Google Play Game Services unveiled

Google has announced Google Play Game Services at its ongoing Google I/O event. The Google Play game services includes a bunch of new APIs that facilitate gaming on Android devices. The new APIs include Cloud Saves, Achievements, Leaderboards and Multiplayer Matchmaking

Cloud Saves essentially lets games store game save files to the cloud. This allows one to, say, play a game up to level 3 on their phone and then later continue it on their tablet by starting at level 4. This also stores your game save files in case you might uninstall the game and decide to reinstall it later.

Google Play Game Services will push Android gaming further ahead

Achievements follow the gaming trend of including achievements in games. Android games will get achievements to gauge progress through a game or, in some cases, even skill in a game. This allows you to show off beating a certain boss through an achievement.

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Leaderboards save your score on global and local leaderboards. These leaderboards are based on Google+ and will show you the scoreboards either among your friends, or on a global scale. Google has announced that both Achievements and Leaderboards will be cross-platform.

Last is Multiplayer Matchmaking, which allows to set up synchronous multiplayer games easily using Google’s own servers. This is again based on Google+, where you can challenge any of your friends to multiplayer matches.

The first few games that will have these capabilities include Super Stickman Golf 2, World of Goo, Beach Buggy Blitz, Kingdom Rush, Eternity Warriors 2 and Osmos. Riptide GP2, a game demoed by Google, will be making its way to Google Play later this year.