Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Sharing in Windows 8
Social networks are incredibly popular, and sharing details about gameplay and high
scores with friends is becoming a big feature of games, whether they're played on the
web, on a tablet, or even on a console. More and more games have social integra-
tion of some sort and some console games allow you to tweet your game progress
or status to friends, adding an extra level of immersion and integration with the real
world. Windows 8 allows you to add that sharing easily, and gives the power to the
players to decide when they want to share and how they want to share, using any of
their favorite applications. This is called the
Share Charm
, and it is accessed via the
charms bar on the right-hand side of the screen.
The Share Charm
There are two ways in which applications can interact with this system: as a
share
source
, or as a
share target
. A share source just provides information to be shared
on request to the operating system, while the share target receives the shared inform-
ation and does what is necessary to complete the sharing operation. Games can take
advantage of both sides where appropriate. In most cases a game will simply be a
