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Leaderboards!!! :D Blog
20th March 2014
.. Sorry, I haven't suddenly added them.
Instead, I've made this post in the hopes of starting a discussion on the feasibility of adding scoreboards to future AGameAWeek titles.
It's something I've attempted in the past, and old versions of Microbes, Spider and others still kind-of, mostly, sort of work.
But there's a few issues that are stopping me from integrating it into the current framework.

-=-=-

First, and most importantly, is the fact that I've not left any space on the default titlescreen for an online leaderboard. This is a rather silly ommision, but it's one that I got by without dealing with, simply because GameCenter kinda does it's own thing. In my iOS games, it's a great big button that you push, that opens up the GameCenter display, and that takes over everything.
IMO, it's quite a neat way of doing it, and alongside GameCenter handling identities, and other stuff, it's a really nice way to get it all working.
As far as I'm concerned, the iOS editions of my games are absolutely the pick of the bunch.

Anyhoo, if I want to add my own tables, I'm going to have to replace the simple GameCenter icon with my own little leaderboard icon. This would then probably lead into a simple table with your score being displayed amongst the current top-10-or-so.
I'll need to account for Gamepad controls, Mouse controls, Touchscreen controls, and Keyboard controls. ugh.. I hate doing GUI stuff when thinking Multiplatform!!

With that done, I'd then need to start thinking about the other end of the scoreboard.. The player's name!
I'm not sure I can use the OS to simply grab a name for the player. That would be fantastic if I could, but when you have PC and HTML targets to contend with, it all gets a little bit messier, and much less predictable.
Secondly, I'd have to allow some sort of input method to enter your name. Where this would be, how complicated it would be, and how secure it is will be difficult to keep track of.
In my older games (these ones) I used to popup a little "Enter your name!" after every play, but.. .. That got old, fast! I hated the fact that EVERY SINGLE TIME it asked you for your name.
As such, my current framework doesn't EVER ask you for a name, and without a name, there's not much point in an online leaderboard. D'oh!
So, I'm currently trying to decide how best to handle this. Whether it be a simple occasional popup, or something that only appears if you try to access the online leaderboard list. I'm not sure.

Also, I'd need to think about limits to the player's name. The arcade-style "Three Letters" seems most obvious, so the player isn't tap-tap-tap-tap-tapping on their game-controller, trying to edit their 64 chr name!

All of this leads up to the inevitable "Account" issue, and if I'm being completely honest, I'd much prefer not having to deal with all of that sort of thing. It's nice that my framework can handle things like Badges and things, but having to have some kind of Log-in feature inside each and every single game, seems like a bit of overkill.

There's an awful lot of things to think about before I start on this part of the project. Hopefully I can figure some of the bits and pieces out shortly.
If you've any thoughts or suggestions on the subject, pop them below, and we'll see where it goes from here.

Thanks for reading my waffling rambling post
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