Is BaseGameUtils still necessary? (Implementing Android leaderboards)

Question

I'm porting to AndroidStudio format an old game project which is using using old BaseGameUtils Eclipse style Android library project, which must be imported as a library to the game project.

Is there a gradle dependence alternative to BaseGameUtils project? The only thing I can find about BaseGameUtils is this: https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/init

And it seems that Google is telling you that you should use BaseGameUtils, but also I found this: https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/leaderboards

In that last link, google is telling how to implement leaderboards and is not naming BaseGameUtils in the text, so I'm confused. Is BaseGameUtils still necessary? If not, and it can be done using the last link, what would be necessary to import as a Gradle dependence?

Answer 1

It is mentioned in the "Before you begin" section in https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/leaderboards, to Download and review the leaderboards code samples in the Android samples page.

And, In the Android samples page you can find in the Readme that:

BaseGameUtils. Utilities used on all samples, which you can use in your projects too. This is not a stand-alone sample, it's a library project.

So, yeah it is still needed.

Answer 2

As another reply mentioned, it is mentioned in the "Before you begin" section in https://developers.google.com/games/services/android/leaderboards. Feel free to Download and review the leaderboards code samples in the Android samples page.

You'll see that the examples no longer use the BaseGameUtils. Since the BaseGameUtils use the deprecated GoogleApiClient it's definitely no longer to be used for new games. You can find more about the newer api's on the google developers blogpost of 21 november 2017.