Openfeint or Gamecentre ???

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Lightworx, Jan 16, 2011.

?

Online high score system

  1. Openfeint

    19 vote(s)
    20.9%
  2. Gamecentre

    66 vote(s)
    72.5%
  3. Other

    4 vote(s)
    4.4%
  4. None

    2 vote(s)
    2.2%
  1. Lightworx

    Lightworx Well-Known Member

    May 21, 2010
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    Italy
    So I officially hate Openfeint! Every crash we get is directly attributed to Openfeint. So my question is, which do you prefer? Openfeint or Gamecentre? What other good alternatives are there?
     
  2. nvx

    nvx Well-Known Member

    Jan 7, 2011
    195
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    UK
    Game Center.
    It may not be as compatible or feature rich as some other alternatives, but this is Apple's new baby and the advantages in the future will surely outweigh all the current disadvantages and limitations

    If you are experiencing crashes with OpenFeint, there is no guarantee that switching to Game Center or something else, will rectify them.
    The problem is likely to be elsewhere in your setup.
     
  3. Stroffolino

    Stroffolino Well-Known Member
    Patreon Silver

    Apr 28, 2009
    1,100
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    38
    Software Engineer
    Pennsylvania
    The latest OpenFeint SDK is stable, wraps Game Center, and offers cross-promotional developer-friendly features that you won't get with Game Center alone. You can use it and truly get the best of both worlds. The only compelling reason I can think to stick with GameCenter-only is if you don't care about any of the advanced OpenFeint-specific features and are struggling to keep your app under 20 meg.

    Phil

     
  4. Lightworx

    Lightworx Well-Known Member

    May 21, 2010
    134
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    Italy
    Well if we remove openfeint from our build then everything works dandy. As soon as we put it back in then we get problems when openfeint tries to initialise and when the high score tries to report. It could be something in our code, but given the choice I would rather blame someone else :)
     
  5. mehware

    mehware Well-Known Member

    Nov 22, 2008
    539
    1
    0
    GameCenter! We have had crashes too related to OpenFeint, white screens, freezing etc. native for the win!
     
  6. ThunderGameWorks

    ThunderGameWorks Well-Known Member

    Nov 14, 2009
    692
    0
    0
    You actually might want to do both.

    Only devices with 4.1 OS or newer have access to GameCenter. For our games, we have OpenFeint for 4.0 OS and older and GameCenter for 4.1 and newer.

    This way, all versions of your games have some form of online leaderboards/achievements.
     
  7. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
    1,673
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    Berlin, Germany
    lol.. well if you don't handle the implementation correctly its surely is not OF fault..

    the thing is most casual player do not know what gamecenter is or what open feint is and they also don't care..

    so when you speak about social platforms like this you are aiming at more "advanced" gamers.. and if you get there OF beats GC in pretty much any field.. game center has its own share of problems , like buggy offline functionality etc. etc.

    of has been around for quite some time and it is the more robust package at the moment.. and since you can use both.. just use both.. the additional work is low and you satisfy fans of both services.


    and again if you got crashes with recent OF builds your definatly doing something wrong..

    the white screen bug was well know and fixed some time ago.. so if you still get it.. update your OF sdk.
     
  8. thewiirocks

    thewiirocks Well-Known Member

    Aug 28, 2009
    618
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    Expert Software Engineer
    While crashes are almost certainly a result of improperly implementing OF, the API is not particularly easy to use. Getting OF fully functional requires a multitude of hooks throughout your code.

    Worse yet, I've experienced several outright BUGS. Layout problems, rendering issues, unable to connect errors, etc. Strangely, some of the bugs appear to be server side. e.g. It will sometimes stop returning updated achievement info. I had to hack it to show local achievement information before I could ship, because I couldn't count on it behaving correctly in the field.

    Talking with my customers, they also appear to prefer Game Center over OpenFeint. While I may lose a few marketing opportunities without OF (e.g. freegameoftheday.com), I think the draw of Game Center beats OF hands down. To the point where pure GC appears to be better liked than the OF/GC integration.
     
