Source: Vexxhost.com

With compelling hardware and advanced tools available today in the market, mobile game development is growing by leaps and bounds and so is the user engagement for video games. That’s how choosing the right tools, engines and platforms for the game becomes essential and helps build breathtaking entertainment (games). Gameplay and storyline with suitable engine, graphic, and development tools are important too. Having that in mind, Android supports all sorts of creativity and innovation that app developers want to add to their games. 

Unlike the old days, the present is about experimenting with disparate technologies - Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Augmented reality, and others. Undoubtedly, these ingenuities have redefined a myriad of modern industries and the gaming industry is no exception.  

All that goes into building a game for today’s gamers

Ease of availability and accessibility can work really well for a product in the market. And, in case of Android games, its compatibility with different platforms works in its favour by increasing the spectrum of market reach and the user-experience for such games. Adding to that, the production of cross-platform games is also cost-effective. Despite that, the game designers have to ensure that the look and feel of the game is the same across various platforms.   

As for Virtual reality? The 3D graphics, multi projected environments, 360 degree view contributes to providing the players and immersive gameplay. With VR, players find the power to experience and manipulate the virtual gaming environment using VR accessories and devices like sensor-equipped gloves, VR gaming headsets and goggles, hand controllers, gloves, and more. The VR headsets give the player an impression of being somewhere else by blocking out the surrounding. Similarly, different VR accessories add value to the game in their own way. 

Unlike VR, Augmented reality does not replace a vision but adds to it with 2D and 3D model support, motion detection, and an advanced vision. AR devices overlay images over what a person is already looking at and builds experiences using the surroundings. The games even change accordingly to fit the space. AR mixes real world with the virtual and lets players interact personally with the digital environment. It is capable of producing endless possibilities, creative  games, and new innovations in gaming with huge benefits. With 3D tracking, geolocation, smart glasses support, and more, AR is growing and bringing extraordinary Android games for us.

It’s been a day or two since the news came out of Facebook rolling out a cloud gaming service. However, it’s not the first to come up with this idea but definitely the first one to offer this service for free.

There is a speedy growth in the number of mobile gamers which draws our attention towards the importance of integrating cloud computing services into Android mobile gaming (Cloud gaming). With digital media, users are looking to keep security issues in check and Cloud provides just that. It saves and protects the gamer’s data and progress in a game that is backed up with industrial security standards that takes care of all security concerns by blocking external attacks and hackers. It contributes to creating valuable innovations for an enriched gaming experience. That’s not it, better security, easy access to a library of interactive entertainment from anywhere and on any device, and increased compatibility are something it assures. It keeps pace with the expectations of today's users. Reduced cost is another benefit that comes along Cloud computing. It allows gaming companies to scale up or down as per their needs so that people only pay for resources that they need and use.

Reports say that it’s estimated that the number of active IoT devices will surpass 30.73 billion in 2020 and by 2025, there will be 152,200 IoT devices connecting to the internet per minute.

Source: Data Prot

The developers have used the Internet of Things aggressively to make games enveloping and engaging than ever by connecting one another’s consoles. Times have changed since playing video games was a solitary activity to now it has become a social activity that people do together. The multiplayer modes in games and IoT have allowed players to connect along with their devices, to play and interact at the same time. Not only that but IoT also offers exceptional playability. IoT has hastened the development of mobile Android games and developers are using sensors, advanced software and hardware capabilities, cameras, accelerometers to make gaming seamless and enjoyable. Players have now been able to connect to not just the game but the other devices and platforms which is considered a next-level opportunity and a life-like experience.

According to Research and Markets, this casino gaming market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.16% between 2017 and 2021, and a large part of this growth will be largely due to the sheer popularity of casino and poker apps with general consumers.

Source: PR News Wire

There has been a big shift from real tables to online casino games. The online casino business has become most popular and has managed to engage a large section of the population. With the use of IoT devices, it has been able to provide the comfort to play from anywhere and at any time, and to track every aspect of the game for future improvisations.

