Cross-platform friends lists?
angry_penguin
started a topic on Thu, 09 April 2015 at 3:51 AM
One of the main reasons I'm interested in PlayFab is that my game supports half a dozen build platforms, and I'd like to use the same scoreboard service across all of them. However, I also want the scoreboards to be friend-oriented, not global.
I was pretty excited to see the various LinkXYZAccount method calls in the API, but there's no detail on what "link" actually means. All I could find on the forums is a discussion about it allowing frictionless sign-on across platforms.
What I want to know is, is there any way to get friend lists from linked accounts?
I think it's great that PlayFab seems to give us neat ways to ease players into using a PlayFab account regardless of what device they start on, but the point for me is to leverage the friends list they already have.
Best Answer
Best Answer
Brendan Vanous said on Thu, 09 April 2015 at 1:25 PM
Hi Richard,
We're always looking for ways to improve our docs, so thanks for that. The login/link docs are an are we know we need some additional work - in addition to updating the docs, we'll be posting a blog soon with some examples of how best to use the various authentication systems.
The quick answer is that the link functionality attaches authentication methods to the player account. So, a single player account could be enabled for sign-in via username/password, email/password, Android/iOS Device ID, Google, Facebook, and Steam (and we'll be adding more - if there's one you particularly need, please let us know).
For friends, we have our own friend list built into PlayFab, which you can use to manage friends the player connects to during play. In addition, we have integration with both Steam and Facebook friends lists, allowing you to add them to the list retrieved.
In addition, our statistics/leaderboard system (each statistic written for players in your game generates a distinct leaderboard) allows you to query by position in the leaderboard, the cluster (in score) around the current user, or by friends (as well as simply querying player statistics directly).
Brendan
3 Comments
Brendan Vanous said on Thu, 09 April 2015 at 1:25 PM
Hi Richard,
We're always looking for ways to improve our docs, so thanks for that. The login/link docs are an are we know we need some additional work - in addition to updating the docs, we'll be posting a blog soon with some examples of how best to use the various authentication systems.
The quick answer is that the link functionality attaches authentication methods to the player account. So, a single player account could be enabled for sign-in via username/password, email/password, Android/iOS Device ID, Google, Facebook, and Steam (and we'll be adding more - if there's one you particularly need, please let us know).
For friends, we have our own friend list built into PlayFab, which you can use to manage friends the player connects to during play. In addition, we have integration with both Steam and Facebook friends lists, allowing you to add them to the list retrieved.
In addition, our statistics/leaderboard system (each statistic written for players in your game generates a distinct leaderboard) allows you to query by position in the leaderboard, the cluster (in score) around the current user, or by friends (as well as simply querying player statistics directly).
Brendan
angry_penguin said on Thu, 09 April 2015 at 3:28 PM
Ok, is there a way for me to add friends to a user's PlayFab account based on, say, their GameCenter friends?
Brendan Vanous said on Thu, 09 April 2015 at 6:53 PM
Hi again,
We will be updating in the near future to improve our Game Center integration, one aspect of which is friends integration. We're actually going to remove the Game Center login/link API calls temporarily (don't worry if you're using them now - they won't break, we're just hiding them from the docs), in preparation for this update. If this is a key feature you need for shipping, please be sure to work with us via the devrel@playfab.com alias, so that we can get your integration dates.
Brendan
