Suggestions about multiplayer game development on iOS and Android? [closed]

Question

I'm working on a simple game to experience the multiplayer game development on mobile plaforms especially on Android and iOS. I'm now planning network/multiplayer side of the game and need some advice.

Firstly i think about Google App Engine as the server side of the game. But i learned that app engine cannot connect directly to clients. So updates of the users cannot be send to others directly with this method. Then i started to think about serving the game on one of the gamers of the current session. But of course some of the features will be on the server. You think it is a good idea?

Second, I'm looking for a protocol to communicate iOS and Android. YAML and JSON are the ones i looked so far.

Any other suggestions about multiplayer game development would be appreciated. Thanks...

Answer 1

Free solutions:

1. Market leader: http://openfeint.com/developers (>40,000,000 Users)
2. Scoreloop: http://www.scoreloop.com/

Out of the box solutions:

1. Photon by Exit Games: http://www.exitgames.com/
2. Elektrotank http://www.electrotank.com/
3. Smartfox: http://www.smartfoxserver.com/

It would be pretty pointless to develop a solution on your own (assuming you want to earn money).