Terminology

What does Scoreloop offer?

Scoreloop provides an API and the server infrastructure to store high scores and other game data that is used to interact with other users.

You can use Scoreloop to generate leaderboards based on global high-scores,the difficulty settings of a game, or a user's location.

What is a mode? Leaderboards are generated per mode. If your game does not have multiple modes, it defaults to Mode 0. Additional modes may be configured for different gameplay settings, such as difficulty or speed. A game might support a range of different modes, for example, easy/normal/hard or slow/medium/fast. Different versions of your game can have different ranges of modes.

What is a level? Levels refer to different game stages. They are optional game properties that you can configure and use to compare scores. If a game supports them, levels usually start at 1.

Who is a user? Users are game players. Devices are tied to a single user. User identities are shared across all Scoreloop games. For example, when a user changes their name from "Super Lander" in our Buglanding demo application to "Master Puzzler" in a fictional crossword puzzle application, the user name would be changed in Buglanding and also in the crossword puzzle app and all of the associated scores.

What is a score? A score in Scoreloop is not only the bare-bones number that a user attains at the end of a game, but a model object with the following members:

  • A result (the primary result obtained by playing your game)

  • A mode (default mode 0 present, additional modes optional)

  • An optional minorResult (a secondary result)

  • An optional level (see "What is a level?" above)

  • An associated user

  • An optional context (additional metadata)

You can set up any combination of result, minorResult, and level for sorting on https://developer.scoreloop.com.

The score formatting on the community website can also be customized on the developer website by using the Score Formatter. Only the user's highest score is shown in each leaderboard.

What is in-game currency (and what is the balance)?

Every Scoreloop game has its own specific in-game currency. A single unit of currency consists of 100 cents. Units of in-game currency are used as the stake in Scoreloop challenges. Users can obtain currency in the following ways:

  • The first time they start playing a game (if the game is configured this way)

  • When they win a challenge

  • When they unlock an award

A user's balance refers to the amount of in-game currency that they currently have.

What are awards and achievements?

Your game might support awards, which are target states in your game that a user can attain. Achievements are rewards that are unlocked during gameplay. Awards are specified by the sl_awards_bundle.zip file, which you download from the developer website and add to your game project. This .zip file is available from the Scoreloop website https://developer.scoreloop.com. Awards are optional.