Professional Windows® Phone 7 Game Development: Creating Games using XNA Game Studio 4

Chapter 11. The World Outside Your Window(s)

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Understanding the concepts behind working with HTTP requests

• Creating a web service to track high scores for your game

• Building a matchmaking service for your games

• Understanding the principles behind RSS and REST service calls

In addition to the push notifications covered in Chapter 10, you will likely want to connect to other remote services. In this chapter, you will learn how to connect to (and consume) Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Representational State Transfer (REST) web services to extend the reach of your game beyond just the phone.

One key difference between a good game and a great one is the ability to compete with others. Matchmaking services give your players an opportunity to find opponents, whether by random matchups or from a friends list they can create and manage themselves. Even if your players aren't actively playing against each other at the same time, high-score boards provide an opportunity for bragging rights at the global level.

In addition to player services such as high score and matchmaking, you can consume RSS news feeds (perhaps for display in your game's Start screen) and even push information to a social medium, such as Twitter or Facebook.

Of course, your phone can do only so much. So, to make all these wonderful ideas come to life, you need to know how to use services.

CONSUMING WEB SERVICES

You may have heard people talk about using (or, more properly, consuming) XML web services ...