Artificial Intelligence makes games smarter for today's gamers by making games more immersive, enhancing the overall visual experience with compelling and realistic graphics, characters, and environment. AI makes refined 3D visualization and interactive gaming possible. It makes games more advanced letting the gameplay adjust the difficulty levels according to the performance of the player. This way the gameplay adapts, observes and responds as per the player’s efficiency and skill set in a game. These adjustments by the game itself makes sure that the player doesn’t lose interest in the game and doesn't get bored. AI makes it possible for the game to learn the basic recognition and augmentations so that the non-player characters in the game can observe and learn. There are several other advanced cutting-edge AI applications that are put to use in the gaming world so that it influences the gamer’s experience in a favourable manner.

AI facilitates creation of computerized opponents for board games like chess, ludo, etc. in a way that people could feel that they are competing with real people. Behavioural decision trees based algorithm and pathfinding algorithm are other techniques that help AI in video games development think and make complex decisions. Game developers find these algorithms easy to use and understand and take these as something that has changed the way creative video games look and feel. Considering all of that, AI is still in its early days and has a long journey yet to cover to reach its true potential and revolutionize gaming.

Chatbots or virtual assistants - Android is the most popular and widely used gaming platform that is supported by smartphones, tablets, and other devices available in the market. Integration on chatbots and virtual assistants in Android devices provides the convenience of not having to quit an app or game to do something else. Without any interruptions being caused to you game, you can order food online, or run any other search on google, play or change music just by asking your virtual assistant.

Customer support is another user case of chatbots and even virtual assistants. They are available 24X7, and operate at a high speed and low cost. Gaming chatbots have also started to be used in messaging apps like Facebook, Whatsapp, Skype, etc. 

Chatbots gather data from conversations and game players which is utilized to build a strong gaming experience for gamers. This information is used to the advantage of improving the quality of the game to fulfill a player’s expectations. 

Looking ahead, being creative and original with your idea and giving the gamers something fresh that they might have not experienced before is what weighs. A good quality game that keeps up with the trending technologies and the growing  requirements of the players has no difficulty attracting large crowds towards it. 

Android app and game development has come a long way with advancement in technologies. Nevertheless, the game development companies are taking full leverage and putting these innovations to good use for an upgraded gaming experience. Technological advancements like 3D scanning and facial recognition for creating customized game avatars, voice controlled gaming for recognizing the user’s voice and controlling gameplay and other functions in the gaming system, gesture control for letting users employ the natural movements of their body to connect with the gaming device. The possibilities of experiments that the game developers can carry out by bringing games and technology together is limitless. 

Just to mention that Logic Simplified has been rated as one of the top gaming software development company on Selected Firms.

One such company that provides Android game development services in India is Logic Simplified which has a team of Android game app developers who are creative, efficient, and provide full-scale design and development services. They are curious and competent crafters who hold the urge to keep learning and strengthening their skills with the latest technologies and trends to provide their clients the best of them.

According to Google,  the install conversion rate drop by 1% for every 6 MB expansion in an APK’s size. This results from users considering the size of the game app before installing it, how long it will take to download, and Internet connectivity issues still existing in many parts of the world. It’s no secret that an Android app without considerable downloads is as good as non-existent, which makes it paramount to hire Android game developers who also offer game optimizing services to reduce the app size and improve performance on various Android devices. 

Android Game Development: How to Reduce Game App Size

Unity game developers can use AssetBundle to use platform-specific non-code Assets such as Models, Textures, Prefabs, Audio clips, and even entire Scenes. Unity can load those non-code assets at runtime.  Unity packages the game in the engine and most of the game's assets are put into a single binary file. Android App Bundle is another great solution offered by Google to reduce the game app size. App Bundle allows Android game developers to build and optimize APKs for each device configuration, which results in a smaller app without the unused code and resources needed for other devices. For Android game apps more than 150 MB in size, Play Asset Delivery (PAD) is the best bet as it allows to replace APK Expansion Files, also known as OBBs, by publishing a single artefact on Play Store containing all the resources the game needs. Using PAD, developers can host and serve all asset packs on Google Play without requiring a third-party content delivery network (CDN) to get game resources to players. PAD asset packs consist of assets such as textures, shaders, and sounds, but no executable code. PAD also allows to customize how and when asset packs are installed based on three delivery modes: install-time, fast-follow, and on-demand.

