Loot boxes#

Loot boxes are virtual items that players can win, earn, or purchase, and then open to receive a randomized selection of items. Rewards can vary greatly depending on the game's genre, theme, and virtual economy. They can positively impact retention, supplement live events, and pique the curiosity of old and new players alike. This sample demonstrates how to set up a basic loot box that grants random currency to players.

Prerequisites#

To use this sample use case, you must download and install the UGS Use Cases project in your Unity project.

Overview#

To see this use case in action, open the samples menu and navigate to Loot Boxes. To open this scene directly and interact with the use case:

1. In the Unity Editor Project window, select Assets > Use Case Samples > Loot Boxes, then double-click LootBoxesSample.unity to open the sample scene.
2. Press Play to enter Play mode.

Initialization#

The LootBoxesSceneManager.cs script performs the following initialization tasks in its Start function:

1. Initializes Unity Gaming Services.
2. Signs in the player anonymously using the Authentication service. If you’ve previously initialized any of the other sample scenes, Authentication will use your cached Player ID instead of creating a new one.
3. Retrieves and updates the player's currency balances from the Economy service.

Functionality#

When you click the Open Loot Box button, you receive a random amount of rewards from the available pool (indicated in the currency HUD). The following occurs:

1. The button's OnClick method calls the GetRandomCurrency script from the Cloud Code service, which picks a random quantity of a random currency from an internal list to reward the user.
2. Cloud Code calls the Economy service directly to grant the awarded currency and update the player's balance.
3. Cloud Code returns the results to the client and updates the UI.

Setup#

Requirements#

To replicate this use case, you'll need the following Unity packages in your project:

To use these services in your game, activate each service for your Organization and project in the Unity Dashboard.

Dashboard setup#

To replicate this sample scene's setup on your own dashboard, you need to:

• Publish one script in Cloud Code.
• Create four Currencies for the Economy service.

Economy#

Configure the following Currencies in the LiveOps dashboard:

These comprise the potential reward pool for your loot box. For more information, see documentation on configuring Economy resources.

Cloud Code#

Publish the following script in the LiveOps dashboard:

Note: The Cloud Code scripts included in the Cloud Code folder are local copies because you cannot view the sample project's dashboard. Changes to these scripts do not affect the behavior of this sample because they are not automatically uploaded to the Cloud Code service.

Economy#

Configure the following resources in the LiveOps dashboard: