Andrograde Games: API

Links

Official Documentation
Download SWC version 4.10
For Flash Develop (AS3 or Flex)/Flex Builder
Download FLA version 4.10
For Adobe CS3/4
View Demo
login as TestUser/test to test purchasing
Use 555-555-0100 / 0000 to test Zong
Download Demo Source Code
Current rate of return: 75%

Questions? Contact will@andrograde.com
Note: Currently Andrograde API only works with Actionscript 3

Looking for a multiplayer API? Check out Pulse, a multiplayer API you can use for free with Andrograde :)

How It Works

1. You offer your game for free on any website and create extra bonus features that cost Andrograde Points to get
2. Players buy Andrograde Points which they can use on any game with the Andrograde API integrated in it
3. Player plays your game and thinks your extra bonus feature is cool and buys it using their Andrograde Points
4. You get credited for each purchase in your game and get a check at the end of each month

Why is the payout so high for Andrograde?

Andrograde was founded by Flash game indie developers who were fed up with not making any money with the games they worked so hard to create. Andrograde has less than a handful of employees and almost no expenses (not even an office), this allows us to have almost no overhead and pass the savings on to our fellow indie developers :)

Other Uses

You can also offer a free version of your game which players can then buy the premium version (see API.upgrade)
Custom stat tracking (see User.setStat, User.getStat).
Display your own custom leaderboards in game however you want (see API.getHighScores)
Save and share generic data between players (see User.setStat, API.getUserInfo)
Have server synchronized game variables that you can instantly change after releasing your game (see API.parameters)
Collect metrics on how well your game is monetizing itself
Use server synchronized game variables to change the price of your features / virtual goods / upgrade whenever you want!

How to integrate Andrograde API

1.Upload your game to Andrograde (don't worry, it will NOT be live).
2.You will get an API Code for your game
3.Add the Andrograde Library to your game project
       In Adobe CS3
       a.Open the FLA file and select all of the library items (hold ctrl and click on the items)
       b.Right click and copy and paste the items into your Flash project
       c.You can see example code to initialize the API in the first frame (hit F9)
       In Flash Develop
       a.Go to Project -> Properties -> Compiler Options
       b.Click on SWC Include Libraries, then click on ...
       c.Enter the full path to the SWC including the name of the SWC file
4.Integrate the Andrograde API code in your game (see below)
5.Upload the new version of your game with the Andrograde API integrated into it
6.Test your game by going to 'View Game'
7.If the API code has been properly integrated, the API not implemented beside your game in the upload page will disappear
8.Click 'Edit Game' and Check 'Live' then click 'Done Editing' to list your game on the Andrograde
9.Spread your game throughout the net, the Andrograde API will work on any site!

Note: You can use the test account to login and test stats and purchases

user name: TestUser password: test

Examples

Adding the Initial Andrograde API Code

In your main class when starting your game:

//Note: you can import Andrograde.*; so you don't need to prepend Andrograde. on every call.
var AndrogradeAPI:Andrograde.APIClient; 
AndrogradeAPI = new Andrograde.APIClient("your api code", APILoaded, true);	// the 3rd parameter turns on debugging
addChild(AndrogradeAPI);	
//Note: if you are using Flex you may have to do rawChildren.addChild instead

function APILoaded(success:Boolean):void { 
	if (success) {
		// API initialized successfully, set up your Andrograde API dependant stuff here
	} else {
		// API failed to initialize, usually this is because you are disconnected or using a bad API key
	}
}

Logging in a Player

The Andrograde API does it's best to prompt users to login whenever necessary but you can also choose to display the login prompt at your convenience.

// pause your game here		
AndrogradeAPI.login(UserLoggedIn); // display the login prompt	
			
function UserLoggedIn(success:Boolean):void {
	// unpause your game here
	if (success) { 
		// login/register succeeded
	} else { 
		// login/register failed or was cancelled
	}
}

You can even use the customizable Andrograde UI features to display a login button to click to bring up the login prompt

import Andrograde.Button;

var login_button:Button;			

function UserLoggedIn(success:Boolean):void {									
	// unpause your game here
	if (success) { // login/register succeeded
		removeChild(login_button);		
	} else {
		login_button.enabled= true;
	}
}
function loginClick(e:Event):void {
	// pause your game here
	login_button.enabled= false;
	AndrogradeAPI.login(UserLoggedIn); // display the login prompt
}

login_button = new Button(0, 400, AndrogradeAPI.UI.text("LOGIN",AndrogradeAPI.UI.COLOR_BUTTON_TEXT), loginClick);
addChild(login_button);

You can check if a user is logged in or not with the following code

if (AndrogradeAPI.user) { 
	// user is logged in	
} else {	
	// user is not logged in, you can display the login panel here
}