Also read Why is Storyline in Android Video Game Development so Important?

Gameloft integrated PAD into Asphalt 8, Asphalt Xtreme, and Minion Rush. Both Asphalt 8 and Minion Rush leveraged fast-follow and on-demand delivery by replacing their custom CDN calls with calls to the PAD API. This helped not just reduce CDN costs, but also drastically increased the secondary downloads to start playing the game. As a result, the user-retention rate significantly improved, with 10% more new players than with their previous asset delivery system. A puzzle kids app from a US developer also saw a 21% reduction in crashes & Application Not Responding (ANR) errors after using Play Asset Delivery’s on-demand mode, which significantly helped improve the user experience.

However, Android App Bundle or Play Asset Delivery is not the only way to reduce an Android game app size, which brings me to discuss more ways to further reduce the game app size.

Different Optimizations to Reduce Android Game Size

Reduce the Size of APK’s Assets

Identify APK’s assets (images, audios and videos) that can be further resized or compressed and use high compression ratios, which is quite acceptable for games. You can reduce the image size by diluting the resolution and converting .jpg and .png images to .webp without compromising on the quality of the original images. If you’re using a texture much larger than the number of pixels that ultimately render on the screen, you’re simply not making the optimum use of space and GPU resources. You can use Android GPU Inspector (AGI) to change the texture and see the appearance on a frame without having to rebuild the game. Guetzli and Packjpg are some other tools available for .jpg compression, whereas Zopflipng and more such tools for png conversion. Reduce the size of your assets,  use compression on images, reduce the bitrate of any audio, and convert sound files to .ogg format to reduce the final app size. 

Apart from this, designers should implement vector graphics in order to develop simple resolution-independent images. 9 Slice Scaling is a good technique which Android game developers can use for 2D image resizing and proportionally scaling an image by splitting it in a grid of nine parts. This technique significantly helps in preventing image scaling distortion by protecting the pixels defined in 4 parts of the image and scaling or repeating them in the other 5 parts. Also, ensure that 3D objects have only as many vertices as are necessary to meet the visibility requirements on various screen sizes. Getting rid of unnecessary vertices significantly helps in reducing the app size. Also, change the formats of graphics’ texture. Go for texture formats that use fewer bits per channel, like RGB565, which is a 16-bit texture format, instead of a 32-bit texture format such as ARGB, wherever possible.

Remove Useless Assets, Models and Scripts

Remove any resources you don’t need. There may be scenes, sound files and pictures that are not used, so it’s a good way to reduce the app size by removing them. Also, any code which is not required for any functionality of your game will only increase the load on your app. By removing the junk, you can make your app more energized and active. Always remember that the size of the APK file is directly proportional to the load on your app, memory it occupies and power it consumes. Removing useless stuff helps reduce the size of your app and improve overall performance.

Also read 5 Best Programming Languages for Android Game Development

Reuse Resources

Another way to optimize your Android game app is to reuse your resources. If you have a rotated equivalent of another resource, then you should remove it as it will unnecessarily occupy space otherwise. For example, you may have resources to characterize varieties in an image related to tints, shades and direction. You can use the same resources to characterize varieties in other images too. So, reusing resources reduces the final size of your Android game app and is simpler than removal later on.

Avoid Enumerations

Enumerations are known to quickly grow for complex systems and shared libraries. A single enum can add about 1.0 to 1.4 KB size to the classes.dex file of your Android game app. So, you should avoid them. Consider using ProGuard to convert the enums into integers in order to reduce the app size. You can also use @IntDef annotation and code shrinking for the purpose of converting enums into integers, and the end result will be a reduced app size.

