The Complete Guide to Game Center on iOS

Posted 09/13/2010 at 12:52pm | by Cory Bohon

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With iOS 4.1, Apple released a completely new social gaming platform for the iPhone, iPod touch and in November, the iPad called Game Center. Game Center is the mobile equivalent of Nintendo’s Wii Network Play, Xbox Live, or Playstation Network. When you download games that have been designed to support Game Center, you can interact with leaderboards, special per-game achievements, and even multiplayer support complete with VoIP.

What Games Support Game Center?

Because Game Center just launched, finding games that have support for Game Center is pretty spotty at this point. There are more games being added every day, and we’re sure that Apple is hard at work approving as many games as fast as they can.

In the meantime, you can check the list of Game Center game features that we’ve compiled. For the latest releases, you can check Apple’s Game Center listing on iTunes.

Creating a Game Center Account

In order to take advantage of all the goodness Game Center has to offer, you’ll need to create an account. You can use the Apple ID you may already have, but you’ll need to add more information to your account, including a Game Center username.

When you first launch the Game Center application, you’ll be prompted to either sign in using your existing Apple ID, or create a new one. We’ll choose to create a new one.

Click images to embiggen.

 First you’ll be asked for your location. Select your country, then tap next in the top-right corner.

Add your date of birth.This is probably used to keep the kids away from any zombie hunting games with copious amounts of gore.

The Game Center agreement is long, seven pages long, either call up your lawyer, brew yourself some coffee for a long read or tap the Agree button at the bottom of the page.

Next in the account setup is to type in your full name, email address, password, and a secret question and answer. You’ll also be given an option at the bottom of the screen to be emailed about new Apple announcements. When you’re finished giving Apple more personal information, tap next.

Finally, on the last screen, you’ll be asked for your Game Center nickname. This will be the name your friends will see when they request to be your friend, or when they play you in games. If you want to get the most from Game Center, make sure Allow Game Invites is switched to ON. This will send you an alert anytime someone requests to be your friend or wants to play a game in Game Center.

The last option will allow you to specify email accounts that friends can use to find you by. You can turn this off if you don’t want to use it. You can also come back to this option later if you don’t want to add email address right now.

After you click next, you’ll have created your very own Game Center account. You will automatically be logged in and presented with your “Me” screen.

The “Me” Screen

The Me screen is the central part of Game Center. It gives you a quick overview of how many friends you have, how many Game Center-compatible games you have played, and how many achievements you’ve earned. In addition, you can set your current status. This is a message that will be displayed for all of your friends to see. It may be the current game you’re playing, whether or not you have time to play a game, or what you ate for dinner.

NEXT>> Managing Friends