Writing Game Center Apps in iOS: Bringing Your Players Into the Game

by Vandad Nahavandipoor

Overview

Now that Apple has introduced the GameKit framework to its iOS SDK, you can integrate Game Center features directly into your iPhone and iPad apps. This concise cookbook shows you how it's done, with 18 targeted recipes for adding leaderboards, user authentication, achievements, multiplayer games, and many other features.

How do you display players' scores and achievements? How do you create Game Center accounts and add friends? Each recipe in this book includes a simple code solution you can put to work immediately, along with a detailed discussion that offers insight into why and how the recipe works.

Recipes include techniques to:

• Set up Game Center for an iOS App
• Use block objects and Grand Central Dispatch to write Game Center apps
• Authenticate a local player in Game Center
• Use iTunes Connect to create leaderboards and achievements
• Retrieve leaderboard and achievement information programmatically
• Handle players' state changes in multiplayer games

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449305659
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	05/13/2011
Pages:	76
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Vandad Nahavandipoor has developed software using Cocoa, Cocoa Touch,
Assembly, Delphi, and .NET for many years. As a staff member of a company that is a global leader in mobile money solutions in London,
he has worked with some of the world's biggest brands—such as Visa and US Bank—to deliver mobile applications to their customers.
Vandad brings an interest in management, leadership and entrepreneurship to his work, believing in the synergy that is achieved as a result of cooperation and working together in a team.

Table of Contents

Preface; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Game Center; 1.1 Introducing GCD and Block Objects; 1.2 Creating Game Center Accounts; 1.3 Setting Up Game Center for an iOS App; 1.4 Adding the Game Kit Framework; 1.5 Authenticating the Local Player in Game Center; 1.6 Retrieving the Local Player’s Information; 1.7 Adding Friends in Game Center; 1.8 Retrieving the Local Player’s Friends Information; 1.9 Creating Leaderboards in iTunes Connect; 1.10 Reporting Scores to Leaderboards; 1.11 Retrieving Leaderboards Information Programmatically; 1.12 Displaying Leaderboards to Players; 1.13 Creating Achievements in iTunes Connect; 1.14 Reporting Achievements to Game Center; 1.15 Retrieving Achievements Information Programmatically; 1.16 Displaying Achievements to Players; 1.17 Supporting Multiplayer Games and Matchmaking; 1.18 Handling Players’ State Changes in Multiplayer Games;