Google introduces multiplayer Android gaming APIs

PanARMENIAN.Net - Google has introduced new APIs to help developers build better games for its Android OS, PCWorld reports.

The announcements were made at the start of Google I/O, which kicked off in San Francisco on Wednesday, May 15.

The APIs (application programming interfaces) include Cloud Save, which will save information about how far a player has advanced through a game, said Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president for Android and Chrome.

That means if players finish Level 1 on their smartphones and then pick up their Android tablets, they'll be able to resume Level 2 without needing to do anything.

It also launched APIs to help developers build multiplayer games for playing across Android devices. They'll make it easier for players to find opponents to play against -- either friends on Google+ or people they don't know who are looking for an opponent, Pichai said.

Google will handle the back-end connections to keep the players connected over a wireless network.

It's also introducing a leader board for Google+ to encourage "friendly competition."

Google said there have now been 900 million Android device activations, up from 400 million at last year's I/O.