"In their final new feature, Game Center will be introducing an element to allow for the tracking of asynchronous turn-based games. This new feature looks to be similar to the way games like Words With Friends or Carcassonne work, except it will allow you to check all of your turn-based games at once to see when itÂ’s your turn." Read more: http://www.gamezebo.com/news/2011/06/06/game-center-changes-coming-ios-5#ixzz1OWgJKoNl Can I get a W00t!! This solves our multiplayer problem for RoboArena, and I'm sure it's going to help a ton of other devs!
Just mentioned this in the Lead Wars topic, another prime example of a game desperately needing a mode the dev can't financially support on his own. Hope this solves it!
Here's hoping that's what it really is. So little info yet. If so, then all you devs better get cracking to make me a Merry Xmas!
As soon as this news hit the blog feed I was watching I literally punched the air with both hands! The best thing about native support for async is players don't have to create yet another account on yet another unknown company's servers, and build up yet another friends list etc. Well I was hoping to move onto another game after the next Lead Wars update comes out but looks like I've got some serious re-working to do ready for iOS 5!
And the faster we can get it implimented, the better our chances will be to get featured in the "Made for iOS 5" section on the App Store!
Amen, brother. Over the years, I have (apparently) joined OpenFeint, Crystal, and however many more. I literally can't remember the user names and passwords I've set up, not do I ever check them, care about them in the slightest, etc. It's all just meaningless noise. Just give me everything on GameCenter, baby.
woot we can't do it ourself? what?! async multiplayer is in my book one of the easiest server based modes you can have.. i mean.. i'm baffled that this is something to woot about.. (i think open feint does such things for quite some time.. ) i could only facepalm myself after reading this thread.. so an iOS 5 only game not backwards compatible at all, based on a platform limited service to run a key feature of a game and then some even think about the possibility of porting it to another platform (android) .. ouch.. ouch.. ouch.. yeah right.. not even counting in tons of other important factors like the alot slower moved from iOS to iOS 5 due to the later release date (probably in sync with the new iphone) and the time it takes to get a solid iOS5 userbase.. *seufz* thats like the initial rush to get an ipad game done in time for release, just to then notice the ipad market does not exist yet on release so there is barely anyone to buy your product.. by the time the market share grows your product is ancient history.. WOOOT!
/me has had his enthusiasm taken down a notch good point(s) Mr. Ugly. I suppose being first isn't always the best. As always, you provide (slightly unpleasant) food for thought... like spinach.
The keynote stated that there are 50 million people with Game Center. A native-to-the-OS system will always vastly outgrow a 3rd party service like OpenFeint now matter how good that is (in terms of user-base as well as application support). The vast majority of Game Center users are waiting for it to become as good as the awesome Xbox Live service, and iOS 5 gets it a step closer. Would the Xbox be doing as well as it is if there were five+ different online gaming services you had to sign up for? All with their own different UIs and none compatible with each other? No. Xbox Live connects people in a consistent and always-running OS-native fashion. You can chat to friends and jump between different games without interruption - it has to be part of the OS to do this, and Game Center will gain features like this eventually. The smart money should be on Game Center, it's not the best yet and is far from being Xbox Live but it will get there.
Yes, you would be. Try this: 50 million users. Native support. Apple's typical ease-of-use. No more byzantine third-party services that work whenever they feel like it. Should I keep going ... ?
lol apparently you don't know game center very well.. and what is "native" support.. thats silly.. game center is an API like many out there only its provided by apple and it sucks.. its barebasic and instead of improving and fixing the problems is has now.. they add uninteresting stuff (their biggest competitor already has oh wonder) into their package.. woot.. and numbers LOL.. 50 millions yeah.. nice pr bs.. who cares.. if you believe in numbers then there is no point for me talking to you guys further.. open feint claims 80 mill users.. so what know? lets all switch ? the vast majority of game center user don't even know what it is.. this is a casual platform used in various ages.. and once you signed in with your apple id you are an game center user no matter if you use it regular or only once in your lifetime with a awful little game you downloaded for free.. a tiny vocal group of players are moaning about game center to improve and thats it.. this little mini update to game center (thats uninteresting to what 80% of the games out there) does mean jack.. whoo they have now picture support, and friend of friend ey caramba.. and you can even buy stuff from within game center.. woot.. the only interesting thing in iOS 5 is the revamped notification system and the icloud connection .. what they did to game center was imho a joke.. we are talking here about apple and not a little joint around the corner with 2 programmers.. if they wanted they could have a full fledged "xbox-live" service up and running yesterday.. they choose not to.. because its not important.. if it would.. it would look different.. take a look into the fresh documentations in iOS 5 and you'd notice there is not much new in gamecenter at all.. and still alot of broken.. and i personaly don't care about "new" awesome features if the old ones are still in the state they are..
I hear that, we're looking into this for Great Little War Game too. Seems Apple are getting the idea wrt gamers needs now. Great stuff!
While I agree that multiplayer turn-based API in Game Center isn't exactly ground-breaking technology, it is absolutely a welcome addition, and one which I will be using: As mentioned above, users don't have to create yet another new account to use my game now (which many are reluctant to do). I don't have to host a server to manage the games and push notifications like I would if I did it myself. The OpenFeint turn-based framework, which also allows you to avoid hosting your own server, hasn't really caught on with developers. This is partially because OF has not really pushed it or improved it. I was planning to use it, but now that Game Center supports it, I will use GC instead. Regarding the market size issue, iOS 5 will be available for free to devices as far back as the iPhone 3GS and 3rd gen iPod touches. That's plenty of market. Inifinity Blade doesn't support iPhone 3G or older iPod touches and they earned over $10 million. That'd do just fine for me. Regarding Mr. Ugly's point about Apple not really pushing Game Center, I think that is definitely true. They've had over 8 months since Game Center was introduced. A small team of developers could have built a complete XBox Live system on top of the original GC in that time if Apple wanted to do it. For example, why is there no virtual currency and virtual goods system in GC yet? If it was built-in, many more developers would use it. Today we have to pay another 10-15% to OpenFeint or ScoreLoop or whomever to use their systems.
While I know this is an iOS dev forum, what about missing out on cross os turn based multiplayer? Problem with this is you cant get Android players to play iOS players. It sounds great if you have no plans to port to another platform though!
For most of us little fish, it's not like there's an alternative though. Android users won't be getting it full stop. Anyone can knock up a little database and some sql forms, but doing this to a commercial strength and cost is a different matter entirely and is beyond most of us. Even if we can afford it, we might not have the skills to implement a rugged system. Shit, if Sony can get pwned, what chance have we got? I fully applaud this system and beg for Android to get their shit together and provide something similar if they want their users to get the most out of their phone gaming.
Actually there is photon server (and a few others) which provides a sdk for iphone, android, flash, ect. They offer a free version with 100 concurrent users. And for Asynchronous multiplayer, you can really stretch that free use. As long as you arent making more than 100 calls per second you should be fine. But you are right in the fact that you must host and pay for the server, buy the license if you go over 100 ccu, ect. Just pointing out that I have a lot of friends on both platforms and it was nice when Word Feud allowed us to finally play cross platform. But again, Android may not be a market people want to go into.
Hmm, I wasn't aware of this actually. We're porting Great Little War Game to Android right now, but I'm not personally involved in it day to day. So all we need now is a common API, but I still see flying pigs
