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Google Play Game Services

developers.google.com

110 pointsalbertzeyer25 comments

I used Google Play Game Services for a turn-based Android game a friend and I made this summer[1]. I like to develop on the PC and have a really fast test cycle, so I made a client implementation for desktop Java using a wrapper around the REST API.

It worked pretty well, except I could never figure out how to be notified that the other player took a turn. On Android there are hooks for this, but on the PC I ended up just polling their API for changes (I figured since it was just me I was unlikely to be tagged for abuse...). Maybe "Pushtokens" is the thing to use? The API documentation doesn't say what a "Pushtoken" is.

[1]: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.infinite_i... -- it's inspired by Letterpress. I wrote up some of our other experiences building the game, too, since I did a custom toolkit and physics engine for it: https://medium.com/@i_am_ralpht/building-letterplex-1-0-a78c...

You're right, the real-time multiplayer stuff is only available for Android and iOS right now. It'd be nice if they made a web-socket solution to handle this.

https://developers.google.com/games/services/common/concepts...

Or you could use a different game service that has more features and client libraries in more languages: https://gamesnet.yahoo.net/documentation/services/multiplaye...

(Shameless plug, sorry)

Services like this are cool but as with Facebook, Twitter and other APIs, they often don't work properly in a web view. Consider this from the docs linked to in this submission:

> Clicking that button or link should then call gapi.auth.signin(), which will ask the user to sign in to your game in a separate window.

You can't open a separate window in a web view, so the sign in doesn't work.

Hybrid app development is a pretty big deal and PhoneGap looks set to go up another level with the latest web view improvements in iOS 8 and Android 5, but it still surprises me that many top APIs out there fail in a web view simply because they try to open a window or some other presumably easily worked around issue, and nobody bothered to test it there.

It's straightforward to handle this in a WebView. If PhoneGap doesn't handle it, file a bug with them. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/webkit/WebChr..., boolean, boolean, android.os.Message)

In this particular case, PhoneGap should integrate with AccountManager and not force users to enter their login credentials.

Maybe because games are better written native?

Apple and Google have every incentive to keep you on their native platform as opposed to hybrid apps.

They would prefer you get frustrated trying to bridge the gap and work within their walled garden instead.

The Anti-Privacy feature is probably a big deal to legitimizing the Play Store in the eyes of iOS devs who worry about Android's large piracy rates.

https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/antipir...

Piracy on iOS is just as high as it is on Android. The only difference is that Google acknowledged that DRM doesn't work and made a license check option available to developers instead (years ago, nothing new).

We released our game for iOS earlier this year and easily 80% of our users had pirated copies of the game.

How much is it? It's astonishing that people bother to pirate iOS games when they hardly cost anything in the first place.

I read a quite plausible explanation on HN about it: Many people in Asia buy iOS devices as a status symbol, but can't really afford anything beyond, so most devices are jailbroken and loaded with pirate app stores. Comparable to the china tablets that already come with pirate app stores.

This post is about IAPs, but I assume the numbers for apps would be quite similar: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AaronIsaksen/20121213/183519/...

Given that only a tiny percentage of iOS users jailbreak, this just means that your game is only being bought by a very small percentage of users.

Users can install software on iOS devices without jailbreaking. The most common method is resigning the software using an enterprise cert (there are plenty of sites on the internet that do this).

I simply don't know: Can't those signing certs be revoked by Apple?

Yes, but how hard is Apple going to chase those certs?

Unless someone is doing something big or strategic to Apple (and random app piracy doesn't qualify, IMO), I just don't see it. Chasing "rogue" enterprise certs is all cost (time, effort, energy, risk of angering legitimate enterprise customers) for little to no benefit.

assuming it's the same anti-piracy mechanism they use for paid apps (and it looks like it is), then you really shouldn't rely on it. Sometimes it takes hours to report an install as "licensed", and crackers have developed tools (apkmania, i'm looking at you) to automatically strip and recompile apks that contain this license check.

The way to do it would be to give developers an API they can use on a server (something we've been asking for a while), but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Well, it's kind of two-phase. If the license check fails, the Play Games server calls will fail. Which means features like multiplayer just won't work.

I hope you meant "anti-piracy" ;)

As someone who only read the headline, that comment really piqued my interest.

Is this a new version? I took a look at this a few weeks ago and I don't remember any of this doc. I don't see a version ID anywhere on the website either (at least for Android).

Why is this news?

Not sure it warrants its own post, but it adds some depth/context to the "Nexus Player" device in particular (though it isn't specific to that).

Google is essentially doing an Ouya on both the hardware and software sides, but one with a much higher chance of traction (though admittedly, it is still very unproven, especially in light of their tepid support for Google TV, etc).

I thought maybe it was announced along the new Devices, but the bottom of the page says "Last updated September 16, 2014.". As far as I know, the current anti piracy measures Google takes are already cracked (though I hope to be wrong).

Select Platform:> Steam "A CHALLENGER APPEARS..."

REST API is really,really,really ugly No respect for any good practice when design REST API

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