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

[headcaseGames]

It's been ages since I've released an iOS app (nearly two years!) so when it comes to this stuff I am seriously out of the loop; I remember when GC launched it was pretty much "the next big thing" and lots of people on these forums would determine their purchases based on whether or not an app was running it.

My coder is not too keen to run both services in the app (I don't blame him) - I don't like having excess services in there "just to satisfy everyone," I prefer to keep that kind of presentation as uncluttered as possible and we all know it ain't easy.

Anyway, at this stage, are there compelling reasons to support OF over GC? I know older OS' will run OF, and of course there's Android too.. however, I like to think "slightly easier to consider getting featured" if you've got GC, not to mention that the small percentage of people who might talk up your game on a forum/website will likely feel the same way. What do you say?

[GameViewPoint]

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.

[MidianGTX]

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

[DistantJ]

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.

[AgnesDev]

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 :P

-=Agnes=-

[GlennX]

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.

[headcaseGames]

Originally Posted by GlennX

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.

it's true.

the people have spoken!

[GSnyder]

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

[headcaseGames]

Originally Posted by GSnyder

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

OF supports older OS's, also it is available on Android (I develop for that platform as well) and I have contacts who work at OF who could potentially help me to market the game.

Anyway I think GC is the better choice, but I wanted to see what others said.

[Zincous]

Originally Posted by GSnyder

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.