AURORA FEINT MAKERS UNVEIL SOCIAL PLATFORM FOR IPHONE INDIE DEVS
It’s no great secret that the iPhone’s game selection has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past few months, but we are a bit lonely out there, aren’t we? Maybe not so much any more, though, as Aurora Feint, makers of the iPhone puzzler/RPG, um, Aurora Feint, have sent word that they’ve launched OpenFeint, a new social platform specifically geared toward indie iPhone devs.
Now available for private beta, Feint will host the server (which they say is “compatible with Google’s OpenSocial REST API and is accessible through the OpenFeint Client code library and sample UI code”), and are planning to keep the platform free for developers up to an unspecified “limited” number of concurrent clients, with a pricing tier beyond that expected in March when the product goes live.
Here’s what you get:
— Profiles: Players can upload any avatar photo or one from their phone’s camera
— Walls: Each player gets a wall where other players can leave comments and view wall-to-wall conversations
— Asynchronous Real-Time Chat: Game-specific chat rooms for meeting other players, sharing tips, strategies and experiences within each game community
— Friends List: Players can friend other players within their game community or across the gaming community
— Newsfeeds: Players can keep in touch with all of their friends’ activities (wall comments, actions in games, befriending people)
— Global Community Chat: Game-independent rooms for players to discuss recommendations, tips, and experiences on other games
The platform comes nipping at the heels of Trism dev Steve Demeter’s plans for Onyx Online (aka his plan to “save the App Store“), though Demeter’s plans go beyond providing chat and friend links and have their sights set on recreating as much Xbox Live functionality as possible over the device (see more about this via his PowerPoint presentation), and more sociability versus less is always a good thing.
OpenFeint [Aurora Feint]
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