I have decided to remove OpenFeint from the next release of Pawns! for iOS.

This is not something I do lightly. I have several meaty blog posts about how to integrate OpenFeint into your Unity iOS game (here, here, and here), and I thought it was well worth the effort.

Unfortunately, continuing to use the old OpenFeint 2.7.5 SDK, the one I’m familiar with, is not an option in the long run. As many developers are aware, Apple is phasing out use of the UDID that OpenFeint used to rely on. Eventually Apple will release a version of iOS that removes the UDID entirely, breaking Pawn’s OpenFeint features (and possible the game itself.)

To work around this OpenFeint requires a two-phase migration. First we must upgrade to SDK 2.12.7, which acts as a bridge between earlier UDID-based SDK’s and future ones. This will migrate your OpenFeint users off the UDID, assuming they run your game at least once. Then you must upgrade the SDK again when the UDID is phased out for good.

As usual, OpenFeint’s Unity plugin is lagging their SDK. They seem to be hard at work on fixing the problems– this thread in the OpenFeint developer forums is a good one to watch. But all this has led me to review the benefits I did and didn’t get by adding OpenFeint:

• I never saw a sales bump from adding OpenFeint. Other developers have reported a similar experience. Your mileage may vary.
• OpenFeint gave us Achievements across all iOS versions. But most players have moved on to iOS 4 now, which has GameCenter.
• Unity now has a built-in API for basic GameCenter features. It doesn’t require editing the Xcode project that Unity generates.

Naturally there are some downsides to my decision.

• Game Center lacks dashboard metrics to let me (the developer) know things like how many players have earned each achievement. OpenFeint has this. However, this isn’t critical and I am looking into alternatives.
• I will be losing access to some OpenFeint features I’m not currently taking advantage of, such as in-game forums and challenges (but apparently many of these aren’t yet supported by the beta Unity plugin anyway.)
• OpenFeint of course supports more platforms than Game Center.
• OpenFeint gives players ways to share their Pawns achievements to social media, and Game Center doesn’t.

My decision comes down to the fact that it’s easier for me to rip OpenFeint out than to upgrade to their new SDK. I may revisit this decision in the future, after the UDID issue is settled, and/or if I write a new game with different requirements than Pawns.