Scoreloop support Hi, I have few compliments & complaints about scoreloop Compliments: - It seems that scoreloop is really well implemented - I really like the idea of coins & i feel that scoreloop will be succesful in the long run. Complaints: 1) I am trying to integrate Scoreloop but ran into some problems. I looked into the documentation but again i am stuck. Unfortuantely, the developer forums also not working, even though i logged in & i was unable to go to developer forum. 2) Secondly, i hope there is some screencast on Scoreloop. Openfient has a screencast and it was really helpful. Because of this i switched to Openfient. I really like Scoreloop but due to lack of support ( & lack of some videos), i have no option other than look into Openfient. I even sent a feed back like 2-3 days back regarding forums issue & so far i havent got any reply. I felt very bad when someone built a great platform & not able to help people like me when they are stuck. This also leads people to look into other frameworks which has good support Hopefully scoreloop has a solution for this, Regards, -Satish
I agree with you that Scoreloop documentation can be improved. Sometimes I've had trouble finding exactly what I'm looking for, but it's improved over the last few iterations. As far as support goes, I've always received a response to my emails within 24 hrs. IIRC, they are based in Germany so the response time varies according to your time zone. I've exchanged many emails with Scoreloop staff and have always gotten excellent help. I didn't even know a forum existed until your post.
I think that Plus+ is best at the moment, very closely followed by OpenFeint. I have heard people say though, that Plus+ is better because it doesn't have to load every screen like OpenFeint. One problem there, IT DOES. Just my 2 cents.
Low Score Great thread! Simple question. In some games, low score is good (like golf). Do any of these services support a Low Score capability?
Yup! All OpenFeint leaderboards can be sorted in Ascending (low score) or Descending (high score) mode.
I just started experimenting with Agon. I've been doing lots of research into which one I like best, and so far Agon seems like it's the most minimalist and non-obtrusive, which is what I'm looking for really. Also, yeah it lets you sort the leaderboards ascending or decending, so you can have low score lists too.
IMO, OpenFeint has the best features but lacks the slick UI of Plus+. A fusion of both would probably be the best online platform for the iPhone. What I really want is for Apple to create a new platform (or adopt one of the existing ones), make it universal/easy to integrate in every game and allow it to run in the background (I'm allowed to dream, right?). That's the only way we'll ever have a service like Live or PSN. That said, I'll probably be using OpenFeint on my first game because ngmoco seems a little bit too secretive about Plus+.
OpenGL ES Application Do any of these services integrate easily into an OpenGL ES Application? Thank you
Seems they have switched to the Apache license, so no worries! Code: /// Copyright 2009 Aurora Feint, Inc. /// /// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); /// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. /// You may obtain a copy of the License at /// /// http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 /// /// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software /// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, /// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. /// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and /// limitations under the License.
Agon has had a recent update that allows cloud storage. The idea is that your account can travel from device to device, including saved games or any other data you want to travel with an account. That offers solutions to some integral problems with games on the iPhone (like lost data and multiple people sharing a device.) Anyone on here have experience with Agon? Are there other services that offer this? I'm also interested in Agon's business plan.
I'm using Agon with an OpenGL ES game. I do have a Cocoa Touch UI on top of the OpenGL rendering view though.
Open Feint is where its at! And the devs are awesome. I've had nothing but a great experience integrating OF into my first iphone game Rummage. Their support is great and was cake to get in and running. I definitely have to give them some credit for Rummage's v1.1 success! I'm updating my icon to reflect that it is an OF game. The best thing though... I got a congratulatory email from the guys at Open Feint on my game getting featured in iTunes "New and Noteworthy!" I didn't even know it was featured until that email! OF freakin rules
i've really become a fan of Plus+. The UI is slick, and so is the achievement system. I wins in my book.
OpenGL support Thanks for the input. Thats very helpful. Looks like you put in the effort needed to go the Agon path. I did register with Agon. I do notice that they do not seem to have any instructions about OpenGL in their docs. Thats a disapointment. I have been looking at OF support docs and I notice that they do give instructions on what to do if using OpenGL. So, I might try OF but I am still evaluating.
I did not mean to imply that Agon required extra effort. It was really easy to integrate. Actually it was a little easier to work with than OpenFeint for me (though they are both excellent)
I first started with Agon, and then tried OpenFeint when they got offline mode support. Agon was definitely an easier integration, but also has fewer features. It was about 15 minutes until I had my first leaderboard and achievement working. For OpenFeint it took me about an hour before I had things working. This was mostly due to the fact that the achievement notification model that worked well in Agon was not a direct match in OpenFeint. If I had not wanted to do a custom achievement pop-up it wouldn't have taken quite that long. For me the main benefit of OpenFeint is that the source code and images are all made available as part of the client distribution. If I want to tweak a little thing here or there, I can. For example, there is no public method to ask if an achievement has already been unlocked. There is, however, a private method. Since I have the source code, I just wrote a public wrapper and it worked like a charm (no pun intended ). The other benefit I see is that there are many more users and top games on OpenFeint right now. That means more opportunity for OpenFeint users to see Charmed and perhaps purchase it. I feel that the Agon guys are working really hard on catching up though, and they will make a race out of this thing. Plus+ look good, but it is far too limited a network still and is by invitation only, so I think it will be lagging behind for quite a while. Scoreloop and Geocade are two others, but I think they are really too late to the game to overcome OpenFeint and Agon. I do like the name Scoreloop though. A few other points I've noted: Agon's offline support is currently better than OpenFeint. The main reason is that they provide the ability to download and link a client package (which you include in your XCode project) that contains all the leaderboard descriptions & icons, achievement titles, descriptions and icons, and probably some other stuff. This allows it to run completely standalone until the user chooses to go online, if ever. When the user DOES go online, all achievements, and leaderboard scores are automatically synchronized to the sever. OF does that part too as I understand it, though I have not tried it. OpenFeint's achievement icons are only 44x44 which I feel is too small. I implemented my own notification popup and I use 64x64 icons there to give a better view of the achievement. Of course I have to fall back to the 44x44 icons in the OpenFeint achievement panels, but at least they get to see the nice larger one for a few seconds (maybe I can add a custom achievements page). Agon's cloud storage is definitely something I would like to see in OpenFeint. Agon doesn't have the built-in pop-ups like OpenFeint for Achievements. You must roll-your-own. I wanted to do that anyway so it was no big deal, but for some people it might matter. Many things in OpenFeint can be replaced if you write a delegate class. For example, the achievement pop-up can be turned off and replaced with your own pop-up (which I did). This is not so in Agon. OpenFeint has a better social notification interface than Agon. Agon forces you into a specific wording for high score notifications, for example. With OpenFeint you can send your own custom notifications that say anything you like. OpenFeint is more willing to let you integrate the OpenFeint icon into your game's icon and artwork in ways that make sense in your game. Agon is a bit uptight about how this should be done. Their reasoning is for better brand recognition, which makes sense, but I like openness more. In short, I feel the main benefit of OpenFeint is implied by its name. It is more Open. There is probably more I could say, but that seems like plenty now that I look back on it! I will ship my next update for Charmed with OpenFeint support, but I will keep my eye on Agon to see how things shake up in the future.
Thanks for this detailed comparison. I think I will go and check out Open Feint and test for one of my projects.
other thing to keep in mind is that OF is actively working on multiplayer support. For some people it might be really important. Agon haven't announced anything about MP yet.
