How hard is it to set up a push notification, turn-based game on iOS Pro?

Unity Engine
1

(I didn’t know whether to put this in the iOS forum or not - seemed more appropriate here.)

I’m starting the planning phase for an iOS board-game style TBS. (Think Strategery or even Chess/Chequers etc)

I haven’t even touched networking before and don’t really know anything about it. I was googling my options (to coin a phrase) and couldn’t find much in the way of definitive answers. It seems iOS 5 Game Center will make Turn based development a lot easier, but that’s not here yet, and I don’t know how it works with Unity. Also most of the networking guides for Unity and everything else concentrates on realtime gaming, and I don’t know how much of it applies to turn based gaming.

Specifically I want player 1 to challenge player 2 (and player 3 maybe) and set up a game (all on iPhone/iPad). Then you can quit the app and you will be notified by Push that it’s your turn. Then you play your turn - it sends the turn - then you quit again until it’s your turn. (And if the app is open when your turn comes, the app just updates automatically.)

  1. Is Unity’s built in networking codebase enough to handle this?
  2. If not, what other solutions are there? (cheap or preferably free)
  3. What outside requirements are there? (Server etc) Are they costly?
  4. How hard is it to learn?
  5. Are there any great online tutorials for my type of networking needs? (I couldn’t find any)

Having looked at the Networking guides, I must admit they’re spinning my head - but my head has spun before and I’ve conquered stuff. It seems I have three choices:

  • Try to learn how to do the networking and implement it myself
  • Appeal for collaboration with someone who is great at networking
  • Change the game design to be a single player, more puzzle type game

Thanks for reading my vague, wispy post! I’d really appreciate your thoughts.

2

We have made a turn-based game “Words Junkie” for iOS similar to “Words With Friends”. You can have a look https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/words-junkie/id663331199?mt=8 .
I think this is what you want in your game. “Words Junkie” uses App42 Cloud API for iOS that is available for Unity as well and you don’t have to do coding outside unity.
Using App42 PushNotificationServices, it is very easy to integrate push in Unity enabled apps/games. You can see the blog stating Steps to integrate Push Notification with Unity3d on iOS .