now that the dust has cleared - Game Center or OpenFeint?

I've looked into this question recently, and I came down on the side of GC. At the end of the day if I'm making an iPhone/iPad game I want an Apple system in it.

 

I've been clicking "I don't want these awesome features" since before GC even came out, but with GC games I'm automatically signed in to the service so it'd be too much effort trying to opt out even if I wanted to... which I don't

 

I was going to say, as a gamer I hate OpenFeint nagging me every time I want to play a game, and as a developer I love the advantages of GameCenter. GameCenter kind of does the Google+ thing, you've got it, you didn't have to go through some lengthy process to get there, and if you don't intend to use it much it doesn't intrude.

 

Hi Ron,

Maybe I'm a newbie in gamedev but I was thinking about the same issue (related to my game) for couple of weeks.

I've decided to implement both of them but there is the one condition... I'm going to release my game only with GC and prepare OF's functionality for the first update, but...
I'll observe audience's reaction after the first release and if they complain on missing OF I'll be ready to release it immediately (including some major bugs fixes ).

Seriously I don't know how this "plan" can effect on my sales but at least I'll have one more "bullet point" for an update and maybe it won't hurt me too much.

BTW - I don't have OF on my iPad & iPhone (yet) - maybe I'm too lazy, but I'm only a female

-=Agnes=-

 

kind of sad really, I don't know what OF could have done to make it easier for the user (and dev for that matter) but still people are talking about "nagging". Guess that's a pretty strong vote for GC.

 

Is there even one real advantage of Open Feint over Game Center? Why would you even consider Open Feint at this point?

 

Replays on the leader boards you can watch how they got their score/time.

 

It really depends on what your game requires.

For instance GC only allows up to 25 leader boards and OF has no limit.

OF has extra things built in for saving data with high scores - which means ghost racing.

OF can be used in Android apps as well and has a network where other peoples games can promote your games.

What I'm pointing out is each service has it's strong points.

But you can also have both at the same time because OF offers all that in one package.

 

Pretend you're making an XBOX game. Are you gonna use XBL or some outdated and annoying 3rd party service? I friggin hate OF and can't fathom why devs still bother with it.

 

You have to remember that just over a year ago GC didn't exist.

A developer might support GC through OF for the sake of his Android version and for the extra features.

I haven't looked at OF for a while but I think I read somewhere that you can use their API just to get at GC and sort of disable actual OF. I've also seen games that make OF very optional, I can't remember which game it was but i'm sure I saw one ask "enable OF as well as GC for extra features?".

Personally, I'm very interested in the saving recorded data with high scores, that reason alone is enough to seriously consider OF unless maybe there is some way of storing that data in iCloud and somehow passing the link around via GC. I have no idea if this is possible or not because life is too short for reading manuals

I guess the real question is, are a significant proportion of users so pissed off by the simple "enable OF?" question that it would be better to not use it even though there are all sorts of cool things you could do with its features.

Sadly I think the answer is yes.

 

well another question should be if the members of this forum really represent the mass out there..

i doubt the casual crowd out there cares for neither.. they do not log into gc and they do not make an account for of (which they don't have too they get one of thoose generic 75745839394 ones)

of course your next game (contra clone?) does not look targeted at the casual market but rather at retro gamer..

since you develope for 3 platforms (and don't know if you need to implement xbox live) i would try to go for "none" from the start.. maybe implement your own local score and achievement system (you need todo that anyway for game center, there is no offline storage) so you have the basics in place and can decide after the release and based on actual user feedback what todo from there..

there are tons of successfull ios games who do not have gc or of implemented.. its not a top priority feature in most games.

you could even try to implement your own cross platform system, so you can start on device a, then switch to the xbox and continue.. that would be a cool (completly geeky no additional sales gaining) feature..

the bottom line is.. most members on this board cry foul if a game does not follow their ideal form factor

- 99 cents or better free (a lot better yeah!!!)
- small in size but big in content
- no god damn iap
- gamecenter, tons of leaderboards, achievements and best multiplayer
- and of course next gen 3d uber gfx running on iphone os 2.0 on an ipod touch first generation.
- did i mention 99 cents or less?
- and never change the price ever, because someone might have bought it just before you made a sale.. thats like a sacrilege

hehe


in the end in all honesty implement what the best solution for you guys, if you start listening too closly to a tiny but very vocal minority you can end up with a feature that "shuts up" a few voices but most people don't even care about

anyway good luck on the contra-ish game.. (there is 4 player local, wifi, bluetooth and online multiplayer, right? like in super mario or rayman origins yes? *smirk*)

 

Game Center Hands Down...

Game Center is the clear winner, even if the only benefit is the icon on your app store listing. The majority of serious iPhone gamers use Game Center, and if you don't include it you will get a lot of requests for it to be included.

The only reason you would consider openfeint is if you want to port over to android and use openfeint on you android game. Even then I would include Game Center as well.

Make sure to add icons for all your achievements and leaderboards as well, it makes the experience for the users a lot more interesting.

 

If so, then GC would be the clear choice. OF forces a popup on everyone when first running an app. The OF logo often mucks up otherwise good app icons. GC can go unnoticed by those who do not use it. So people who want neither could have a negative reaction to OF integration while GC integration would not even be noticed.
In addition, I would be surprised if a large portion of the casual crowd does not use GC. My wife is not gamer and probably doesn't know what GC is, but she uses it. You don't really ever have to log in. It's just a fluid part of iOS. I am honestly not sure if I have ever logged in to GC. I just set up my account when it was new and it's simply been there ever since.

 

of ask once on the initial startup if you want to use it.. the same applies to gc if you are not logged in.. so there is no difference to the login procedure, except that gc is system wide.

so someone must be really picky if one initial question on the first startup of a game bothers them so much.. its like it takes half an hour of q&a to go through the process..

from the numbers i've gathered from different sources around 30% use gc if the game provides it.. question is how many of thoose 30% even know that they are using gamecenter, or even know what game center is.. since it only needs a one time entry of your login credentials.. that one time could have been month ago..

so yes of course gc is more integrated into ios (bummer!) than third party solutions.. but this does not make it "better" especialy not for a game that will be avaiable on 3 platforms (if people care to notice)

you can pair of with gc easily and have the data go through the of api to apple and still provide the same feature set on android (not xbla though) if you limit yourself to what gc offers (which is not much)

you can either go for a platform dependent isolated application (which gc is) or again maybe a multiplatform inhouse solution.. (or even an non sharing local solution)

in the end i don't see much of a "must" to have any of thoose ready by release.. again its not as important as people make it look like.

and if roysce wife doesnt know she uses game center or what it is.. i doubt she might even notice a difference if thoose "achievement x unlocked" pops ups are generated by gc , of, or your own solution.. *shrug* my 2 cents

 

Only 25 leaderboards? That feels like a big limitation for GC. I've got a game with 50 levels that I'd like to port to iOS and not being able to have a top time leaderboard for each level would be disappointing.

GC works great for my current game at least, where I only need 10 leader boards.

I wish they'd let you change Achievement values after release though I understand gamers wouldn't like me taking these away. Wanted to add a new achievement related to a new feature I'm adding in an update and I don't have any points left to assign.

 

Don't forget that including game center in your app may increase your chance of being feature by apple.