GCHelper

GCHelper is a Swift implementation for GameKit built off of the GameKitHelper class described in this tutorial by Ali Hafizji. If you like this project, feel free to star it or watch it for updates. If you end up using it in one of your apps, I would love to hear about it! Let me know on Twitter @jackcook36.

Features

• Authenticate the user in one line of code
• Update achievements, also in one line of code
• Create a match in...
• Just about everything is do-able with just one line of code

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Installation

CocoaPods

You can add GCHelper to your project by adding it to your Podfile.

CocoaPods 0.36 adds support for libraries written in Swift through the use of embedded frameworks. To use GCHelper, it is important that you put the use_frameworks! flag in your Podfile.

source 'https://github.com/CocoaPods/Specs.git'
platform :ios, '8.0'
use_frameworks!

pod 'GCHelper', '~> 0.2'

Manually

If you prefer to not use a dependency manager, you can download GCHelper.swift and drag it into your project instead. Note that this eliminates the need to include the import statement at the top of your Swift files.

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Implementation

Authenticating the User

Before doing anything with Game Center, the user needs to be signed in. This instance is often configured in your app's application:didFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method

func application(application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [NSObject: AnyObject]?) -> Bool {
GCHelper.sharedInstance.authenticateLocalUser()
return true
}

Creating a Match

A match needs to be created in order for a multiplayer game to work.

GCHelper.sharedInstance.findMatchWithMinPlayers(2, maxPlayers: 4, viewController: self, delegate: self)

Sending Data

Once a match has been created, you can send data between players with NSData objects.

let success = GCHelper.sharedInstance.match.sendDataToAllPlayers(data, withDataMode: .Reliable, error: nil)
if !success {
println("An unknown error occured while sending data")
}

I realize that this method isn't actually provided by GCHelper, but it's definitely worth noting in here.

Report Achievement Progress

If you have created any achievements in iTunes Connect, you can access those achievements and update their progress with this method. The percent value can be set to zero or 100 if percentages aren't used for this particular achievement.

GCHelper.sharedInstance.reportAchievementIdentifier("achievementIdentifier", percent: 35.4)

Update Leaderboard Score

Similarly to achievements, if you have created a leaderboard in iTunes Connect, you can set the score for the signed in account with this method.

GCHelper.sharedInstance.reportLeaderboardIdentifier("leaderboardIdentifier", score: 87)

Show GKGameCenterViewController

GCHelper also contains a method to display Apple's GameKit interfaces. These can be used to show achievements, leaderboards, or challenges, as is defined by the use of the viewState value. In this case, self is the presenting view controller.

GCHelper.sharedInstance.showGameCenter(self, viewState: .Achievements)

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GCHelperDelegate Methods

To receive updates about the match, there are three delegate methods that you can implement in your code.

Beginning of Match

This method is fired when the match begins.

func matchStarted() {
}

End of Match

This method is fired at the end of the match, whether it is due to an error such as a player being disconnected or you actually ending the match.

func matchEnded() {
}

Receiving Data

I mentioned how to send data earlier, this is the method you would use to receive that data.

func match(match: GKMatch, didReceiveData data: NSData, fromPlayer playerID: String) {
}

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License

GCHelper is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details.