We're a game studio doing a casual persistent online game mainly for kids. I'm wondering if it will be possible to integrate our in-game chat with Live Messenger, and if so, whether Live ID SDK will be the way to do that.
Johan ?verbye
Artplant
Hi Johan,
What sort of integration are you looking for? Using your own chat app to put messages into the Live Messenger IM network is unlikely to be supported (too much potential for abuse/spam). Having your in-browser game display a Live Messenger chat window in a sidebar is a much more likely possibility, eventually (not there yet).
There is a degree of integration you can use today. You can have your in-browser game host the Windows Live Contacts control in "tile" mode, and when your users click on one of their buddy icons in the control, it will launch a Windows Live Messenger IM chat window, using the locally installed Live Messenger client app. Your web app/game can also "prime" the IM chat with an initial text string, which you could use to refer to something going on in the game, or to invite buddies to join the game (including a URL for them to click to join the game).
Check it out: http://blogs.msdn.com/dthorpe/archive/2007/01/17/windows-live-contacts-control-shows-online-presence.aspx
-Danny
p.s. If you have any questions about using the Contacts control, feel free to post to the Windows Live "chatter" forum, or in the comments on the blog.
The Cient SDK will allow you to authenticate Windows Live users in a Windows Forms app. If your app implements its own instant messaging, it may be possible to use the Client SDK to provide authentication. Please post more details about your application and the scenarios it supports if you have any further questions.
Thanks,
