Google has added a range of new developer tools which will help this year’s launch of the “Play Games” platform reach new heights; with growth expected for both consumers and gaming fanatics.
The upgrades were detailed in a post on the Android Developers Blog on October 8th by Greg Hartrell – with one of the most beneficial updates being the new alerts highlighting coding issues.
In the post, Hartrell wrote: “”Forget to hit the publish button? Do you know if your game is getting throttled because you accidentally called a method in a tight loop? Fear not! New alerts will now show up in the Developer Console to warn you when these mistakes happen, and guide you quickly to the answers on how to fix them.”
Cloud Saves was one of the most appreciated additions for both developers and users as part of the platform; which allowed you not only to back-up your progress online, but also access from anywhere – including other devices.
The main limitation revolved around the amount of storage space available; which was previously 512kb of data per user, per game. After feedback, this has now been upped to 1MB (in 256kb slots.)
Play Games is clearly an important area for Google, and not just for Android. The integration of the company’s social network, Google+, is sure to be a large driver for the network which tends to be overshadowed by Facebook.
Back on the Android-side, gaming has become one of the biggest aspects of the OS; with its open-source nature even being exploited by a range of dedicated home consoles, notably, the Kickstarter-success OUYA.
Hartrell wrote: “Mobile games are on fire right now; in fact, three out of every four Android users are playing games.”
Whilst still behind Apple’s iOS in terms of amount of games; Android has been catching up fast. In fact, the OS has had a much larger growth-rate in terms of apps, which is unsurprising considering the massive marketshare.
Google Play was created in March 2012, by September 2012, Google Play had served up more than 25 billion downloads – a massive milestone in only six months.
Later this month, (rumours pointing at October 15th) Google should be launching a new version of Android in collaboration with Nestlé by the codename of “KitKat”. Whilst yet unproven, it appears one of the major enhancements will be a much-lighter OS; improving speed and even including the ability to run on older devices with lower-spec hardware.
What do you think about Google Play and the latest updates for developers?
