For some time now, we’ve been hearing about Google Play Games, or something to that effect and now Google have finally announced it at Google I/O. The new service, dubbed “Google Play game services” features everything you’d expect to be in a gaming service, from Google. This becomes part of Google Play Services and it’s going to make it even easier to play with friends, as well as game across multiple devices syncing your saves.
Cloud Save will allow users to have their game saves synced in the cloud, allowing you to pick up from where you left off on your smartphone, from your tablet or another smartphone. Leaderboards are both public and just for your friends, you’ll be able to see how good you are compared to competition all across the globe as well among your Google+ circles. Achievements are pretty self-explanatory, finally you’ll get gratification for conquering certain aspects of a game, just like we do on consoles.
There are a number of games that Google are announcing with support for Google Play game services already, such as the following: World of Goo, Super Stickman Golf 2, Beach Buggy Blitz, Kingdom Rush, Eternity Warriors 2, and Osmos. Developers will be able to incorporate this using an SDK and you can also use Google Play game services on the Web as well. There are libraries available in JavaScript, Java, Python, Go, Dart, PHP, and more. Devs can also head on over to Google’s Developer website for games.
For a lot of gamers, this couldn’t have come soon enough, Android is a great destination for gamers, with a whole lot of Triple A titles coming to the platform but, there’s been no cohesive manner in which to bring it all together. I know I’m excited to start stacking up my skills among my friends, how about you?
Check out the full press release down below.
Developing…
Introducing Google Play game services (May 15th, 2013)
We love to talk about games at Google. Especially the old ones, like Pac-man, Pitfall and Frogger. Since those classics, games have changed a lot. They’ve moved from that clunky box in your living room to the screen that you carry with you in your pocket wherever you go. They’re mobile, they’re social, and they’re an important part of Google Play.
Today, we’re launching Google Play game services, a core part of building a gaming platform for the next generation of games. These services help you make your games more social, with achievements, leaderboards, and multiplayer, as well as more powerful, storing game saves and settings in the cloud. They are available on Android, and many on iOS or any other connected device. By building on Google’s strengths in mobile and cloud services, you can focus on what you’re good at as game developers: creating great gaming experiences for your users.
With game services, you can incorporate:
Achievements that increase engagement and promote different styles of play.
Social and public leaderboards that seamlessly use Google+ circles to track high scores across friends and across the world.
Cloud saves that provide a simple and streamlined storage API to store game saves and settings. Now players never have to replay Level 1 again.
Real-time multiplayer for easy addition of cooperative or competitive game play on Android devices. Using G+ Circles a game can have up to 4 simultaneous friends or auto-matched players in a game session together with support for additional players coming soon.Several great Android games are already using these new game services, including World of Goo, Super Stickman Golf 2, Beach Buggy Blitz, Kingdom Rush, Eternity Warriors 2, and Osmos.
Google Play game services are available today through an SDK for Android, and a native iOS SDK for IPhone and iPad games. Web and other platform developers will also find corresponding REST APIs, with libraries for JavaScript, Java, Python, Go, Dart, PHP, and more.
We’re excited to see what games will do with these new services and experiences, and this is only the beginning. Wait until you get to the boss battle… er.. Check out our developer site to get started: https://developers.google.com/games/
Greg Hartrell, Lead Product Manager