classic engine…

SIDENOTE: even constructive thinking would be acceptable at this point maybe it will spark me to do something with the info you provide, so any help would be amazing.

It’s been awhile with still no answer this is blowing my mind why we are not able to do it… unreal needs to step up

2

So I found out I went to download League of legends again, and I went through there shop to see how they would have coded it…

It looks like they use the in game engine to manage everything up until you actually purchase then they pass an PHP request from the engine to the webpage that displays what they are trying to buy… from there I use pay pal which opens yet another page that sends a success PHP pass to the webpage then another PHP request for accepted back to the game client…

I am wondering though if this is possible through blue print with unreal… Mostly if unreal can receive PHP sent externally and translate that into a 1 true or 0 false it should be a way to do this.

  1. click a button to send you to a website (made by you so you have access to the Mysql)
  2. click and input the info to pay via a php payment portal or precoded paypal button
  3. pass the success back to the game in unreal or back to the webpage then to unreal.

This is an idea but can someone figure out how to test it?

3

As it turns out mobile in app is impossible too on unreal thinking it’s best to move to unity … wow unreal get with the times

4

What is your target platform ? (Windows/macOS/Linux) ?
You could use 3RD parties such as FastSpring.

If you are bounded to Blueprints only - then I probably will have a bad news for you.

5

My idea as of right now is to have a website for your game or an official paypal link, etc. When the game recommends to a player they needs to buy “gems” or whatever a user can press a UMG button to open a webpage. There are nodes for this in blueprints, one is called “launch url” so you suggesting that unreal is “behind the times” is not really correct. You just need to critically think about a solution.
So the user follows the link to buy gems… Upon a successful purchase, your webpage will give the user a key to enter into the game. So back into the UMG in game, the user enters the key, your blueprints already have valid keys and a system to check to see if the entered key is a valid one, if it is add the gems and make sure that code is no longer able to be used again. You feel me? Might take some work, sure but it is possible to make a system in blueprints.