MARCH 25, 2013 • Ready for exposure at this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is a new open source backend-as-a-service platform for mobile phones and tablets called OpenKit. When GREE Intl., Inc. decided to shut down the OpenFeint social mobile platform last November it only gave developers one month’s notice to convert their games to run on the GREE Platform. Many studios instead decided to rip support for OpenFeint leaderboards, in-app purchases, and notification pushing out of their titles. In some cases that drastic course was necessary since some games would not run properly without access to OpenFeint servers. During this process some of these developers got in contact with Peter Relan, one of OpenFeint’s co-founders, looking for an alternative to GREE. Out of those conversations came OpenKit. When OpenFeint was shut down any cloud stored game data was deleted. So OpenKit has been designed as an open source project to make sure development studios have a platform to both manage their app data, and always have access to it. Since the project got started last December, developers have suggested what they need most is a synced cloud services platform for iOS, Android and Unity, as well as assistance migrating from OpenFeint to OpenKit. The business model calls for the OpenKit SDK to be free, with distinct add-on services available for a fee.
Impact: As mobile game studios are often small operations without deep pockets or large teams, an open source, pay-as-you-go social cloud platform makes a lot of sense. These developers need a solid way to sync data and achievements from the same titles played on different platforms, and store that data in the cloud. Beyond stable functionality, as an open source platform, no one is going to rip OpenKit away. Even if OpenKit should suddenly disappear as an organization, studios using the SDK can conceivably manage their own cloud services and data integration on their own. GREE dismantling OpenFeint in the way that it did last year only accentuated the need that OpenKit has risen to fill. The addition of Unity support is also extremely welcome. Unity has become the platform of choice for many developers bringing high-end graphical quality to browser games. Being able to sync data between the same titles on browsers, smartphones and tablets on the same platform should prove immensely popular.
