Introduction to the Reward Service
Overview
The AccelByte Gaming Services (AGS) Reward service empowers you to increase player retention and brand loyalty, by rewarding players with virtual items or other entitlements, as a form of recognition for achieving a certain challenge or objective within the game. Players who are rewarded for their progress will be more likely to engage with the game more frequently and strive to obtain many other rewards.
Key Concepts
It is important to understand the key concepts used in the design of the Reward service.
Reward
Reward configuration provides a set of rules that apply to each reward. Each reward configuration allows you to specify a unique string identifier for the reward, the event topic to listen to, max awarded reward, and max awarded reward per user.
Reward Code
Reward code is a unique string that is used as an identifier for the reward that you configured. This is a unique human readable code that developers can define and reference easily.
Examples of reward codes:
- "road-to-champion"
- "limited-reward"
- "max-xp-points"
Event Topic
The Reward service will listen to a specific event topic that is published by other AccelByte services, such as Statistics, Achievements, and User Accounts. Each event topic will have event names that can be used to set the condition to trigger the reward.
Statistics
This is suitable if you want to grant a reward to players when they achieve a certain value in statistics. For example, a player receives a reward after killing 10 enemies.
Achievements
This is suitable if you want to grant a reward to players when they earn a particular achievement. For example, a player receives a reward after unlocking the "Headshot Master" achievement.
User Accounts
This is suitable if you want to grant a reward to players after they make an account in your platform, using either their email address, or an account from a third-party platform, such as Steam.
Max Awarded
Max awarded is the total number of that reward that can be earned within the game across all players. This means that when this limit is reached across the player base, no more can be obtained by any player.
Max Awarded per User
Max awarded per user is the maximum number of that reward that an individual player can earn in the game. This means that when this limit is reached by that specific player, no more can be obtained by that player.
Reward Conditions
Reward conditions refer to criteria that must be met in order for a player to receive a reward. Each reward condition allows you to choose the event name from a specific event topic you have selected, set its condition, and add the reward items.
Reward Items
Reward items are specific items that are given to the player for achieving a certain task based on the reward condition.
Event Name
To trigger the reward you can choose event names that belong to the event topic. The Event Name typically refers to actions taken by the player. If the actions taken meet with the conditions that are set, then the reward will be triggered.
Understanding the Event Name and usage below will make it easier for you to understand how to use the Reward service.
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
| Achievements | Service that provides you a way to give a recognition to the players for completing a specific task within the game. |
| Leaderboard | Service that provides you a way to create a sense of competition among players. |
| User Generated Content (UGC) | Service that provides you a way to enhance player engagement by allowing your players to express their creativity by creating and publishing their own content within the game. |
| Reward | Service that empowers you to increase player retention by rewarding player entitlement of virtual items as a form of recognition for achieving a certain challenge or objective within the game. |
| Season Pass | Service that provides you a way to create a series of tiers that players can progress through to earn the rewards, and maintain players' interest in the game, while also monetizing by offering premium passes that grant access to exclusive rewards. |
Reward Service Integration Flow
This section explains how the reward service is integrated with other AccelByte services.
The AGS Reward service works by integrating with other AccelByte services such as IAM, Statistics, and the Achievements service to define the benchmark that players must pass to earn rewards. The Reward service also integrates with the Entitlement and Fulfillment services to grant players the rewards they have earned.