We are looking into running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for our iOS game.

Our monetization strategy is to have a freemium game with IAP.

Backing a freemium game in KS doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so we'd like to give backers IAP promo codes for various levels of rewards. When I google IAP promo codes I see a lot of articles in May of this year saying Apple will be allowing IAP promo codes. But then when I look at this

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnect_Guide/Chapters/ProvidingPromoCodes.html

under 'How to Use Promo Codes'

'. . . Promo codes don’t work for In-App Purchase products, including Newsstand issues. . . '

So did Apple never go through with the IAP promo codes?

Is there a way around this in any way?

Any other ideas that we could use for KS reward?

Thankw

Never had to deal with Apple but doubt there is a mechanism preventing you from giving people specialized ingame codes they can use to claim ingame rewards, a completely off-Apple process. But I am ofc not speaking out of experience.

Even if the promo codes did work for IAP, you also have this problem: "You can request up to 100 promo codes for every version of your app."

100 codes are not very many.

They are intended to be used for testing and marketing, not as an alternative way of selling the game.

Maybe you could build your IAP store such that there is an alternate way of making purchases, through some kind of vouchers you generate.

You could provide a way for users to enter such code in your app to redeem them, bypassing the App Store completely.

Of course, this would be a potential security hole if not done right, so it's not a perfect solution.

It's just a wild idea (I havn't heard of anyone actually doing this), since I'm pretty sure the promo codes could never work for something like this...

Apple is pretty strict about that requirement, especially since it is how they get their money: Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected. Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be rejected.

While other systems are more amenable to outside purchases, Apple maintains fairly tight control.

You could though give them free in game currency through a back end. So lets say instead of purchasing features or in game items you purchase currency which can be spent on the in game items or features. Then you can with the backend of your game through a control panel or h/w you want to implement it give them free currency. We did this with one of our mobile games to be able to give out coins to our users through contests and stuff on our website and facebook page.

While I'm sure apple doesn't allow this there is absolutely no way for them to check this and all games have something similar to this