Unity game development platform is famous among the 2D & 3D Mobile game developers, including mobile game application developers. Using Unity like cross-platform for mobile game development means saving a lot besides getting high-quality game experiences.
If you are a mobile app developer, you must remember that mobile game development is different from other app development. The game development by-and-large needs a virtual game environment with virtual background and virtual objects.
Therefore, it demands specific technologies, tools, and techniques to provide real-life-like experiences and infuse fun, excitement, and other ingredients to lure, engage and make loyal the game players to your game.
Initially, we had 2D game engines to provide everything for 2D game development. Fortunately, today we have advanced technologies and tools to create stunning 3D games. Among these, all resources for mobile game development, the Unity platform stays on top of the list as a cross-platform game development engine and platform for almost complete mobile game development.
Unity has earned a considerable reputation in game consoles, desktops, and mobile game appl programming for a long by realizing Unity 2D, 3D, and now Unity 4D game engines.
Unity is a physics engine capable of handling physics laws, object behaviors, and various properties, including gravity, velocity, motion, visibility, and environmental elements such as light, wind, and much more.
It is a truly cross-platform game engine for mobile game development. It supports publishing and porting the game on various mobile OS platforms such as iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, Windows desktop, Linux, Mac OS, and even on X-box and PS4.
Tips for Mobile Game Development Using Unity Mobile Game Platform
Let’s check some basic to advanced tips for different levels of mobile game developers using Unity.
- Start with Simple and Easy
Unity offers plenty of tools, features, and functions. Therefore, it seems like a sea for novice to mid-level mobile game developers who dive into it with big dreams in their eyes.
You need not spend years on a project that you cannot finish. Instead, give a go to your mobile game to earn some profit with some fun and satisfaction for you. Try to create simple gameplay with the minimum object and uncluttered background.
- Avoid Frustration with Error Messages
Error message in Unity is a form of an alert. Developers have to find out how to interpret it using the immense pool of documentation provided by the Unity platform.
- Improve Performance by Managing Garbage Collection
Garbage collection is a dump of unused objects in system memory. It dampens the overall performance of the game. Notably, it becomes more evident on mobiles with scanty hardware and power resources.
There are multiple factors that influence garbage collection, such as
- GameObjects Instantiate and Destroy – frequent calls to instantiate and destroy the game objects in the game lifecycle affect the garbage collection.
- GetComponents – When a function calls, it generates and returns components, but it triggers garbage collection when the collection is unused.
- String Concatenation – When a developer concatenates strings, it yields new string objects resulting in garbage collection.
To cope with these hindrances, we should
- Create a pool of game objects at the beginning of the game development to enable or disable as per need during the entire development process.
- Develop different kinds of architecture to support game object interactions that do not depend on GetComponents.
- It is typical for the C#.
- Use Profiler
The Profiler is an incredible tool to detect Memory Leak and Garbage Collection issues in advance. It comes with Unity Pro, like the premium version and third-party tools available to use with free versions of Unity.
It runs remotely with mobile browsers and tests the game on actual devices instead of editors or simulators/emulators.
- Learn about Interfaces and Abstract Classes
Code duplication and maintenance are common issues that each game developer is facing. If you are a C# developer and using Unity for mobile development, the interfaces and abstract classes are more valuable to manage these issues.
The game developer must know rules and situations to use the interfaces to create more generic scripts to avert duplication and maintenance problems.
Prefer Test-Driven Development (TDD) with UnityTheoretically, TDD considers a daunting game for developers. It demands constantly testing the script and writing various tests on each stage of game development.
However, testing tools in Unity make it easy and valuable for the entire game development team. It generates an email when a test has passed by the game and broadcast across the entire team.
- Use GIT
It is a feature-rich version control system and dependable for large projects. It has a layered architecture to make it stable. It is essential to preserve code and text assets.
- Use Force Text
It is suitable for asset serialization. It helps to resolve conflicts in scene, asset, and prefabs.
- Use Visible Meta Files
It helps developers to check something being linked from scenes, assets, or prefabs. It offers a ‘guide’ field to get returns of a handy list of all assets in the scene without iterating all scenes.
- Always Think About Pooling and Approaches
Creating game objects, components, and characters is time-consuming for game developers. Therefore, always try to reuse the assets in scenes and games to save time and resources for mobile game development.
Conclusion:
Like games on other operating systems and devices, the Unity game development platform equally supports the mobile app development acting as a cross-platform game engine.
Unity 3D/4D comes with tons of documentation to help any level of game developers working in Unity. The current post has presented some valuable and practical tips for mobile game developers to achieve the desired success.
If you are looking for mobile game application development for any purpose and searching for moral guidance, SysBunny is an excellent choice to establish contact. Apart from game development consulting services, SysBunny has an impeccable team of mobile game developers well versed with Unity 3D & 4D game development platforms.