Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games Preview Released

Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games allows you to quickly start creating social games on the Windows Azure platform. The market for social games is constantly growing and becoming more and more specialized. The eMarketer agency predicts that in 2011 revenues in this market will increase to 1.32 billion dollars (in 2010, it was 856 million dollars).



In order to quickly enter this attractive market for developers, as part of a set of tools for developers - Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Gameslibraries, development tools, and code examples are included that can be used to create your own game, both in .NET and in HTML5. This toolkit for developers includes support for functions such as storing user profiles, managing “message boards”, the ability to purchase directly from the game, etc.

The main components of the Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games are:

Server APIs- a set of services that simplify the creation of the game and support such functionality as achievements (achievements), virtual items (virtual goods), in-app purchases directly from the game, real-time communications and leaderboards. based on the JSON REST protocol and can be used on any client device that supports HTML5 - both on the phone and on the tablet computer. The following software interfaces are currently supported:

• Weapons - the ability to control users' weapons and their composition. Software interfaces allow you to store and manage such weapons details, such as power
• Gifts (Gifts) - the ability to send gifts to other players. Gifts can be free, or require a certain number of points / credit
• Virtual money and resources (Virtual Currency & Resources) - the ability to manage the money and resources of players. Support for the possibility of acquiring additional virtual money during the game
• Achievements - rewards and tracking achievements related to the passage of the game
• User Accounts - the ability to manage user accounts and link these accounts to Windows Live ID, Facebook, etc.
• Notifications - the ability to send notifications to users
• Real-time communication - the ability for users to exchange messages during the game
• Session / Game Management - the ability to start and stop a multiplayer game

HTML5 Libraries

• Artificial Intelligence - emulating users in practice mode or including emulated users in a real game
• Animations
• Utilities
• Server communications

Test Client application - a tool for simple verification of game software interfaces without the need to create a full-fledged client application. The test application allows developers and testers to send teams to test the developed game. In addition, a test application helps JavaScript developers test integration mechanisms.

Example of the game - in the Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games is enabled game Tanskter , designed by Grant Skinner's team ( by Grant Skinner ). This game is developed in HTML5 and comes with source server code that can be reused by developers. Requirements







Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express or Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
Internet Information Services 7, with the ASP.NET
Windows Azure SDK option turned on and Tools for Visual Studio (March 2011) version 1.4
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (Express Edition or later) )
Windows Identity Foundation Runtime

How to Start Using the Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games