  9. miiifan

    miiifan Well-Known Member

    I initially included OpenFeint in Bubble Pets but pulled it before release and added Game Center instead. I would definitely suggest Game Center.

    Apart from stability issues (OF was the only thing that ever caused my game to crash), removing it cut the package size in half and reduced compile time from minutes down to seconds. It was such a relief to remove all those crazy and unnecessary frameworks from the project.

    Then again I know devs (and gamers) who swear by OpenFeint and love it, so that's just my $0.02.
     
  10. TrueAxis

    TrueAxis Well-Known Member

    Sep 7, 2009
    610
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    0
    Depending on what you are doing or what you want decides the choice.

    Game Centre only allows 25 leaderboards.
    OF has no limit.

    OF has marketing and has added features that Game Centre does not have.

    The easy option is to use OF and use the wrapper inside that for all Game Centre stuff.

    To be honest Game Centre is pretty basic and has lots of problems. OF is stable and does what it does, well.

    And if you decide to port the game to Android then OF is the only option to consider really. We looked at putting Game Centre into Jet Car Stunts using OF because we needed the added features but I was shocked to find out about the 25 limit to leaderboards and we need over 70 of them for Jet Car Stunts. That stopped us from doing Game Centre!
     
  11. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
    1,673
    0
    36
    Berlin, Germany

    the thing about package size is funny because most developers do not even read the documents regarding OF.. most developer do not delete uneccessary parts of the sdks ressources.. for example alot developer bundle all OF assets within their game.. both orientations for iphone and ipad.. even if most of the game use only ONE! of them.. yeah no wonder projects become bigger if i carry around a couple unused megabytes with me..

    my personal problem with GC is that its a half assed approach.. to fully utilitze every Gc you need to use the actualy GC app.. how stupid is that.. i actualy love the integrated point of OF.. you can reach every OF information from within every OF game.. browse your other games achievements, use the integrated forums.. write the developer suggestions.. etc..

    compared that to the (evenly buggy) GC options.. GC is quite basic.. and not even close to the features of OF... and it misses one of the most important points of all thoose xbox live copies.. one central gamerscore.. you can earn points from games but there is no general score.. the very important "e-penis" to show to you friends that you have spend tons of more time at gaming than them..
    and thats only the tip of the iceberg thats the lousy atempt of GC.. the full implementation is even only avaiable for ios 4.1+ devices.. and don't get me started on the non avaiable support for legacy devices.. if OF works with tons of more features why should GC not work..

    gnaa.. apple needs to put alot more effort into GC before it comes close to OF.. and i personaly would love if their service would be en par with what others offered for a long time..
     
  12. Ovogame

    Ovogame Well-Known Member

    Sep 25, 2010
    570
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    Game Developer
    Morestel, France
    mr.Ugly, even after removing all the unused orientation, OF is still pretty a FAT bastard :) and do takes for ever to compile.

    I'm using OF for Tropical Mania, but that's because I coded it before GC exist. To be honnest, from now, I won't included any in my upcoming games. My games are pretty casual and I don't think the audience care. If I'm wrong for 1 game, I can still update it later with OF or GC integration.

    One very big important +1 for OF is that it also support Android.

    JC
     
  13. thewiirocks

    thewiirocks Well-Known Member

    Aug 28, 2009
    618
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    Expert Software Engineer
    As Ovogame mentioned, it's still rather large even after being trimmed. For iPad usage (where you're encouraged to support all orientations) there's very little that can be trimmed.

    Surprisingly, not a big deal. Users have not complained, and I've rather grown to like that stupid app. It's really quite bizarre. One would think it would be more useful and interesting to manage scores through the game itself. Yet the only score anyone worries about is the GC one. *shrug*

    Ultimately, I don't think Apple is trying to replicate what OpenFeint does. I think they're trying to encourage developers to make high scores more integral to their applications. Providing a straightforward API accomplishes that better than the centralized UI of OpenFeint.
     
