To Infinity...
In keeping with our concept of PlayXpert as a platform, PlayXpert aims to offer the developer an assortment of tools and game-related information. PlayXpert widget developers have access to the entire .NET framework, so they can call on all of the services they are familiar with. In addition, PlayXpert currently offers simple gaming-related services, such as the ability to see if the user is in-game or out-of-game, what game they are playing, what friends are doing, and related widgets that are being used (to name a few).
Another important facility in the API is the ability to store widget settings on behalf of the developer. This means that any configuration, user preferences, and history information will follow the player to whatever machine they happen to be playing on. For instance: a user playing on his or her laptop at a friend's house, changes their key binding settings, then goes home, launches PlayXpert on a desktop machine, and the key bindings are set. The widget developer has the ability to decide if a given piece of information should be stored on the server, or on the local machine, depending on the nature of the information being stored.
...and beyond!
For the future, we're working on more advanced services, such as widget-to-widget communication, to allow widgets installed on one user's machine to communicate and share information over the network to the same widget installed on another user's machine. We anticipate very cool widgets developed by the community that push the envelope of community and collaboration. Imagine a white board widget, a webcam widget, or even a coordinating map or guide widget for a game... These are all things that end up being very useful to users and really fun to build!
Next month, we'll explore the basics of what it takes to make a PlayXpert widget.
Learn more about the PlayXpert system at http://www.playxpert.com
