Today's online games development is a rapidly growing industry and brings lots of profit to tech entrepreneurs. According to 2008 statistics, there were approximately 7.6 million games available at app stores for download. Despite many game options, the demand for mobile platforms games is increasing, and leading development companies create more engaging game options for players. Each day more people engage in mobile games as their primary form of entertainment. On average, each mobile game user spends four hours daily playing games or using the game app.
Mobile games have gained so much attention recently, and we have seen several games that reached millions of players from different countries over the world. These examples aspire more developers to bring new creative ideas for game lovers. However, in this competitive market, it is not easy to get recognition. As the mobile game development industry becomes more popular, technology also becomes more advanced. Today's mobile platforms games companies offer more interactive and engaging interfaces to provide a better gaming experience for players.
Mobile game development past, present, and future
Initially, mobile phones came to our life as communication devices. People have not imagined these devices as gaming tools at that time. Since that time, mobile phones have changed dramatically and brought new concepts to our lives. On the other hand, entertainment has always kept a special place in our lives. Therefore, people thought that combining mobile phones and television would be a great idea. The first introduced mobile games were Tetris in 1994 and three years later Snake in 1997. These early games have minimal effects, fundamental visual quality, block articles, and snail-paced action. Initially, the video game development industry has faced lots of problems because of mobile hardware problems. Mobile phones were struggling because of low battery life, poor graphics, and low memory availability.
The times when we had old-school games such as Snake, Pac-Man, and Tetris is over. Now with the development of technology, we have better mobile devices with better hardware and software functionalities to support high-quality games. Now mobile phones do not have any restrictions to provide the best gaming experience for players. There are lots of available game categories that e can mention. For example, combat games, detective games, real-time strategy games, survival/zombie games, simulation games, and adventure are great examples for the most demanded games.
Game engines for mobile platforms games
Today mobile phones allow developers to create real-life characters and scenes. Therefore, mobile games have evolved from single-player boring games to exciting multiplayer 3D ones. With the help of realistic sound effects and colorful visuals, mobile games have created a new concept in the gaming industry. There are several game engines available for the mobile gaming company to develop an excellent match for mobile phones. Some of them are Unity, CryEngine, J2me, which are the most popular engines today. Developers choose an engine based on the game type they want to develop. Let’s mention some more facts about the mobile platforms games engines you could use while developing your mobile game. Unity 3d is an excellent choice to create interactive games. It helps you to build cross-platform 3D games. Additionally, you could import from famous 3D applications such as Maya.
More about game engines
If you want to find an engine for a beginner level, then CryEngine would be a perfect choice. With the help of that engine, you can easily create mobile games with realistic visuals. It also comes with the best audio tool, which is Fmod. According to experts, CryEngine is the best tool for beginners. The next popular engine we want to mention in this article is Unreal Engine 4. Today casino game development uses this engine as a mobile game development tool. Unreal Engine 4 has played a unique role in the development phase of some famous games that players love to play, such as Blade or Batman. It has so many useful features like dynamic lighting and developed particle system to improve the game graphics.
The last but not least game engine we could recommend you develop mobile games is J2me. It is a version of Java. However, the main advantage is about its security features. It also provides lots of development alternatives, and omit any security fee. Let’s discuss some of the engines more detailed.
Unity
Unity is the first most used mobile development engine among game developers. It allows you to create your first game using both 2D and 3D features. As we have mentioned, while using Unity game development, you could import assets from 3D apps like Blender or Maya. Or if you do not want to do it, you can access their store and purchase one of the wide variety of assets. If you are new in game development, you can easily use Unity. It provides all the flexibilities for beginners with lots of guides and tutorials. Therefore, unity is the most popular mobile platforms games engine to develop mobile games. It supports all platforms, including IOS, Android, Windows Phone, Fire OS, and Tizen OS.
If you are going to use Unity for your usage, it is free. However, you need to pay $25 monthly for a Plus edition. For the Pro edition, the price is $125 per month. The popular games which used Unity for development process are Pokemon Go, Angry Birds, Lara Croft Go, and many others.
Unreal Engine
Another excellent option for new beginners is Unreal Engine. It does not require any programming skills from developers thanks to its easy user interface. The developer will easily develop and make changes to the game without performing any coding in the background of the game. Another advantages and easiness that Unreal Engine provides are about its testing features. You can test the developed game without leaving Unreal Engine as it provides testing inside of the platform. The supported platforms by Unreal Engine are as follows:
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Android
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Linux
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HTML5
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IOS
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MAC OS
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Windows PC
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VR Platforms
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Xbox One
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Steam OS
If you have a small project with less work, you can use it without any additional purchases. In any other cases, you need to pay loyalty percentage. For example, if you get $3000 profit from the game, you need to pay 5% to the platform. Some famous games developed using the Unreal Engine include ABC Augmented Reality, Heart at Attack, Lineage ||: Revolution, and many others.
