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Exclusive: First look at Chillingo's Crystal iPhone social networking platform

There's a new social network coming to play

Exclusive: First look at Chillingo's Crystal iPhone social networking platform
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Over on PocketGamer.biz, we've been talking to UK iPhone publisher Chillingo (iDracula, Minigore, Knights Onrush), about Crystal, its rival to social networking technologies such as OpenFeint and Plus+.

Head of publishing Johnny Coghlan says the technology will help the company and developers make better games, as well as improve features for players.

Lead architect Gareth Reese says that Crystal is designed to push the envelope in terms of achievements and challenges, as well as handling tricky issues such as finding your friends and handling information when you're offline.

Those are words. You probably just want to know what it looks like, right?

However, we should point out that as Crystal isn't being released until November, the screens below remain a work in progress.

They do give you a good idea of how Crystal handles information.

Obviously, it works in both portrait and landscape modes: cleverly, the central box is a square so it just rotates, making UI design easier for developers.

The main navigation bar - either positioned at the bottom or left hand side of the screen - contains four buttons, for your player profile, achievements, leaderboards, and challenges. There's also a Crystal logo which lets you know if you're logged onto the server or not - as indicated by a green or red light.

We should also point out that this is only one version of how Crystal can look. It's designed to be completely reskinnable so developers can change the visual look of any of the elements to fit into the style of their game.

Developer can sign up for more information about Crystal at the official website.

Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.