Enable additional features

This document covers how to configure additional Google Play games services for your Android game. If you have not done so already, make sure that you have set up Google Play games services in the Google Play Console and have sign-in working in your game before proceeding.

Configuring achievements and leaderboards

To create or edit achievements and leaderboards, navigate to the Achievements and Leaderboards setions for your game from the Google Play Console (Grow > Play Games Services > Setup and management > Achievements or Leaderboards), and then click Create achievement or Create leaderboard and fill out the corresponding form.

For more information on creating achievements and leaderboards, see the achievements and leaderboards game concepts.

Enabling Saved Games

The Saved Games service gives you a convenient way to save your players' game progression to Google's servers. Use this service if you want to retrieve player game data and allow returning players to continue playing from their last save point from any device.

Before using the Saved Games service, you must first enable it from the Google Play Console:

  1. In the Google Play Console, open the game you want to turn on Saved Games for and navigate to the Play Games Services - Configuration page (Grow > Play Games Services > Setup and management > Configuration) and select Edit properties.
  2. Turn the Saved Games option to ON.
  3. Click Save.

After performing the steps above, it may take up to 24 hours for Google Play games services to activate the Saved Games feature for your game. If you want to test the Saved Games feature immediately, manually clear the data in the Google Play Services app installed on your test device.

To clear the cached data on Android, open Settings > Apps > Google Play services, click on Manage Space, then click on Clear All Data.

For more information on using the Saved Games service, see the Saved Games game concepts.

Adding translations for your game

You can set your own translations for game details, including the display name, game description, and graphic assets. You can also specify your own translations for achievements and leaderboards that are associated with your game.

To add your own translations for game details:

  1. Select your game in Google Play Console.
  2. Navigate to the Play Games Services - Configuration page (Grow > Play Games Services > Setup and management > Configuration).
  3. Select Edit properties.
  4. Select Manage translations > Manage your own translations.
  5. Select the languages that you will provide translations for, then click Apply to confirm your selection. On the Properties page, the languages that you selected become available in the language selector.
  6. Select the language that you want to edit from the language selector, then edit the form with your translations for the display name, the description, and the graphic assets.
  7. Click Save changes to store your translated game details.

For more information on adding translations for achievements and leaderboards, see the achievements and leaderboards game concepts.

When displaying game detail, leaderboard, and achievement strings, Google Play games services uses the game-supported language that is closest to the user-requested language. For example, if the user's device language preference is set to French (Canada) (fr-CA), but the game supports only English (United States) (en-US) and French (France) (fr-FR), Google Play games services will select the fr-FR strings to display since this is the closest matching language.

Granting edit permission to other users

To edit Play Games Services settings within Play Console, you must ensure that your team has the right permissions to manage Play Game Services. See here for more information about permissions in Play Console.

Viewing and editing project settings in the Google Cloud Platform

There may be instances where you will want to view and edit your project directly in the Google Cloud Platform.

Typical scenarios include:

  • Enabling additional APIs for your project (such as Google Drive).
  • Editing the branding information for your game in the OAuth 2.0 dialog.
  • Viewing your API quota and requesting more (if necessary).
  • Editing authorized URIs or JavaScript origins in Client IDs that you've created in the past.

Viewing your project

To view your project in the Google Cloud Platform:

  1. Select a credential for your game on the Configuration page (Grow > Play Games Services > Setup and management > Configuration).
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the Authentication section and click View in Google Cloud Platform.

Adjusting API usage quotas

In the Google Cloud Platform, you can view the API usage limits currently set up for your game and the amount of quota that has been used. You can also set per-user limits to prevent an abusive user (or a buggy game client) from depleting your quota.

To view or change usage limits for your project, or to request an increase to your quota, do the following:

  1. If you don't already have a billing account for your project, then create one.
  2. Visit the Enabled APIs page of the API library in the API Console, and select an API from the list.
  3. To view and change quota-related settings, select Quotas. To view usage statistics, select Usage.

Be aware that "users" are determined based on the IP address of the client making the quota request. For instance, if all of your requests came from a single server, that server might be erroneously tagged as a single spammy user. To prevent this, you can attach a userIp=x.x.x.x argument to your API endpoint requests.

To learn more about setting per-user quotas, see the Google Cloud Platform documentation.

In addition to a per-user limit, there is an application-wide per-day limit for the Google Play games services API. Typically, you will not need to change the pre-allocated limit. However, if you anticipate a large spike in volume (for example, for an upcoming launch event), you can request for additional quota by clicking the Request more link.

Activating other APIs

When you create your client ID in the Google Play Console, the Google Play Games Services API is automatically turned on for your project. You can activate other Google APIs from the Google Cloud Platform.

To enable an API for your project, do the following:

  1. Open the API Library in the Google API Console. If prompted, select a project or create a new one. The API Library lists all available APIs, grouped by product family and popularity.
  2. If the API you want to enable isn't visible in the list, use search to find it.
  3. Select the API you want to enable, then click the Enable button.
  4. If prompted, enable billing.
  5. If prompted, accept the API's Terms of Service.

Modifying branding information

To modify the branding information (title, logo, etc.) for your game that appears in the OAuth 2.0 dialog, set the attributes in the consent screen of the Google Cloud Platform.

To set up your project's consent screen, do the following:

  1. Open the Consent Screen page in the Google API Console. If prompted, select a project or create a new one.
  2. Fill out the form and click Save.

To modify attributes related to your OAuth 2.0 client ID (web origins and redirect urls for a web app, etc.):

  1. Open the Google Play Console and navigate to your game.
  2. Select a credential for your game on the Configuration page (Grow > Play Games Services > Setup and management > Configuration).
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the Authentication section and click View in Google Cloud Platform.
  4. In the Google Cloud Platform, select your project.
  5. In the sidebar on the left, select APIs & auth. Make sure that the Google Play Games Services API status is ON in the displayed list of APIs.
  6. In the sidebar on the left, select Registered apps.
  7. Expand the OAuth 2.0 Client ID section and find the attribute to edit.