How CityLegends Launched a Full In-App Shop in Just 3 Months with AccelByte

Based in the Netherlands, CityLegends is a fast-growing social community platform designed specifically for the urban sports scene—supporting skateboarders, scooter riders, parkour athletes, and BMX riders. CityLegends is a real-world connector, helping urban athletes engage, compete, and grow through a mobile-first experience available on both iOS and Android.

With a lean team of just eight employees CityLegends has built a platform that empowers their community to discover new skate spots and parks, take on skill-based challenges, join competitions, and track their progress through a dynamic point system. These points can be redeemed for vouchers usable for merchandise from major streetwear and skate brands like Vans and Etnies—as well as CityLegends' own merch.

The Technical Challenge: Avoiding a 6-Month Backend Build

To support their community with redeeming vouchers for merchandise on the platform, CityLegends aimed to build a comprehensive in-game economy—including virtual currency, wallet system, and storefront functionality. Building this themselves would have taken the small team at least six months causing them to lose very valuable time and taking focus away from core product innovation.

The Strategic Decision: AccelByte Gaming Services

To speed up time to market and reduce engineering overhead, CityLegends made the choice to use AccelByte Gaming Services (AGS). With built-in support for virtual currency, wallet management, transaction tracking, and a full-featured shop module, AGS enabled the team to bypass a very complicated backend buildout entirely.

Seamless Technical Integration

The first critical step was to integrate the AccelByte Gaming Services account system with CityLegends’ existing account system that is on Google Firebase.   

AGS integrated cleanly with CityLegends’ Firebase-based account system. Developers connected via API to power product configuration, order processing, and key distribution—while the marketing team used the same backend to run promotions and track transactions.

Future looking CityLegends is leveraging AccelByte’s highly customizable platform to modify the existing AGS challenge service to meet their specific requirements to support a series of daily challenges where upon completion virtual currency will be rewarded.

The Outcome: Shop Live in Under 3 Months 

By leveraging AccelByte’s comprehensive set of backend solutions, the CityLegends team launched a fully functional shop in just three months.

CityLegends’ story highlights the power of moving fast without compromising quality—and you can do the same. Get started with AccelByte Gaming Services with a free 90-day trial, which includes:

• Access to essential backend services like Identity, Matchmaking, Social, Monetization, and more

• Developer Dashboard for easy service configuration

• Built-in support for virtual currency, wallet systems, storefront, and transaction history

• Community support during the trial period

• Optional add-ons like AccelByte Multiplayer Servers and AccelByte Extend

Start building without backend complexity. Try AGS Free for 90 Days →