How to share links or texts between players or desktop?

[NonostanteGames]

Hello, I'm the dev of ERMO, one of the brand new Xbox Live creator collection games.

I'm struggling to solve this "sharing issue".

The game has the "not-working" feature to share levels you completed with friends, challenging them to solve on their own. Usually this is done by a link or something similar. But I really don't know how to achieve that, as it seems there's no copy/paste or sharing functionaly.

On windows (or mobile) it works fine, you click "share" and sent to out a message with a link. One clicks on the link, It will open the game right to level screen. For example with this LINK you get the idea (need ERMO installed).

In addition, some players asked me for a level editor (which I'm building), but I really don't know how to send or share the created levels. A player can create levels, but how can send them to others? Or, another scenario, one creates a level on desktop via browser, gets a file or a link, and then what? How to put that on Xbox?

Maybe this cannot be done on Xbox, but maybe some of you have found a way to share "stuff" between players or "desktop --> xbox".

 

[DOGC_Kyle]

I don't know if the Xbox supports protocols/URIs to launch apps...
Try opening the following link on your Xbox: skype:echo123?call (it should open the Skype UWP app and prompt to start a call). If that doesn't work, you'd probly have to put level selection into the game itself, instead of using links.

The Windows built-in Share option (introduced in Windows 8, recently got a new UI in Creators Update), is not supported on Xbox, so you'd need some alternate UI to send the link from the Xbox. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/extension-sdks/uwp-limitations-on-xbox

Also of course if you're using links to access user-created levels, you'll need some way to upload/download those levels from your own server, unless you store the level in a file and have users share those files manually (but then they could only be shared via email/skype/file sharing, not ideal).

The Xbox does have a file explorer (user folders should be accessible to apps in the same way as on PC), so you could allow the user to download files and then select it from a file picker in your app. Ideally though, it'd be best to keep it in the app itself, rather than having users go to a website.


Aside from everything I've said though, my personal recommendation is to have levels stored on your own server, and downloaded/uploaded entirely from within the game. That would eliminate the need for users to share links/files to download levels altogether. Having links to immediately launch the game to a particular level is a cool idea, but ideally it should be easy enough to find those levels in-game, that a link is not necessary.

 

[NonostanteGames]

Protocol activation doens't work on Xbox, and there's no share api though.

I don't need a server, because a level is just a code, although, a big one, like WEAQgJEPmZGQmGA. Hypothetically, if you insert that code ingame, it will work, but it's not an experience I would pursue : )

Hence, I use links with these codes embedded, and Windows, iOS and Android recognize the link and open the game straight to the level. So the link doesn't point anywhere, the link itself is the content.

This grants me many advantages: no server, easy sharing, easy content creation and so on...

I need a way, a reasonable way, to bring that code on the xbox.
Or maybe I have to give up...

 

[DOGC_Kyle]

Ah okay, so you can generate the level with that code. Yeah, that's much simpler to work with.


Still, I think the easiest way is to have some sort of online features in the game itself, where you can find codes and play that level, without leaving the game to get the code somewhere else. Load a list of codes from a webserver, display the list in the game's menus, and let the user select from that list.

Since it's a universal app, you could also maybe have users find codes on PC/mobile (since you already have that working) and save them into the game, then sync that so it's automatically saved when they go on the Xbox.
So basically, open a level on PC/mobile (from link or whatever other methods you may have), then when the game opens, the user has the option to play now, or save it for later. If they save it for later, they can access that level code from any of their devices.