Approved by Captain Obvious: Some tips for cross-platform development
Doug Pearson, Technical director of FlowPlay Studio, told the Develop-online resource about the difficulties developers face when porting games to various platforms, as well as how to overcome them. The tips are obvious, but nevertheless worth repeating. So we offer you a brief retelling of his interview.
The main thing that should be paid attention to when porting the game is the cost of acquiring a user, Pearson believes. It varies greatly from platform to platform. Some game studios make the game based only on mobile devices, and, moreover, only on one platform. Such a strategy is very risky, Pearson is sure, since it is on iOS that the user’s purchase price is the highest.
He suggests considering other platforms besides iOS, porting the game: so, it is relatively easier to attract users to Facebook. However, it must be remembered that in this case it will be necessary to include elements of social interaction in the game. Pearson suggests asking yourself: why would a player invite friends to your project? The speed of user acquisition will depend on the answer to this question.
Another important point to pay attention to is management. Obviously, if you are porting the game to mobile platforms, it should be done by that. Thus, the UI needs to be adapted to finger control. This, among other things, means that the main controls must be large in size.
For tablets, you need to take into account where the player’s hands will be located. It is necessary to make sure that the controls are located in those parts of the screen where it is convenient for the user. For example, if a player has to control the game with the index fingers of both hands, then the UI of the game is poorly thought out, because in this case he cannot hold the tablet.
As for the tools for creating a game, Pearson advises choosing them based on whether the game will be online or browser-based – or not. In addition, the size of the budget plays a role.
If the game is not browser-based or social, then it is best to choose C++ for development. Its main disadvantage is that it is a complex language, and therefore working with it takes time. Potentially, this will lead to an increase in the cost of the project, Pearson believes.
Unity is also suitable for creating this kind of game. The engine will allow you to develop games for PC, consoles and mobile devices in a simpler C# language.
If the project is planned to be browser-based or social, then the choice comes down to HTML5 or Flash, Pearson is sure. For those who do not like how Flash behaves when creating such projects, Pearson suggests using the Haxe programming language with the OpenFL SDK.
What difficulties will you have to face when creating a cross-platform game? Pearson is sure that there are two main ones.
The first is an attempt to please “everyone at once” on all platforms, which will inevitably reduce the quality of the gaming experience. This problem can be solved by creating a certain amount of content targeted to a specific platform (as, for example, Hipster Whale did – approx. editorial offices).
Another is that on iOS, updates to the project can be “uploaded” only after checking with Apple. As a rule, the process is long and takes an average of a week or two. This brings especially a lot of inconvenience if updates for the project are released every two weeks, and players on different platforms play together. The solution offered by Pearson is that the components of the server part must be backward compatible with the previous version of the client.
Creating cross-platform games is not an easy task. It involves solving many problems. Despite this, it is cross-platform games that are becoming the norm in the competitive gaming industry. Avoiding cross-platform development and betting on one platform – only at first glance it seems profitable. In fact, it reduces the chances of your project’s success,” Pearson sums up.
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