Play Games

Play Games (on Android) and Game Center (on iOS) are the two official gaming platforms from Google and Apple. Once configured, players can:

• Sign in with their Google or Apple gaming profile — no extra password to remember.
• Appear on leaderboards (top players, best scores, etc.).
• Unlock achievements for reaching milestones in the game.

This page walks you through the foundational setup — connecting your app to Play Games and Game Center. The leaderboards and achievements themselves are configured separately, on their own pages under Services.

Android vs iOS — two separate systems

• Android uses Google Play Games Services. You need to set up a "Play Games project" in the Google Play Console.
• iOS uses Apple Game Center. There's nothing to configure inside the app — you just enable the feature in App Store Connect.

Do the Android setup and the iOS setup separately below. You can enable one, both, or neither.

Android — Play Games Services

Step 1 — Enable Play Games in the Play Console

1. Open the Google Play Console and select your app.
2. In the left menu, go to Grow users → Play Games Services → Setup and management → Configuration.
3. Follow the on-screen setup wizard. It asks you to link the app to a Google Cloud project — you can either create a new one or reuse an existing one.

4. When you finish the wizard, Play Console shows a Project ID — a long numeric value (e.g. 328906758414). Copy it and keep it handy.

Step 2 — Add an OAuth 2.0 Android client

This part is easy to miss and is the #1 reason Play Games sign-in fails silently. In the same Play Games Services setup screen:

1. Go to Credentials → Add Credential → Android.
2. Enter your app's package name (the same one from Installation → App IDs).
3. Paste your app's SHA-1 fingerprint — this is a short signature of your Android Signing Key. You can get it by running this command in your terminal from the project root:
   bash

   keytool -list -v -keystore android/app/keystore.jks -alias upload

   Look for the line labelled SHA1: and copy the value.

4. Save.

Without this step, players will see the Google sign-in popup but will never actually be signed in.

Step 3 — Fill in the Setup Page

Open the Setup Page in your browser and go to the Play Games section. Fill in:

• Play Games APP ID — the numeric Project ID from Step 1.

Click Save.

iOS — Game Center

Game Center setup is much simpler because Apple ties everything to your app's Bundle ID automatically. Just enable the capability:

1. Open App Store Connect and select your app.
2. Go to App Information.
3. Turn on Game Center.

That's it — no IDs to copy anywhere.

Run sync

After saving on the Setup Page, run the sync command in your terminal:

make sync

What's next

Now that Play Games and Game Center are connected to your app, you can enable and configure:

• Services → Leaderboards — for showing top scores.
• Services → Achievements — for unlocking milestones.

Both of those pages assume Play Games / Game Center is already set up on the platforms you plan to support.

Testing

Play Games sign-in only works when:

• The app is installed via a Play Console testing track (Internal testing is fastest).
• The device is signed in with a Google account that's been added as a tester in Play Console.
• Your app is signed with the same key whose SHA-1 you registered in Step 2.

Game Center sign-in on iOS works in TestFlight builds. Make sure the tester has signed into their iCloud → Game Center account on the device.

Common problems

• "Google sign-in popup appears but nothing happens" — the SHA-1 fingerprint in Play Console doesn't match your signing key. Re-run the keytool -list command in Step 2 and double-check the value.
• "Play Games works in debug but not on the store version" — your debug key and your upload key have different SHA-1 fingerprints. You need to register both as OAuth clients in the Play Console.
• "Game Center never shows up on iOS" — the capability isn't enabled in App Store Connect, or the device isn't signed into iCloud.