1. Mobile Games
From idea to product
Alex Cabrera

2. Introducing
http://gplus.to/drlecks http://uplayonline.com

3. Index
Idea
Development
Launch
Game
Design
World

4. We need an idea
Can be obtained everywhere
1 line definition
Alone worths nothing

5. Define your world
Transports the user
Explains the game

6. History & Characters
Introduces game mechanics
Catch user
Guided experience
Branding

7. Game design
Audience
Category
Playability
Progress
Fidelization
Monetization
Usability

8. Audience
Defined
Defines screen &
content structure

9. Categories
Not always trivial
Saturated Categories
Invisible Categories

10. Playability
Touch screen
Versatility
Fingers on screen
Max. 2 fingers
Ideally: 1 finger

11. Progress & fidelization
Objective: retain users
Playability upgrades
Economy upgrades
Vanity upgrades

12. Monetization
Ads
Pay to play
In-app payments
Sponsors

13. Usability
Multi-area
If you have to explain
it, it’s wrong

14. Development!
Unity
Highlights
Good habits
Social Networks
Advises

16. Fragmentation
Screen size
Resolution
Hardware
Operating systems

17. Graphic User Interface (GUI)
Formerly a mess
Workarounds: nGUI
Unity 4.6: new GUI

18. Profiler
Measures application performance
CPU, FPS, RAM, VRAM, RENDERING…
Divides occurrences by source

19. Asset Store / Plugins
Built-in store
Time saver
DIY vs. Buy

20. Good habits
Parameterization
Singleton
Optimization
Time.deltaTime
Limit frameRate
Concurrency control

21. Parameterization
● Unity allows to edit
parameters trough
editor
● Avoid magic-numbers
● Life easier for
Game/level designer

22. Singleton
● Unity loses all the state when loading new scenes
● This pattern allows an object to “jump” between scenes
● No more info losing in scene changes
● Very useful on application-level tasks

23. Time.deltaTime
● Avoids weird performance on low-end devices
● For all the tasks involving time-dependent increments
● Changes frame rate dependency to time dependency

24. Limit frame rate
● Not all situations need 60fps
● We can limit fps on certain scenarios (menus)
● Battery save

25. Concurrency control
● Not all tasks need to be processed every frame
● Time.timeSinceLevelLoad
● Reduces the Update method impact on performance

26. Optimization
DrawCalls
Image import
Update Method

27. DrawCalls
● Everytime unity needs to draw a
mesh
● Batching: a DrawCall reducing
procedure
● Can be reduced recycling
materials
● “Stats” & Profiler

28. Image import
● Unity formats all imported
images
● Size and compression format
● Resources, always imported

29. Update()
Prohibited!
ArrayList
gameObject.transform
new Vector3(1,2,3);
Better...
Object[]
Local reference
class variable

30. Social Networks
● Must have
● Facebook, Google+, Game Center
● No G+ -> No Google Play feature
● No GC -> No AppStore feature
● No Fb -> No users (Shit happens)
● All: Rankings, achievements, requests,
personalization
● G+ i GC: save game
● G+: Multiplayer & Quests
● Official plug-ins from Fb & G+

31. Launch
Publish
Marketing
Monitorization

32. Advises

33. 20/80 Rule
Work
80% 20%
20% 80%
Time consumed

34. Better think before coding

35. Don’t be a negathon!

36. Do what you love

37. Keep It Simple, Stupid!

38. Android vs. iOS

39. Hire an artist!

40. Alex Cabrera
http://gplus.to/drlecks
@alexcabrera_pc
alex@u-playonline.com