My new understanding of Android, Amazon, Gamecircle, and Leaderboards in general

stueynet

I have been spending days trying to figure all this out. Countless error:null issues and simply not getting it. So now I think I get it and I want to share my knowledge.

So part of the confusion came because as a PRO user, I have the option to publish to Android OR Kindle. I did not understand that this is simply part of a promotion and that when you publish to Amazon, you can use the exact same APK you use for publishing to Google Play. So thats the first thing.

Next... leaderboards

Amazon has its own service system called GameCircle that handles leaderboards, achievements, in app purchases etc... This is different from Google Plays own service. Totally separate. In fact Gamesalad does not support Google's service so you can't integrate with it anyway. However, you CAN integrate with Amazon GameCircle which if you follow the cookbook, you should have no problem doing. (http://cookbook.gamesalad.com/tutorials/4/parts/62)

So I figured ok this means that only when people download my game form the Amazon app store will they get the leaderboard features. Not true. In fact, GameCircle is supported on any Android build of your game regardless of where the user downloaded it from. See this article: http://www.droidgamers.com/index.php/apps/6330-amazon-extends-their-gamecircle-service-to-all-android-devices-not-just-their-own.

So you can simply generate the APK with Amazon enabled in your Android tab (PRO only), set up the GameCircle settings in your Amazon developer account, then publish the same APK to both Amazon AND Google Play.

So basically you will end up with people that have downloaded the app from Amazon App store, Google play store, but they will all be using your leaderboards and achievements that you set up within Amazon GameCircle.

Hope this helps. If I am way off please somebody chime in.

jigglybean

Have you tried this yourself? Because if you don't get 'invalid API key', I sure would like to know what you've done differently. Even for those using the Android APK files.

stueynet

Yes I have tried it in Beta in Google play. I am still testing the beta build so I have not pushed it to production but it runs fine. I am using a slow Nexus S. Works perfectly as far as I can tell. The only issue is that Amazon GameCircle runs crappily on my Android test device. To recap what I've done:

• Have a developer account and published app on Amazon
• Set up Game circle on Amazon
• Grab the MD5 hash from my android keystore
• Use said hash to create the security certificates in Amazon
• Create leaderboards and achievements in amazon (and of course have them set up in GS)
• Publish game
• Go to services -> Amazon tab in the GS publisher and ensure you have the key pasted in from Amazon to BOTH Android and Kindle
• Go to Android build tab and check off leaderboards and achievements
• Build and sign the APK with the keystore you used to generate the Android keys above
• Uploaded it to Beta

Again I have not done it on production but AFAIK the beta is identical except it is restricted only to devices belonging to users in your beta group.

rdlew2008

I think what people do not understand about amazon is that you have to have the app approved by amazon in order to use their services and get the sku you made to work.( i think thats what it is)

However, they have a app that you can install on your device to test these services(inapp and game circle stuff) to make sure they work before you submit them to amazon for review.

Otherwise it just wont work.

It would be nice if this was in the cook book. With big bold letters saying USE THE APP or SUBMIT YOUR APP FOR APPROVAL.

It says it on amazon that your sku will not work until your app is approved.

Agent Argyle

Does the amazon app need to be published in the amazon app store for the GameCircle leaderboards and achievements to work from Google Play apps?