1) It makes user management stupid-simple. I can authenticate with Facebook/Twitter/signup easily (not that it's really that hard, but still), and the user info is automatically saved to the cloud.
2) I then use it to store game state, retrieve a list of active games/previous games.
3) Push notifications are really easy. Each client opens a "channel", and the other client sends a push to their opponent's channel after their turn is complete.
I suppose I should clarify that I am building a turn-based iPad game, where the game state needs to be stored between turns.
(I was going to write you offline but you do not have an email associated with your HN account.)
I too am developing a turn-based iOS game using Parse. I've found the entire process to be painless. It's a shame Game Center's turn-based API has so many issues [1]
Perhaps if iOS 6 is announced at WWDC some of these Game Center issues will be included? For now it's easy enough on Parse to do the equivalent work "by hand".
1) It makes user management stupid-simple. I can authenticate with Facebook/Twitter/signup easily (not that it's really that hard, but still), and the user info is automatically saved to the cloud.
2) I then use it to store game state, retrieve a list of active games/previous games.
3) Push notifications are really easy. Each client opens a "channel", and the other client sends a push to their opponent's channel after their turn is complete.
I suppose I should clarify that I am building a turn-based iPad game, where the game state needs to be stored between turns.