A number of developers and publishers are experimenting with multiplayer and connected features in their iPhone games, but unlike consoles (or indeed N-Gage), there's no umbrella community platform for them to tie into.

There've been no rumours (yet) of Apple launching an Xbox Live-style community for iPhone gamers, but developer Demiforce is stepping in to fill the gap.

The company, which made popular iPhone puzzler Trism, is launching a platform called Onyx Online, which is open to any iPhone developer to use. It supports online rankings, achievements and forums among other features.

"In a nutshell, Onyx Online is the Xbox Live Arcade ecosystem brought to the iPhone," Demiforce's Steve Demeter tells TouchArcade.

"I wrote this kind of system into Trism as a case study, and it's been a complete success. Since Trism launched in July, we've been hard at work adapting this online code for use in any iPhone game, and the results are stunning."

The platform is free to use, and currently has a dozen games due to integrate it. Players will use one account to log in to all the game's connected features. Oh, and Demiforce is apparently planning to take it to Android, too.

It sounds great, from a developer and a gamer's perspective. Some bigger publishers may prefer to launch their own proprietary platforms, of course, and there's also the Facebook Connect technology in the mix, which uses people's existing networks on Facebook.

Nevertheless, we'll be following Onyx Online closely. For now, find out more on the official Onyx Online website.