This might be more interesting to game developers rather than average users. The social gaming platform OpenXLive just released SDK version 0.9.9. You might be asking “well, what is OpenXLive anyway?” Well, here it is…
The social gaming platform, or rather “game social” as OpenXLive itself phrases it, is a new friend to Windows Phone game developers. It doesn’t offer any game to play by default, but could make your game “social”. If you are a developer, and not one of Microsoft’s certified Xbox Live gang, by employing the OpenXLive platform, you can add social features to your game conveniently.
As the name indicates, the platform is aims at becoming an alternative plan to the official Xbox Live platform. You know, not everyone could enlisted into Microsoft’s elite rank, in the special case of China (OpenXLive’s home base), there’s simply no such thing in the market called “Xbox Live” yet, for legal reasons. That’s exactly the niche for OpenXLive: providing features such as leaderboards and achievement management to developers who have no access to Xbox Live services.
The 0.9.9 version of the SDK brings new features to the table:
- In-game sharing via SNS. Currently supporting SNS platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Sina Weibo (China’s Twitter, where the real Twitter is blocked by the government firewall). More target SNS platforms coming in the next version.
- Theoretically multilingual support. The SDK currently *really* support Traditional and Simplified Chinese. However, developers are enabled and encouraged to create resources and fonts in their own languages. By creating your own language support files and sending it back to OpenXLive you will earn a place in the credits, and get a mysterious gift.
If you are a developer and interested in OpenXLive, click here to find things out on their website, it’s fully in English.