Selling items and features in your game

Note: If the user is not already logged in, a login panel will pop up before the buy panel

function buy_complete(success:Boolean):void {				
	// unpause your game here
	if (success) { 
	// the purchase was successful
	} else {
	// the purchase failed
	}
}	
// pause your game here
AndrogradeAPI.buy(50, "my item", buy_complete); // my item costs 50 points to buy

To check if a player already owns something just do

if (AndrogradeAPI.user && AndrogradeAPI.user.owns("my item")) {
	// add whatever 'my item' is in the game here
} else {
	// player does not own 'my item', don't add it to the game here
}

When a user buys an item in your game, your game will be credited those points. You can also check how many points a user has:

trace("user has " + AndrogradeAPI.user.points + " points");

Offering a Paid Full Version for your game

Note: If the user is not already logged in, a login panel will pop up before the upgrade panel

if (!AndrogradeAPI.user || !AndrogradeAPI.user.owns("full version")) {		
	// pause your game here
	function buy_complete(success:Boolean):void {						
		// unpause your game here
		if (success) { 
			// they bought the full version
		} else {
			// they didn't buy it
		}		
	}							
	AndrogradeAPI.buy(500, "full version", buy_complete);					
}

Setting and Getting Stats

Note: this only works if there is a logged in user (see Adding the Initial Andrograde API Code)

trace("Your high score is " + AndrogradeAPI.user.getStat("high score"));
			
function statCallback(success:Boolean):void {	
	// finished setting the high score / stat
}
AndrogradeAPI.user.setStat("high score", score, Andrograde.User.STAT_MAX, statSet);	// There are a lot of different ways to set scores here

Getting player's rank for a stat

Note: this only works if there is a logged in user (see Adding the Initial Andrograde API Code)

var rank:uint;
function gotRank(_rank:uint):void {					
	rank = _rank;
}
AndrogradeAPI.user.getRank("high score", API.HIGHSCORE_HIGHEST, gotRank); // rank it from the highest score (descending)

Getting stats for another player

function getinfo(user:User):void {					
	trace("Will's highscore: " + user.getStat('high score'));
	trace("Does Will own the item? " + user.owns('my item'));
	// you can do many more things with this user...
});
AndrogradeAPI.getUserInfo("Will", getinfo);

Runtime Changable Server Synced Variables

You can use this to control variables inside your game based on player feedback long after you have deployed your game all over the net.
In the Edit Game popup on the Upload Page
There is a box for API Params. Fill in your parameters and values in here, seperate variables with new lines:

myVariable = 42
myOtherVariable = Welcome to my game!

In your game code:

trace("myVariable = " + AndrogradeAPI.parameters.myVariable);
trace("myOtherVariable = " + AndrogradeAPI.parameters.myOtherVariable);

You can use these like any other variable in Actionscript, the possibilities are endless!

Selling items and features with a run time controllable price

// remember to pause your game before popping this dialog up!
function buy_complete(success:Boolean):void {				
	// unpause your game here
	if (success) { 
	// the purchase was successful
	} else {
	// the purchase failed
	}
}	
// pause your game here
AndrogradeAPI.buy(AndrogradeAPI.parameters.myitem, "my item", buy_complete);

In the Edit Game popup on the Upload Page
There is a box for API Params. Fill in your parameters and values in here, seperate variables with new lines:

myitem = 50

When a user buys an item in your game, your game will be credited those points. You can also check how many points a user has:

trace("user has " + AndrogradeAPI.user.points + " points");

Save and Share user generated content

Note: this only works on Andrograde.com with a logged in user
Parameters passed to an Andrograde game url are automatically added to the API.parameters along with the runtime changable server synced variables.
When you upload your game to Andrograde, click on the 'view game' link. For example, the API test game view game goes to

http://andrograde.com/games.php?game=Andrograde_API_TestGame

You can add parameters to the url like so

http://andrograde.com/games.php?game=Andrograde_API_TestGame?level=testuser

Then in the game you can get the url parameters like so

trace(AndrogradeAPI.parameters.level); // outputs testuser

Combine this with stat loading and stat saving to make sharable user generated content.
Step 1 is to save the level the player created when they are in the level editor:

var level:String; // the level data
level= "some user generated level content here";

function savedLevel(success:Boolean):void {		
	if (success) {
		// level save successful!
	}
});
AndrogradeAPI.user.setStat("level", level, Andrograde.User.STAT_REPLACE, savedLevel);

Step 2 is to load the level data for the level you are playing on based on the url parameter:

if (AndrogradeAPI.parameters.level) {
	function getinfo(user:User):void {			
		level= user.getStat('level');	
		//You can now display that user's level
	}
	AndrogradeAPI.getUserInfo(AndrogradeAPI.parameters.level, getinfo);
}

Step 3 is to show the player a link for them to share their level with their friends