BURLINGAME, CA — (Marketwired) — 05/10/13 — In anticipation of Google IO, Peter Relan-s open source, open data alternative to OpenFeint, OpenKit, announced today that the cloud-based platform & service will let developers create social gaming interactions across all gaming services on mobile platforms. OpenKit plans to let developers add “smart social invites” and game data sharing across mobile platforms so that developers can leverage smart invites to detect the receiver-s device and open up discovery across iOS and Android. OpenKit, which currently has over 1,200 developers testing the service in beta, will add other cross-platform social features before June.
“With open source and open data, our mission is to remove any friction for developers using our service,” said Peter Relan who sponsored OpenFeint and now OpenKit. “We are doubling down on this theme of removing friction: recognizing that iOS and Android devices are equally prevalent amongst users, we will let them interact socially with each other across walled gardens, regardless of whether they use an Android device or iOS device, or even both. Developers will come out ahead because of frictionless sharing across iOS and Android which will lead to more downloads for their games and apps.”
OpenKit 1.0, in beta today, will offer the following services for iOS and Android developers when it goes live:
A. Universal authentication service for User IDs based on Game Center, Google-s ID system, Facebook and Twitter
B. Uniform Cloud Data Storage independent of Mobile Platform & User ID
C. Smart Invites, Social Leaderboards and Achievements Independent of User ID and Platform
D. Unity Game Engine Plug-Ins for all Features
Developers interested in creating social interactions across major mobile social gaming platforms can register at for upcoming beta releases.
“We think that both Google and Apple have done a great job supporting developers on their respective platforms, but neither company will be truly motivated to support a cross-platform ecosystem,” added OpenKit founders Suneet Shah, Lou Zell and Todd Hamilton. “We can do that while respecting both Game Center and whatever Google-s gaming service might use, and also recognizing that many users are under 13 and can-t even own a Facebook or Google+ ID.”
About OpenKit
The team of developers building OpenKit is the team that built the Joypad developer SDK adopted by over 100 developers for making tablets games remotely controllable by smartphones. OpenKit is for Android and iOS developers interested in providing Cloud Data Storage for Game State, Leaderboards, Achievements, Multiplayer Features, Push Notifications, and In-App Purchases to their games — with the freedom to host their own backend service. The source code will be made available under Apache (for client code) and AGPL (for server code) licenses. Developers planning to participate in the private beta and/or contribute to the open source project can register at .
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MEDIA CONTACT
Peter Brooks
OpenKit
415-425-4225
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