Don’t Make Extensive Use of External libraries

It’s common among developers to use external libraries to improve the user experience. For example,  Android Support Library for older devices and Google Play Services for auto-translation of app content. A library for a server or desktop can consist of a lot of objects and methods that are not not useful for your game app. So, you should edit the library's files to include only the parts that your app needs. You can also go for a mobile friendly library to add specific functionality to your app without making your app heavy.   

Don’t support all Screen Densities

Developers generally want to run the game app on all the Android devices, which is why they go for all screen densities. Android supports all screen densities, including ldpi, mdpi, tvdpi, hdpi, xhdpi, etc, but you don’t need them all. Find a way to know the percentage of users having devices with specific densities. This will help you understand whether or not you need to bundle those densities into your app. If you remove resources for a specific screen density, Android will itself do automated scaling of the available resources which were originally designed for other screen densities. If scaled images are all your app needs, you can include a single variant of an image in drawable-nodpi, which will further reduce the size of your app. 

Shrink native Binaries and Remove Debug Symbols

If you are using native code and the Android NDK for your app, you should optimize the code to reduce the build size. You can remove debug symbols and avoid extracting native libraries to optimize the code and reduce the size of the release. 

Use APK Size Analyzer

You can use the Android Size Analyzer to know all about the size of the APK. You will see the Raw File Size on the top of the screen, which will show you the APK on-disk size. The Download size will show you the estimated data your app will consume to download after taking in account the compression applied by Play Store. The analysis report will show you the things occupying most space in your app. Also, the Comparison feature allows you to see the difference in the sizes of old and new builds.   

Provide Multiple APKs Support

Some APKs have content which is not useful for every user. But, users have no way to download only a useful part of an APK, which results in increased app size. One cool way to deal with this is to upload the game app over Google Play store via Android App Bundle and get the ability to optimize APKs as per-device configuration. By doing this, you can actually divide one app into Multiple APKs and let users download only those APKs which are beneficial for them as per their device configuration.

Remove the Parts of Game Engine You aren’t Using

Including all the parts of your game engine despite not using them all will unnecessarily increase the game app size. For example,  Physics, x86 Architecture and .NET 4.x in Unity. The two .NET API compatibility levels Unity supports are NET 4.x and .NET Standard 2.0. Using .NET Standard 2.0 , you can restrict your app to a smaller subset of the .NET API, which helps in keeping the app’s size down. You should change the build to ARM as you don’t need x86 and also check out the stripping level.

Above I discussed some optimization techniques to reduce the size of an Android game app in order to increase installation rates and enhance user experience. Are you looking for a game app developer to convert your Android game idea into a reality and also provide game optimizing services to make your game app feel home on various Android devices? Logic Simplified can help!

Why Choose Us for Android Game Development and Optimizing Services?

Logic Simplified offers Android game development services to clients of different cultures world over. Hire game designers and developers who uses cutting-edge tools like Unity, Godot, GameMaker Studio 2, Unreal Engine, Maya, Blender, 3ds Max and many more to build Android games that live up the expectations of today’s modern gamers. We don’t just build games, but optimize them as well to ensure reduced file size and improved overall user experience. From conceptualization to designing, development, testing, different optimizations and deployment, we take care of all and allow you to significantly cut development time and cost at the same time. From our experience sprawling over 9 years in the gaming industry, we are in a very good position to tell you what exactly will work for your Android game and what won’t, which can turn out to be a big differentiator between the success and failure of your game. We are backed by team members who are passionate about gaming and committed to help game visionaries create games that rock the charts. If you’re also the one looking forward to building a new Android game mania, you can get in touch with our game development company to hire Android game developers and begin an exciting ride.

