Best Practices

1. Once you've completed basic implementation, log into your dashboard, and make sure your login data is visible in the KPI section (see example below).

2. Make a few in-app purchase tests in order to verify that purchases are being tracked in the GOW dashboard.

Make sure after making a test purchase go to the Player Card (click on the player name in the IAP List) and select the "mark as developer" so your future test purchases will not be counted in the game KPI's (see below).

 

3. Make sure to include icons for Special Offers on the home screen of your game, as well as on the in-game product or in-app purchase itself. See our example below: 

It's recommended adding a pop up on the game launch that shows the special offers.

 

4. When uploading the APN Key and Certificate from the App Store to Game of Whales, make sure to convert both of the certificates to .pem as described here. If you did not convert the files before uploading, you'll see this:

5. There are 2 methods of testing successfully implementing push notifications: 

• After making a test purchase, click on the player card and then on the "push" button, there you can send yourself a push notification directly to the device. 

• If you marked the user that made a test purchase as a developer, you can go into the "Game settings" section in the dashboard, click on the developer who made the purchase from the "Developers" list and then click on the "Test push" button.

Please note that if you uploaded production certificates for iOS, you will need to flip the "development" switch to transform it to "production" 

6. I don't want to make a test purchase but would still like to add myself as developer and test push notifications. 

In order to achieve this, you will need to have the "Device Advertiser ID" 

To get your Advertiser ID: 

• Apple - Download the app The Identifiers, and you'll see the IDFA one the app launches 
• Android - On your Android phone: Settings > Google > Ads 

Once you have the ID, go to the game settings page and click "Add developer" button. 

7. How do I add Users to my GOW studio account? 

• Click on your Studio, and then click "studio settings" at the bottom of the left hand navigation.

• Click the "Invite User" button in the top right corner.

• Type the user's email address and select his access level.

If you received an invitation link that has expired, repeat the above process for the same email address, and it will resend the invitation.