A preliminary version of Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games has been released.

Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games allows you to quickly start creating social games on the Windows Azure platform. The social games market is constantly growing and becoming more and more profile. EMarketer predicts that in 2011 revenues in this market will increase to $ 1.32 billion (in 2010 it was $ 856 million).



In order to quickly enter this attractive for developers market, the Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games toolkit for developers includes libraries, development tools and code samples, based on which you can create your own game — both on .NET and on HTML5. This toolkit for developers includes support for features such as storing user profiles, managing “bulletin boards”, the ability to purchase directly from the game, etc.
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The main components of Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games are:

Server software interfaces (Server APIs) - a set of services that simplify game creation and support such functionality as achievements, virtual goods (virtual goods), in-app purchases, real-time communication and leadership boards ads (leaderboards). These services are based on the JSON REST protocol and can be used on any client device that supports HTML5 - both on the phone and on the tablet computer. The following software interfaces are currently supported:

• Weapons (Weapons) - the ability to control the weapons of users and their composition. Software interfaces allow you to store and manage weapons such as, for example, power
• Gifts (Gifts) - the ability to send gifts to other players. Gifts can be free or require a certain number of points / credit
• Virtual money and resources (Virtual Currency & Resources) - the ability to manage money and resources of players. Support the possibility of acquiring additional virtual money in the game
• Achievements (Achievements) - awards and tracking achievements related to the passage of the game
• User Accounts - the ability to manage user accounts and link these accounts to Windows Live ID, Facebook, etc. accounts.
• Notifications (Notifications) - the ability to send notifications to users
• Real-time communication (real-time communication) - the ability for users to exchange messages during the game
• Session / Game Management (Session / Game Management) - the ability to start and stop multiplayer games

HTML5 Libraries

• Artificial intelligence - emulation of users in practice mode or the inclusion of emulated users in the real game
• Animations
• Utilities
• Server communications

Test Client application (Test Client) is a tool for simple testing of game program interfaces without the need to create a full-fledged client application. The test application allows developers and testers to send teams to test the developed game. In addition, a test application helps JavaScript developers test integration mechanisms.

An example of the game - in Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games, the Tanskter game developed by the Grant Skinner team was included.



This game is developed in HTML5 and comes with source server code that can be reused by developers.

Requirements

Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express or Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0
Internet Information Services 7, with the ASP.NET option enabled
Windows Azure SDK and Tools for Visual Studio (March 2011) version 1.4
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (Express edition or higher)
Windows Identity Foundation Runtime

How to start using Windows Azure Toolkit for Social Games