Using Location in Games discusses how location data can be obtained from smartphones and stored in databases. It outlines several location application programming interfaces (APIs) from companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook that allow retrieving location from mobile devices. The document also explores challenges with location-based game design and business models, noting that using location as a social feature or for local deals and coupons has been popular but raising location privacy is a concern. It concludes that while check-ins may decline, location data still has potential for gaming if implemented thoughtfully.

1. Using Location in Games
Ralph Barbagallo
ralph@flarb.com

2. Who am I?
• Game programmer, designer, jack of all
trades.
• Founded FLARB in 2001, one of the earliest
publishers and developers of mobile games
in the US.
• Been working on a location-based game ad
startup since 2010

3. Getting Location
• Most smartphones have GPS receivers
• GPS-less devices (netbooks, iTouch) use
“Fake GPS”
• Location from IP lookup
• Color: “GPS Doesn’t Work”

4. GPS Accuracy
• Limited government restrictions
• 5-10m GPS, 50m WiFi, 500m triangulation
• Hyperlocation won’t be a reality until NFC
or other tech comes about

5. GPS APIs
• iOS
– Core Location
• Android
– Location Manager
• GPS uses lots of juice!

6. Location in a Browser
• W3C Geolocation API
• Javascript in modern browsers
• Works the same way as native APIs

7. Storing Location
• Geospatial databases
• Basic functions:
– Storing geographic locations
– Sorting (distance checks)
– Testing (intersections with shapes)

8. Storing Location: MySQL
• Spatial Extensions in 4.1 (subset of
OpenGIS)
• Geometry stored as WellKnownText
(WKT) or binary (WKB): “POINT (30 10)”
• All computations are in Euclidean (flat)
space

9. Storing Location: PostGIS
• PostgresSQL with GIS extension
• Most mature relational solution (2001)
• WKT or WKB
• “Geographic Coordinates” for accurate
queries mapped on globe

10. Storing Location: MongoDB
• Popular NoSQL database with game devs
• Geospatial indexing using spherical
coordinates
• Uses geohash to store points
• Only points, no lines, polygons, etc.

11. Storing Location: SimpleGEO
• SimpleGEO Storage is a cloud service
• Cassandra with custom spatial extensions
• Store location as lat/long, geohash, or IP
• Cloud service—use HTTP calls. Heavy
overhead.

12. Using Location
• Places Databases
– Find out EXACTLY where you are
• Different places database provide different
info about venues and locations
– Trending
– Coupons

13. Places APIs
• Foursquare
• Factual
• Facebook Places
• Google Places
• SimpleGeo
• CityGrid
• Etc. etc. etc.

14. Street Addresses
• Get latitude and longitude of street address
• Geocoding
• Google Maps API:
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?addre
ss=xxx&sensor=false

15. Foursquare API
• Unauthenticated
– Raw places API.
– Free to use, with paid tier.
– Crowdsourced
• Authenticated
– OAuth2
– Access to check-in
history, friends, mayorships, trends

16. Facebook Places API
• Database is based on Factual
• Authenticated only
• Tagging friends
• Deals platform

17. Foursquare vs Facebook
• Foursquare’s unauthenticated mode make
it useful as a general places database
• Facebook has WAY more users
• Neither one can detect cheats
• Tagging friends is a powerful feature

18. Designing for Location
• A sample
– Parallel Kingdom
– Paranormal Activity
– Turf Wars
– The Merchant Kingdom
– Dokobots
• Too literal.

19. Location Design Problems
• Convenience
• Density
• Privacy

20. Popular uses in apps
• As a social networking tool
– WhosHere
– Color
– Instagram
• As a coupon/deals platform
– Stickybits
– Goldrun

21. Business Models for Location
• Real-world rewards for virtual world play
– Pain in the ass for the advertiser
– A hassle to redeem
• Local deals are hard to source
– Most LBS companies are sales organizations

22. Data Collection?
• Heaven’s Diner!

23. Summary
• Location is an interesting and low-tech
buzzworthy feature
• Location gaming is in its infancy
• The “check-in” may be going away, but
location isn’t.

24. Thanks!
• Ralph Barbagallo
• ralph@flarb.com
• twitter.com/flarb
• ralphbarbagallo.com