Using Parse.com for a game iOS

Question

I'm using the Parse framework to create player account functionality in an iOS game so that data is accessible at any device. However, I'm not sure what the best approach to 'sync' this data would be in order to minimise the api request count yet make it appear as everything is always synced. I'm currently refreshing data at startup, coming from background and after each game. However, that is already creating a lot of requests! I was thinking of placing a 'sync' button in the menu so that only then data is synced and normally saved only locally but it's the last resort really.

Game Outline:

The players sign up or login using their account or Facebook details
Player chooses avatar
Choice is stored to their account
They play a 'game' and eventually they lose
The summary screen is shown and points are added, new player level is calculated and stored
Player can buy hints and helpers via in app purchase (consumable)
The number of hints and helpers is stored to their account
Game is universal so must be in sync with devices

What is the best practice for use of Parse in an online GAME with many players?

Edit:

I solved the problem by creating a NSCoding compliant NSObject that I then archive and save to Parse. This means all data is saved and loaded at once and I only need to update it at startup and after important events.

Ivan Lisovyi · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-05 11:21:55Z

1

As you wrote best approach will be place an 'sync' button to minimize number of request which will be sent to the Parse, because your game can be interrupted at any by incoming call or something else.

You can reorganize your database for example: You have two object User and Image user have a one to many relation to image, when you fetches a User data to retrieve image you need fetch all images related to this user, this will produce a lot of request to Parse, another way is storing in Image an objectId of the User object and fetch Images for that User by objectId and not storing any relations to Image in User object, that way will drastically reduce the number of request to Parse

edited Jul 5, 2013 at 11:21

answered Jul 3, 2013 at 9:21

Ivan Lisovyi

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4 Comments

Lukas Over a year ago

Is it a common approach to place a 'sync' button in a game though?

Ivan Lisovyi Over a year ago

for MMO games - NO, but for your case it can be a solution for your problem with a lot of the request sent to the server. To provide better solution we need more info, what users can do in your game and game type(Action, RPG, RTS, etc).

Lukas Over a year ago

I've added more detail to the way the game works, thanks for solutions so far.

Lukas Over a year ago

That's a good tip. I will update this question with the final method. Thanks for help.

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