Google suggests developers not use in-app purchases when building Daydream VR apps
Google has big visions for everything “open” that they do, and those visions typically involve them setting guidelines for developers to follow to help achieve that goal. The same will ring true for Daydream VR apps.
At various Google I/O sessions this week, Google has been emphasizing a few key guidelines that they want developers to follow. The biggest guideline involves a practice of mobile apps that’s becoming as common as air — in-app purchases.
Google warns developers that using in-app purchases in VR games may not be the best route to a lucrative payoff. Their reasoning is solid: people don’t want to be taken out of their immersive game to wait for some arbitrary timer or go through a payment process.
Indeed, I’d hate it if I had to be forced out of my game to wait for some timer to expire. It defeats the entire purpose of staying immersed. We’re glad Google is setting this particular guideline, although it is only a guideline. As such, developers will be free to implement this sort of stuff if they want. We’ll just have to hope a majority of the coders out there follow Google’s advice.
Other guidelines include the need to implement support for the motion controller if appropriate, as well as making sure a game has high interactivity instead of being a glorified photo or video. Despite these being guidelines, developers are surely going to want to follow them as Google is likely to highlight the apps that follow them the most.