Messages

The GameSparks platform allows you to send messages to your players. These can be:

• In-game messages when a player is playing the game.
• Push notifications when they are not playing the game (including email if desired, via an integration with SendGrid).

This section explains how to set up and configure messages for your game.

FAQs? You can review Frequently Asked Questions about working with Messages.

Global and User Messages

Across the platform a general distinction is made between Global and User messages:

• Each message has a Global and User version and these are quite distinct messages.
• The key difference between the way Global and User versions of messages work is in the way Cloud Code attached to a message is handled:
  • When you attach Cloud Code to a Global message, the code is executed only once.
  • When you attach Cloud Code to a User Message, the code is executed for each time the message is sent to a User.
• The reason for this is to cater for differing use cases where you are deploying messages in your game. For example, take the MatchFoundMessage. Suppose you have 5 players that have entered a request for a Match. When the Match is found, each player receives a MatchFoundMessage that is a User message. You could attach some Cloud Code script to this User message and this will be executed 5 times. However, you may also want some other things to happen when the Match is found and you could attach some Cloud Code script to the Global version of the MatchFoundMessage. This Cloud Code will only be executed once.

Message Configuration

1. Navigate to Configurator > Messages.

The Messages page contains two tabs:

• Under Standard Messages, you'll see all the message types available on the platform. Many of these standard messages relate to Challenges but other categories of standard message are supported (uploads, achievements, p2p messaging).
  • For each of the Standard Messages, you can read-off the settings for sending the messages via socket, as push, and whether or not to always push.
• Under the ScriptMessage Extensions tab, you can exploit full messaging flexibility by creating your own custom messages. (See the next section).

2. To configure a standard message type, click the edit icon for a message. The page adjusts:

In this example, the AchievementEarnedMessage is shown.

3. Enter the details for the message:

• Send Via Socket - Sends the message via the Socket.
• Send As Push - Send the message as a Push Notification.
• Suppress Push On Socket Send - If message is sent via the Socket, don't send it as Push as well.
  • Any changes you make for a message for these settings will be reflected on the Standard Messages tab when you save your changes - you don't have to open edit message again to review these settings.
• Expire After (Hours) - Enter the expiry time in hours for the message. The system will attempt to send the message to recipients for this period. If a player is not connected when the message is issued and they re-connect within the expiry period, they will get the message when they re-connect. If a player does not re-connect within the expiry period, they will not get the message. (In either case, whether a player does or doesn't receive the message, this will be logged by the system.)
• Device Types - The supported device types are:
  • WP8 - Windows Phone 8
  • W8 - Windows 8
  • IOS - Apple
  • ANDROID - Google
  • KINDLE - Amazon
  • Viber

Viber Integration! Viber integration is available only on request. Please contact Viber directly requesting GameSparks integration if you are interested.

• Message Template - The message to be sent.
• Message Title - The title of the Message.
• Message Subtitle - The subtitle of the Message.
• Advanced configuration - See Step 4 below.
• Segment configuration - Click the button at the top of the create panel to configure any Segment configuration you want to apply to the message. (See section below)

4. If the standard configuration available for your push notification messages doesn't give you what you want, you can use Advanced configuration for 4 supported providers. For each of these, a JSON template editor is provided, for example iOS for Apple:

Here are some examples of the formats you can use for these providers:

• iOS for Apple - {"aps":{"badge":1,"alert":"${summary}"}}
• Kindle for Amazon - {"expiresAfter":86400,"data":{"Message":"${Summary}","Title":"${title}", "messageId":"57dbcf149f68b50583cf9ab5","SubTitle":"${subtitle}" ,"MessageCount":21}}
• Android for Google - {"tickerText" : "${summary}" , "subtitle" : "${subtitle}" , "title" : "${title}" , "messageCount" : "1" , "messageId" : "57dbcfbb9f68b50583cf9ab7"}
• Firebase Cloud Messaging - {"notification": {{"Title":"${data.title}","body": "${data.body}"}}}

Provider Documentation! Please read the relevant provider-side documentation to ensure the message format you use is valid for the receiving device.

Script Message Extensions

GameSparks allows you to create custom messages, which you can send from your Cloud Code.

1. Select the Script Message Extensions tab and click Add:

• The configuration details for a custom message are similar to standard message configuration. (See previous section )
• These Messages are uniquely identified using a Short Code.
• However the REST address is made up of "ScriptMessage_" prefixed to the Short Code you use for your custom message, for example:

• Addressing custom messages in this way safeguards against the possibility that the REST address of any standard messages added to the platform in the future will duplicate an existing custom message REST address.

Different Messages for Different Players

You can use segmentation to send players different messages:

• Click Segment to open the Segment Configuration panel and then click to Add Segment. For example, you can create a segment for French players and send these players French language versions of messages:

More Details on Segmentation? For more details on how to set up and work with segmentation, click here.