I have released a game that uses Google Game Services on Google Play. Everything works, but when I look on my game in Google Play it doesn't show that it's using Game Services. Some other games do (like Riptide GP for instance). What is controlling this?
Implementing the Google Play Game Services features is not sufficient, your users have to use the service for you to get the badges.
Let me quote from this video from Google I/O 2013: Practical Android Games Development
http://youtu.be/ZbQWf7C5ymU?t=23m39s
"As you get more users you will get badges. [...] However, they are not just given out because you put them in the config, and we don't snoop your APK to see if you are making API calls from there. We verify how much the feature is being used and if you meet certain threshold we give you a badge. So you need to actually integrate it, it is not a token thing that you can put there to get more eyeballs in the store."
Related
Is it somehow possible to set the public leaderboard to be the default one.
I am talking about the option when you show your leaderboard where is like
Social - All
I cannot find any option in Playstore's Game Services.
At this stage the API getLeaderboardIntent() does not allow you to set the filter for the leaderboard at launch. It is probably a workflow that is enforced by Google to promote adding friends to your G+ circles, but it makes for a really crappy experience when the player is the entry in their social leaderboard.
Hopefully this is made more flexible in a future update to play services.
Ok this sounds weird. Google play games was made for games. And it is excellent. Achievements, cloud save, etc.
Now my app is NOT a game. But it is well documented and researched that turning chores/work/etc into games, makes them more fun, and people more likely to want to do them.
And this is what I want to do for my app. I cant add it to the games section, as it is a productivity/utility app. Yet I would like to add achievements,etc to it. And seeing as Google Play Games services already has some of the functionality i need, i thought i could use it. However, it seems that your app must be a game to use it.
Any one know if you can actually use the services with non games?
It's technically possible but in circumstances where you are using the services in an app, be careful because if your app doesn't meet the branding requirements, it can be pulled from the Play store as described in the Google Play Games Services terms of service.
So long as you can follow the Google Play Games Services Branding Guidelines you should be fine.
Yes, you can. The Google staff speaking in an event yesterday in the Google Campus London actually said this.
For examples of already existing popular such apps, checkout Memrise which is a gamified way to learn languages. It sits in "Education" App category and it has leaderboards and achievements in it, though not sure if its GPG or their own implementation of it.
Is it possible to implement rating system for in-game objects (just like app rating in google play store) using Google Play Game Services API?
I never used it before and didn't find suitable chapter, but may be it has low level API for such things.
Or may be Leaderboard API can be used somehow.
Check out RatingBar. It is not part of the Google Play Games Services API, but it will allow you to implement a star rating system.
I have an app a productivity app Raise The Bar that allows "Users to level up their life". I am trying to incorporate more game aspects into the application, achievements being one of them. Is there any requirements for an app to use Google's game services in particular Achievements. I don't want to implement it just to find out that it doesn't get approved. Any experiences or links to information is greatly appreciated!
There is no approval process for using Google Play Games and other examples (such as Pedometer) which are not 'games' per se that are using Google Play Games Achievements/Leaderboards.
There are several "simple" apps on the play store using the service.
Check out the official google play service Terms of Service.
Section 1 entails the content policies
"Section 1 Developer Content Policies:
You agree to comply with the Google+ Platform Developer Policies set forth at http://developers.google.com/+/policies and the Google Play content policies set forth at http://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy.html (or other such URLs as Google may provide for this purpose from time to time).
The content of your API Client, including any content supplied by your users or other content providers, must follow the Google+ User Content and Conduct Policy at http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/policy/content.html. "
You'll realize there's nothing like "Your software application must be a sophisticated video game with high intensive graphics using OpenGL ES 3.0"
Is it possible to reset achievements for an android application using oauth playground? I have used it in the past to reset achievements for a web application but don't know how to do it for an android application. I have the android application google game services configuration setup and running but would like to give a method to testers for reseting their achievements out of the android application.
Thanks in advance.
I'm actually going to recommend you try something completely different. The Play Games team just released a new set of management tools that provides a web interface for you to interact with the games management REST APIs, including being able to reset your achievements. You can find them here, along with some instructions about how to use them.
Please note that as part of the setup process, you're going to need to go to the Play Developer Console, jump into your game, create a linked web app, and then use that linked web app's Client ID as the Client ID you enter into the management tools.