Google Play Games: The good and the bad approach

Google Play Games on Android and Apple Game Center on iOS is a really good tool for developers and gamedev companies that provides them with a powerful tools to build, analyze and retain your audience and optimize your game.

As for the game players — it allows them to share and compare their results and build their common game profile or even portfolio, by getting experience, achievements and ladder positions across many different games in the same time.

And, as with everything, this can be a base for your success or a begin to your complete failure.

Here is a quick review and compare on how game creators of two different games for Android approached this topic. And, in the same time, a very quick info on two quite different games.

Loner

First, the good example — the Loner game:

Loneliness is a kind of beauty, a quiet experience. Loner is a very simple game, no attributes, no upgrade, or even no score, what it wants to bring you, is only purely tranquillity and loneliness. Loner tells the story of a lonely journey of a pilot, in the journey, you would understand his past and his pursuit.

And for approaching game metrics, this is a quiet gem as it makes a good use of… influence and it’s most powerful tool — rule of reciprocity:

There are only five achievements, not so easy to achieve (using rule of reciprocity for the first time) plus “you never know what you gonna get”, because last two achievements remains secret until you actually get them (using rule of reciprocity for the second time). Great idea, though not so rare — it is used in many games.

Last Day on Earth: Survival

Second, the bad example — the Last Day on Earth: Survival game:

The survival shooter Last Day on Earth is set in a post apocalyptic world: in 2027 the world saw an outbreak of an unknown infection that destroyed almost all the human race. And it didn’t stop there. All those dead started turning into zombies and those few survivors that have resistance in their blood are trying to survive on the ruins of the once great world.

The game itself is quite very interesting, has a pretty good graphics and a nifty gameplay. And also offers a wide range of player support. It has a lot of movies available in YouTube and it even has a few walk-through-like applications available in Google Play.

But, as for supporting Google Play Games… a complete failure:

Now, what can a game player think about the game and their creators after finding something like this? Guys made a good game and when to sleep? They don’t give a shit about achievements, sharing experience etc.

Quite a bad message sent out into universe, don’t you think?