The playAWARDS Loyalty Engine

Economies can be complicated, and loyalty economies are no different. These complexities are an important and necessary evil to operating a loyalty economy. And standing up your loyalty economy can be arduous and time-consuming. That’s why playAWARDS offers the Loyalty Engine.

playAWARDS designed the Loyalty Engine to get apps up and running as quickly as possible with a full, robust loyalty economy solution. The Engine serves as a comprehensive solution for managing every aspect of your Loyalty economy. Deployed in close proximity to your game server, this powerful engine takes charge of all the intricate logic involved in distributing Loyalty Points, Tier Points, and more, guided by the configuration input provided by you.

In addition to facilitating point distribution, the Loyalty Engine seamlessly handles crucial tasks related to player authentication and account creation. It efficiently manages the process of merging points from multiple accounts and ensures smooth operation within the limits defined for each player. By entrusting your Loyalty economy to the Loyalty Engine, you can rest assured that all intricate calculations, point distribution, and account management are handled flawlessly. This sophisticated engine streamlines operations, empowering you to deliver a seamless and rewarding experience to your players.

This page will provide a brief introduction to the capabilities and use cases for the Loyalty Engine. For more information, including how to integrate, visit our documentation or reach out to your playAWARDS Client Success Manager.

How It Works

The Engine is a piece of containerized software that lives in the cloud which you access via the Engine APIs. Here's how your app engages with the Engine. The below simplified sequence diagram illustrates the flow. For a more detailed flow, reach out to your CSM.

Capabilities

For a look at what the Engine handles today, here are the various elements broken down by the two main loyalty economies:

LP earn methods (segmented)

Initial LP balance (segmented)

Own/interpret the economy config

Communication with playAWARDS db

Daily & lifetime caps (segmented)

Merge logic & restrictions

Rewards Economy (Loyalty Points)

As it relates to managing the Loyalty Point Economy, the 2024 Loyalty Engine has the following capabilities:

Administration

Centralizes the Loyalty Economy

See your economy and performance in the playAWARDS Game Console

Easy-to-use config-based management

Manage LP issuance from N earn methods (by segment)

Segment by VIP tier, anon/authenticated, or OS

Capabilities

Manage starting balances (by segment)

Manage authentication merge logic

Manage daily and lifetime caps (by segment)

TP earn methods (segmented)

Tier logic

Own/interpret the economy config

Communication with playAWARDS db

Account management

Merge logic

Status Economy (Tiers & Tier Points)

As it relates to managing the Tier Economy, the 2024 Loyalty Engine has the following capabilities:

Administration

Centralizes the Tier Economy

See your economy and performance in the playAWARDS Game Console

Easy-to-use config-based management

Returning player tier information, such as tier, TPs toward maintain/tier-up, and days remaining

Manage TP earn methods based on the config (by segment)

Capabilities

Store and provide Tier benefits

Plus, The Following...

Use Case: You wake up tomorrow, and your loyalty economy has a new feature that you get for free out-of-the-box.

With the Loyalty Engine being in the cloud, playAWARDS can continue to improve and advance with over-the-air updates.

Out-of-the-Box Advancements

Use Case: You want to quickly attach 2x loyalty to anyone who completes an album, so you go into the console, make the change, and you’re live within the hour. No code necessary.

Our config system allows for easy changes to LP issuance amounts associated with earn methods. And since you can manage your economy from the the playAWARDS Game Console, making changes are no-code.

Easy Economy Changes

Use Case: You want to award MORE SWEEPS TICKETS to any player who spends more time in your game, so you go into the console, make the change, and you’re live within the hour. No code necessary.

Loyalty isn't just about Loyalty Points and Tier Points. Other currencies are handled by the Loyalty Engine as well.

Sweeps Monetization

And all of this is managed through a centralized economy, so you don’t have to worry about other games potentially breaking their loyalty economy, or you breaking theirs.

Centralized Management

Future Capabilities

Use Case: You’d like to give a BIG Loyalty Point prize to anyone who completes your liveops event, so you go into the console, make the change, and you’re live within the hour. No code necessary.

As long as your app is sending a game event to the engine, it can easily become an earn method, including liveops events.

Loyalty Promotions (Coming Soon)

Use Case: You want to UNLOCK A CRUISE REWARD for any player who makes a chip purchase in the next hour, so you go into the console, make the change, and you’re live within the hour. No code necessary.

Achievements can be unlocked for players using earn methods, just like Loyalty Points. And benefits of an achievement include unlocking rewards.

Achievements (Coming Soon)

Use Case: You’re able to unlock NEW INSTALLS with rewards and optimize the portfolio-wide player LTV.

In order to take advantage of the full cross-promo functionality of the playAWARDS Loyalty Platform, you must be integrated with the Loyalty Engine and communicating the necessary events associated with our cross-promo achievements.

UA Arbitrage (Coming Soon)

Use Case: You want to run two loyalty economies against each other in an A/B test...

... Or you want to run two tier system configs against each other...

...so you can understand which brings more value to your game.

The Loyalty Engine is equipped with testing that allows you to run two configs at the same time. This can be very powerful for understanding precisely which config drives what player behavior.