Let’s begin with design first

When designing an Android game app, the process involves story, storyboarding, graphics, creative writing, character design, 2D/3D modeling, set design and animation. On the other hand, a normal Android app (like an ecommerce app) involves interface design, graphics design, navigation ergonomics, app layout, app structure, contrasts, fonts, colours, imagery, animation, videos, logos, and information structure. The success of an Android game depends a lot on its design as gaming is a whole new world and players become a part of it as soon as they enter it. A video game is designed from scratch to the level of its full representation and it’s a more intense process than designing a non-gaming app. This makes it important to hire game designers and developers who are passionate about gaming and have the experience of creating awe-inspiring imaginary worlds gamers just don’t want to come out of.

Android game designers also use some tools that Android app designers often don’t need. Maya, Blender, 3ds Max, ZBrush, to name a few. These tools allow designers to create wonderful game art and export them to game engines, such as Unity and Unreal, without any rendering issues later on. That’s basically how an Android game design and an Android app design follow different approaches.

Android App Vs Game Development

Android app developers use Android Studio, Eclipse, Android SDK and APIs to build Android apps. If you want to build additional features for the app, then you can use special libraries, like JavaCV library for computer vision features. Android game app developers, on the other hand, mostly use game engines like Unity, Unreal and Godot. Android Studio can also be used for building Android game apps as it’s a dedicated software program to make Android games, but game engines make it easier and faster to build games as they have many in-built features that developers don’t need to code. Also, an Android app may just need a button, which is often not enough in Android game apps as developers also put animations on the buttons to enhance the look and feel for visually-oriented people. This becomes easier with game engines as they are designed to add such elements in games. Another big advantage of using game engines like Unity is that you can build game apps for multiple platforms without writing the code again and again.

As far as programming languages for android game development are concerned, it depends on the game engine you opt to use. For example, Javascript, C# or Boo is used in Unity, whereas C/C++ is used in Unreal Engine. Android studio is a general purpose coding engine and enables developers to use general libraries. Unity is specifically designed to output game code and compile events and structures, which makes it easier and faster to build a game app than in Android Studio. If you want to build an Android game without too much programming, games engines should be your bet. Unity also offers advertising and monetization solutions. Using Unity, you can integrate relevant ads and in-app purchases into your game to increase earnings. It saves you significant engineering hours while helping you to generate more revenue.

The Takeaway

If you want to build a simple game like Fastest Finger, then there is not much difference in normal Android app development and Android game development as both the code and functionality are almost the same. But if you want to build a high end game like a real car racing game or a Temple Run, then it’s a totally different ball game. Although the code is visually not that different, the way game designers and developers think and implement a game screen are very different from a normal Android app. The Java classes have to do a lot more than just activities, adapters and model classes.

When designing a normal Android app,  the major focus is on how each activity should look and its layout, UI elements in the form of buttons, text fields, etc. and touch controls like touch, swipe, double touch, etc. Android game designers have to focus on individual scenes. Each scene has a background and various objects like player objects, enemy objects and different obstacles that have to be presented in 2D or 3D. Some Android games involve physics and complex algorithms as well. So, depending on the end goal, building an Android game can be more intensive than building an Android app.

Build Your Android Game with Logic Simplified

There are more than 2 billion Android users world over and the OS has 74.6% market share in the global mobile operating system market, which makes Android devices enticing targets for building both game and non-game apps. If you have a wonderful game idea and want to turn into an Android game to earn high ROI, you can choose Android game development services to build a headturner Android game. We have a team of expert game designers and developers who are passionate about gaming and have hands-on experience of building Android games of international standards. Logic Simplified has been in the game development space for over 10 years now and has built many successful games using cutting edge tools such as Unity, Unreal, Godot, Blender, Maya, 3ds Max and many more. Getting your Android game done from experts like us will help you save a lot of time, money and avoid hassles of managing operations. You just focus on your core business activities and leave the rest to us. You can count on us to build a quality Android game with reduced time to market and highly engaging game elements that today’s gamers expect from mobile games. Share your game idea with us at enquiry@logicsimplified.com, and we will get back to you shortly to provide you with gaming solutions we are proud of.