According to
Google, every 3 out of 4 Android users access Google Play, previously known as
the Android Market, on a daily basis. Google Play is a popular online
distribution platform for Android OS based applications and an online digital
media store owned by the search engine giant. Over a billion Android-based devices
are used for playing games. It is for this reason that Google Play Games and
SDK for Android, iOS, etc. have gained tremendous popularity and user-base
worldwide.
Just
like every year, this year as well the Game Developers Conference (GDC) was
held on March 17-21 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA. GDC was a huge
hit in 2014 having around 24,000 professional video game developers participating
to learn, inspire, and network for business benefits.
At
the GDC 2014, Google announced a bunch of new game developer tools and in-game
gifting codes. This may come as a big surprise to many including you, as you
might have thought the search engine giant is going to launch some new features
to upgrade the way paid content is handled in Google Play. For example, Google
is going to add or modify features of gift codes and free-to-paid application alteration
accessed by the starters.
As
a matter of fact, Google did not make any such announcements; instead at GDC it
introduced a series of new facilities for Google Play Games and such other
well-known Google products. As the Google team has said, the new features are
released to take the entire gaming experience to new heights.
Google
Play Game Development
application is going to add a number of fresh features to attract more
developers in incorporating Google Play Games in the Android and iOS-based mobile
devices. While Android got multiplayer last year, iOS users did not have that
feature until this year’s announcement.
Innovative "Game Gifts"
Feature
The
new "game gifts" feature is regarded as the most user-friendly feature
introduced this year. It will enable a gamer to send different items to their peers
within a single game network. Suppose, you are playing an adventure game then
you can choose to send another player a virtual object that can be used on a
quest. Google Game Development apps also support gifts sending via regular
player search. Google will also allow the players to send multi-player invitations
to friends who are in their Google+ circles. Google also claimed of introducing
18 new game categories in the Google Play Store to make it easier for the gamers
to select the type of games they are looking for.
Tweak of Multiplayer
Multiplayer
games are getting improved to support cross-platform playing via iOS-based
device using the Play Games Unity Plug-in and Play Games C++ SDK apps. Of
course, the mobile game developers will need to add support
for this kind of games.
Were we hoping for these new features?
To
the enthusiasts of Google Play Games, let me say one thing, the game gifts are
not tied in with an in-app billing, as billing for extra content as a per-app
basis isn't very popular among the users.
The game gifts are also not tied with regular store purchases. Now, it
is not the kind of feature we were hoping for. However, maybe the new features
are introduced to indicate more gifting-type stuffs are on the way. There will
also be a new way to integrate digital advertisements for in-app purchases into
the games.
Carrie miller is working at Zealous System that is the renowned mobile apps development company that is specializes in a wide range of mobile game development services and also has a passionate hobby to keep herself updated with recent technology news.