  14. Beyondtool

    Beyondtool Active Member

    Sep 30, 2010
    30
    0
    0
    Games developer
    Gold Coast
    #14 Beyondtool, Jan 26, 2011
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2011
    I think most are moving towards Game Center for the main reason that its a seamless experience. Seriously "I DONT WANT THESE AWESOME FEATURES!" that screen is irritating to look at. It pisses users off, I've had people rant for hours about how much they hate the OF screen and they think that it's a scam or information fishing technique.

    Cocos 2D ended up removing OF after a user pointed out the hang bug when a network connection drops out.. and that's just not acceptable.

    Sure some hard core gamers might like OF, but as an xbox live achievement freak I feel more comfortable going with Game Center backed by Apple. Just my 2c.
     
  15. Razoric

    Razoric Well-Known Member

    I'm feeling the same way. I've watched how people are playing my game and I think most people would just skip the Open Feint stuff... which means I'll be putting a lot of code (and potential bugs) in the game for very little payoff.

    Game Center is just so non-intrusive most people don't even know they are using it.
     
  16. Lightworx

    Lightworx Well-Known Member

    May 21, 2010
    134
    0
    0
    Italy
    Looks like GC is coming out the clear winner....
     
  17. thewiirocks

    thewiirocks Well-Known Member

    Aug 28, 2009
    618
    0
    0
    Expert Software Engineer
    Yup. That pretty much sums up user reaction. ;)

    So I just ripped OpenFeint out of Coverfire HD. The result is amazingly clean and pretty. What's left is a Game Center logo in the corner of the title screen. The user can tap on it to see buttons for "Leaderboards" and "Achievements". Each button pops up the appropriate interface.

    Simple to program, simple to use. I suspect users will really enjoy this update!
     
  18. JaredJudd

    JaredJudd Member

    Jan 5, 2010
    5
    0
    0
    Lead Software Engineer
    Vegas
    The future

    I have openfeint and game center in my new project, and I like the idea of removing openfeint before launch for the package size issue... I think users will clearly trust game center more because they ALL know Apple.

    My hesitation is that I think there are users who seek achievements. Having just one or the other leaves these users from discovering your app. It seems like if you want as much exposure as possible you really should include both.
     
  19. mr.Ugly

    mr.Ugly Well-Known Member

    Dec 1, 2009
    1,673
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    Berlin, Germany
    Then change it.. dont like the wording.. change it.. you can.

    Dont like the look of the dasboard, dont use it, just strip the data and show it on your own implentation.. Ahh ohh wait that would be work, bummer.

    I personaly dislike the gc look because its theme only fits to solitaire games and totaly breaks away from everything apple did before ( modern glossy design)

    So what.. Fetch the data show it in your own implementation..

    It seems nowerdays devs are even too lazy todo this.. If they dont like it they dont touch it.. But you can edit it to your needs.. But hey that would be work :) funny

    At the end it doest matter people dont really care, cut the rope had only crystal, sold millions. Fruit ninja has of and gc...

    Again use what suites you but i hope you guys dont think it matters to the mass out there.. It does not.. Maybee to touch arcaders... But thats a minority :)

    Plus+ won 8]
     
  20. thewiirocks

    thewiirocks Well-Known Member

    Aug 28, 2009
    618
    0
    0
    Expert Software Engineer
    The punchline is that is exactly what Game Center requires you to do. OpenFeint provides more out of box functionality, yet most programmers would rather do the work to make Game Center function.

    Remember, Game Center has no standard iconography, no standard popovers when achievements/score are earned, no standard friends UI, no standard notification design, etc.

    About the only thing it provides is OPTIONAL Leaderboard/Achievement UIs. The programmer has do everything else.

    The difference is that you can either go through the pain of implementing and maintaining OpenFeint AND take on the custom programming, or you can just do the custom programming with Game Center. As a bonus, Apple is unlikely to suddenly change the API and require you to do a massive reimplementation.

    Don't like it? So change it! ;)

    (At first, I didn't like the craps-table look either. It grew on me.)
     

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