Unity Distribution Portal

NOTE
Unity Distribution Portal is obsolete.

Overview

Unity Distribution Portal (UDP) lets you distribute your games to multiple app stores through a single hub. UDP repacks your Android build with each store’s dedicated In-App Purchase SDK to make your game compatible with the separate app stores. You can manage all your store submissions from the UDP console.

UDP overview

You can use UDP to distribute premium games and games with IAP.

UDP console

The UDP console is a web-based portal where you can prepare your games for submission to multiple app stores. The UDP console lets you:

• Manage your game’s information
• Edit your game’s in-app purchases
• Publish your game to multiple app stores
• View your games’ performance across all UDP stores

Learn more about the UDP console interface.

UDP package

The UDP package contains an SDK for working with UDP. It also enables the Unity Distribution Portal settings in the Project SettingsA broad collection of settings which allow you to configure how Physics, Audio, Networking, Graphics, Input and many other areas of your project behave. More info
See in Glossary window of the Unity Editor.

UDP client

To use UDP, your game must have a UDP client, including UDP client ID. This identifies your game on the UDP service. The ID is generated when you create a game on UDP and you must link it to your Unity project. To unlink a Unity project from a UDP client, remove the Unity project ID from the Integration Information section in the UDP console.

UDP sandbox

The UDP package contains a sandbox environment that acts as a test store for your UDP games. When you implement the UDP SDK in your game, your UDP build can then use the sandbox as a test environment. Before you can submit your game to the real stores, you must test your game in the sandbox to verify that your UDP and IAP (if applicable) implementation works properly.

Sandbox testing helps you to identify any issues that arise during your initial UDP implementation. Unresolved problems could prevent UDP repacking your game for stores, or cause UDP to repack the game with the existing problems. This could result in stores rejecting your game or players being unable to complete transactions.

Games with in-app purchases

In-app purchases (IAP) let you sell content to players from inside your game. You only need to implement your in-app purchases via UDP. UDP then automatically repacks your game into store-specific builds.

You can implement UDP on both the game client and server sides. For offline games, you only need to implement UDP in the game client. For online games, you can also implement UDP on the server side.

• Implementing UDP in-app purchases in the game client
  The implementation in the game client includes initializing the UDP SDK and integrating with the in-app purchase flow of UDP.
• Implementing UDP in-app purchases on the server side
  The implementation on the server side lets you query the UDP server about orders, receive callback notifications, and return the acknowledgements.

Learn how to:

• Manage in-app purchases on the UDP console
• Implement in-app purchases on the Editor
  • with the UDP package
  • with Unity IAP
• Implement in-app purchases on the server side

IAP product types

UDP only supports consumable and non-consumable IAP products. Subscription products are not supported.

Non-consumable IAP products

Non-consumable products provide permanent effects. Players can only purchase them once.

Consumable IAP products

Consumable products provide temporary effects, such as game currency and extra experience points. Players can purchase these multiple times.

When a user has purchased a consumable product, they must consume it before they can repurchase it. You can use the consumption to ensure the purchased product is successfully delivered.

To consume a product, your game needs to send a Consume request to the UDP SDK. Your game should deliver a product when it is consumed. This prevents the product being delivered repeatedly.

IAP Catalog

The IAP Catalog is an inventory of the IAP items implemented in your game. For each IAP item, you define a:

• description
• price
• consumable type
• Product ID

When your game is repacked and submitted to a store, UDP syncs your IAP Catalog with the store’s back-end. Your game can then query the IAP inventory from the store’s back-end.

When players purchase IAP products, your game asks the store to confirm the IAP Catalog. UDP must be properly implemented in your game for this step to work smoothly.

The IAP Catalog on the UDP console is the source of truth for what is submitted to the store’s back-end systems.

For a successful implementation, follow the UDP implementation guidance. To ensure your IAPs behave properly, test your game in the UDP Sandbox environment.

Premium Games

You can distribute Premium games (aka pay-to-download games) via UDP to stores which support premium games. You can then view your premium game revenue in the UDP console’s Reporting dashboard.

Learn how to distribute your premium game via UDP.

Ownership

UDP games belong to a Unity Organization and not to any individual user. All users of an Organization have access to its UDP games. Permissions vary depending on the role of a given user within the Organization.

You can also add users who aren’t in the Organization to specific projects. Add users in the Unity Dashboard under Project > Settings > Users.

You can divide tasks within a Unity Organization between users and non-users of the Unity Editor; for example:

• Publishing Manager (not an Editor user)
  • Creates a new game on the UDP console
  • Passes Developer the parameters needed to carry out the UDP implementation
  • Consolidates the material required for distribution
  • Begins signing up with the stores the Organization wants to distribute its games to
• Developer (Editor user)
  • Implements UDP in the project
  • Builds and tests the game’s APKThe Android Package format output by Unity. An APK is automatically deployed to your device when you select File > Build & Run. More info
    See in Glossary or AAB
  • Deploys the game build to the UDP console
• Publishing Manager
  • Creates game releases
  • Finalizes the submissions to the stores

Project-related permissions

Members of an organization and individuals granted access to a project can both work on Unity projects.

Project-related permissions relate to what UDP features you have access to on a specific Unity project, both in the Unity Editor and in the UDP console. This applies to:

• Members of the organization that the project belongs to (with organization-level permissions)
• Individuals granted access to the project only (with project-level permissions)

The table below lists the project-related UDP permissions for Users, Managers and Owners in the Unity Editor. These are the same for both project-level and organization-level permissions.

	User	Manager	Owner
Generate a new UDP client	Yes	Yes	Yes
Link a Unity project to the UDP client	Yes	Yes	Yes
Modify UDP settings	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create or modify IAPs	Yes	Yes	Yes

The table below lists the project-related UDP permissions for Users, Managers and Owners in the UDP console. These are the same for both project-level and organization-level permissions.

	User	Manager	Owner
Generate a new UDP client	Yes	Yes	Yes
Archive a game in game list	No	Yes	Yes
Delete a game in game list	No	Yes	Yes
Edit a game revision	Yes	Yes	Yes
Link a Unity project with a UDP client	Yes	Yes	Yes
Unlink a Unity project from a UDP client	No	Yes	Yes
Release a game revision	No	Yes	Yes
Register a game to a store	No	Yes	Yes
Publish a game to a store	No	Yes	Yes
Advanced page operation	No	Yes	Yes
Status page access and operation	No	Yes	Yes
Generate an authentication token	No	Yes	Yes

Organization-related permissions

Organization-related permissions relate to what UDP features you have access to in the Organization. These features are generally restricted to Organization members only, that is, individuals granted access only to specific projects do not have organization-level permissions. The exceptions to this are:

• the project Owner can view the Reporting dashboard
• any project role can view the projects they have access to in the game list

The table below lists additional Organization-related permissions for Users, Managers and Owners.

	Project-level			Org-level
	User	Manager	Owner	User	Manager	Owner
View the Reporting dashboard	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Access the game list	Yes*	Yes*	Yes*	Yes	Yes	Yes
Edit the Company profile	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Sign up the Organization to a store	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Note: Project-level users can assess the games within the host organization that owns the project, and any other projects they have access to within their own Organizations.