FGL Enhance ZeroCode and Defold

The Defoldmine
#1

So, we had a discussion a while back about using FGL Enhance to inject ads, analytics and other services into a mobile app. At that time it still required a little bit of code to be manually added to the game and a small JAR included. This will, as most of you know, not work due to the nature of the Defold engine and build pipeline.

FGL has (recently?) added support for a ZeroCode option where a Pre-Roll ads are injected into an APK. This is, as the name implies, done without the need for any code at all. You simply upload the APK and let the FGL Enhance service do its magic and in a minute or two you get your APK back with Pre-Roll ads injected. I tried it on an Android app and it worked like a charm. Try it yourself!

Screen Shot 2016-09-21 at 14.17.04.png729×1165 79.5 KB

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#2

I expect that the way they do this is by adding their binary, then making it the first binary opened in the info.plist / manifest file, and then, once the ad is over, executing the original main game binary? If you compared a before and after of the apk it would give a clue.

Pre-Roll style ads are/were very popular mostly with Flash games. On iOS/Android it’s more likely that your app will be resumed instead of re-opened completely. So this may not make much money… although maybe they smartly can detect resume too?

Having an ad display when a user first launches your game may create a bad first impression too… but if it significantly increases total $ may as well. I think that ideally optional rewarded video is the best way to go. So users never see ads if they don’t want to, but can watch ads for in game rewards.

#3

The game starts and after about 1 second or so the Pre-roll ad is displayed. I’m not exactly sure how they are doing this and I’m currently a bit pressed for time to dig into this more.

#4

Hi, did you do anything particular ?
I just can’t seem to make the zero-code work with my defold project :frowning:

#5

Nevermind, I found out that I had to use test ids for banners and interstitial ads, if I wanted to try letting the website sign my apk with a test certificate.

#6

Remember that there’s a proper Defold extension for FGL Enhance now as well.

1 Like
#7

Yes, but when I tried with the extension, it didn’t work either because I wasn’t using the test ids. As I said, it’s normal, because AdMob doesn’t allow to use regular ids with an app signed for testing.