Publish your game on Facebook
Games are more fun when you play them with friends. Therefore it makes a lot of sense to provide your games right where most people interact with their friends (online that is): on social networks like Facebook. With Platogo you can easily add social features to your games and publish them on Facebook. In this article we'll show you how to do so.
Step by Step
This list outlines the steps involved in publishing your game on Facebook:
- publish your game on Platogo (refer to the Getting Started article for help)
- log in to Facebook (or create a Facebook account if you don't have one)
- add the developer application to your Facebook account (https://www.facebook.com/developers/)
- create a Facebook application (=your game on Facebook)
- adjust some settings of your Facebook application & of your game on Platogo
- test & submit to Facebook
The first three steps should be quite easy to follow along. We'll concentrate on step 4 & 5 in this article.
Create an application on Facebook
Start by creating your Facebook application. Go to the Facebook developer page and click the "Set Up New Application" button at the top right.
Fig 1: Set Up New Application
Enter a name for your Facebook application but don't overthink it – the name can be changed later. It is recommended to give your application the same name that you've given your game on Platogo. Finally, agree to Facebook's Terms of Service, click the "Create Application" and you're good to go.
Note: It is you that is creating the application on Facebook. The application is fully yours and will always be. If people like your game and become fans you can keep your fans updated by posting new messages to your application page. That's a pretty neat & powerful way to promote your next game (which is using Platogo as well, we hope).
Basic Facebook settings
Basic Information
Let's start off with the easy & obvious. The following fields in the About section are waiting to be filled out:
- Application Name
- Description
- Icon & Logo
As for the Privacy Policy URL we recommend you point to Platogo's Privacy Policies at http://www.platogo.com/privacy-policy
Important Facebook settings
Canvas Page
Head over to the Facebook Integration section and fill out the Canvas Page. It looks like this: http://apps.facebook.com/your-game/. This URL is where your game will be found on Facebook in the future.
Canvas Callback URL
Next up is the Canvas Callback URL. It takes the following form: http://www.platogo.com/facebook/applications/your-game/
For your convenience you can copy the Canvas Callback URL from the Facebook page of your game dashboard on Platogo.
Fig 2: Settings for your game in the Facebook Integration section
IFrame Size
Still in the Facebook Integration section you'll have to choose Auto-resize for the IFrame Size. Leaving this at the default setting (Show scrollbars) would add nasty scrollbars around the wrapper.
Post-Remove Callback URL
This one is quite important. Switch to the Advanced section and copy http://www.platogo.com/facebook/postRemoveURL.null into the Post-Remove Callback URL field. Yes, that null at the end is meant to be there.
Note: We need this to be filled out in order to know when a user has uninstalled your application. This way we won't send challenge notification emails to users who've already deactivated the game. It's just good behavior on our part, so please don't leave this field blank.
Edit settings in your Platogo dashboard
You're almost done, only some configuration on Platogo is missing. Visit your dashboard & edit the game you'd like to bring to Facebook. Jump to the Facebook page and fill out the form. You'll find all of the necessary information on the developer page on Facebook.
Fig 3: Facebook settings on the Edit Game page (on Platogo)
Game Version
Choose the game version you'd like to be shown in Facebook. Remember that you can upload different versions of your game in the Versions tab. This might come in handy if you like to have another version in Facebook than the one online at Platogo.com.
Note: Don't forget to update the game version for Facebook here if you upload a newer version of your game.
Submitting the Facebook application
The game should now already run on Facebook. Visit the page (the Canvas Page URL, remember?), test a bit & invite a couple of your friends. Once you've verified that everything is working alright you can submit it to the Application directory. Don't forget to set the right category (hint: Games) and genre in Facebook's application info – this will make it easier for people to find your game.
Facebook has some prerequisites like a minimum amount of total users before you're allowed to submit an application. But fret not – that number is really low. At the time of writing the puny number of 5 users was sufficient.
Congratulations
You're done. You've successfully created & published your first Facebook game with Platogo! That's all there is to it. Now go and tell all your friends.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.