OpenKit,
an open-source social platform for mobile games, is now open to all
developers, according to co-founder Peter Relan. The service, first
announced in December, has been in private beta since earlier this year. There are apparently 1,500 developers already testing the service.
Relan previously told me
that he started OpenKit in response to the shutdown of OpenFeint, the
GREE-acquired social platform for mobile games that he co-founded.
Developers still need something like this, Relan said, and he wants to
build it in a way that’s both “good business and developer friendly.”
OpenKit’s current features include cloud storage (allowing a player
to save their game on one device and load it on another), leaderboards
and achievements, user authentication (for Facebook, Google+ and
Twitter), and plug-ins that connect games with the Unity engine. Plus,
it works on both iOS and Android, and it’s being developed as an
open-source project, so developers can always take their data elsewhere
or use the code to build their own backend service.
OpenKit isn’t live for players yet. Relan told me today that that’s
coming in a couple of months. There are more social features planned,
but he said he’s specifically waiting to integrate with the Google Games service that’s rumored for the Google I/O conference next week.
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