Looking For Ideas For In-Game Earning/Purchasing

netdzynr

Hey Guys:
I'm looking at doing a sequel to my visual puzzle game from some time back (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plexxr/id397208452?mt=8) and am considering ideas for handling virtual in-game spending -- following the trend of earning cash/coins in-game to buy things that can increase your ability to beat the game. In my puzzle game, there is a vague alien contact background story that could be pointed to. But the only "money thing" I've been able to come up with is buying time on government systems or paying hackers fees to crack/translate codes in the game. Maybe "buying" decryption plugins in the game to help solve puzzles. But these ideas seem like a stretch to me; I'm wondering if there might be a simpler concept out there.

Any ideas on how one might throw money around in an an X-Files-like premise? Or put aside the X-Files connection for the moment and think about how money can be used along with solving of visual puzzles...

Thanks for any suggestions.

itwebsolution

One idea is to use IAP to change variables in your game. For instance, if you have "lives" or time, you could allow the player to increase these variables that are tied to in-game performance. Do you have achievements? If you could share some of the criteria for your achievements, then I think I could give you more tangible ideas. Players who get stuck trying to reach difficult achievements might be a good target audience for IAP. Also, you if you are working on additional puzzles, then you could deliver them for another $0.99.