Corona SDK
Corona SDK is a cross-platform product and uses Lua scripting language. Do not worry about the coding because Lua is easy to learn and code. There are lots of plugins and 2D features available in Corona MarketPlace for developers. Using this game engine, you could use its documentation as its most important feature is that documentation. You could also see the real-time simulation version to understand how your app will look like after mobile platforms games. Corona SDK supports IOS, Android, Kindle, Windows Phone, Apple, and Android TV. If you have decided to use Corona SDK to develop mobile games, note that its core functionalities are free to use. The famous games that used Corona as the game engine are I Love Hue, Grow Beets Clicker.
SpriteKit - Sprite based games
Apple owns the SpriteKit game engine to develop 2D games. To use the platform, you need to have programming skills. It supports Swift and Object-Oriented C Languages. The engine provides a wide variety of features for developers. If you want to develop mobile games only for Apple devices, then it is the platform for you. Note that if the engine is the product of Apple, then you do not need to download any additional library or sources. You can 100% be sure that SpriteKit will be the best match for all Apple products. Further, it is a free product. The popular games that used SpiteKit for mobile platforms games are Accelebot, Squashy Bug, and Trestle.
Marmalade SDK
Marmalade SDK has become one of the popular mobile platforms games engines among developers. The main reason for that is that you can develop both desktop and mobile games using the generator. It supports C++ language, and it means you need to have programming skills to create games using the Marmalade SDK. At the same time, you will use different codes, libraries, and tools for testing and programming. It supports IOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Tizen OS. If you want to develop mobile games using Marmalade SDK you need to pay $600. Some of the famous games by Marmalade SDK are Doodle Jump, Cut the Rope, Need for Speed: Shift, Plants and Zombies 2, Metal Gear Solid Mobile.
BuildBox
You can create games in a short time and quickly. For using BuildBox, you do not need to know any programming language, import libraries, or select images. You can see all the changes in real-time. It is an excellent platform for people who do not have experience with mobile platforms games. It is another game engine that supports only the IOS game development. There are several pricing plans for developers. Price for Plus Plan is $15 per month. If you want to use Indie Plan, you will pay $35 for a month. Another plan is Pro, which requires $99 per month. Limelight, Reached, Buildbox is several games by Buildbox platform.
Main features of modern mobile games
Thanks to advanced software and hardware solution tools available, the mobile gaming industry has evolved a lot. Today it offers more advanced features and better gaming experience to gamers. More advanced features mean how much you can make the game you developed be close to reality. Hardware and software flexibility also speed up the mobile platforms games process. For that reason, we can see thousands of mobile games available to download at app stores.
Excellent graphics, detailed specification, clear visuals, perfect sound effects, responsiveness, cross-platform feature, bright animations are a few features that modern games offer to players. These features also can provide virtual reality experience for gamers. Virtual reality could be the best and enjoyable experiences that can evoke real-life emotions. There are many these kinds of games that test your speed, ability, knowledge, and common sense.
New trends in the mobile gaming industry
Initially, we would like to start with multiplayer games. These kinds of games allow more than one player to join a single game and share the same game environment. It provides interaction among players to make the gaming experience more real and exciting. No matter in which place of the world you live, you can play with players from different countries. Today many multiplayer games offer cross-platform gaming. The next feature we want to mention is about social games. You can play social games online and with social media integration. These games are among the most popular ones in the world. While playing them, you also stay connected with your friends. Mafia Wars, Candy Crush are two of the social games that people enjoy playing on Facebook.
We are continuing with location-based games. According to site-based games, you gain progress based on your location. The game usually retrieves your position using GPS. Notably, the creation of Pokemon Go destroyed traditional gaming and established a new trend in the industry. The game has made millions of people walk down streets to catch the fantasy animal. It became viral all over the world and inspired thousands of companies to develop mobile platforms games based on the location. Now we can mention hundreds of games that work based on the augmented reality.
While talking about mobile games, we should mention about phone accelerometers as well. An accelerometer is a tool which senses the movement of the phone. It detects at which angle you hold the device. Accelerometer sensors work as game controllers. They find the speed of the player, phone angle, and tilt with the help of accelerometer developers managed to develop a new type of games.
Mobile gaming market statistics
Mobile gaming has come a long way since the creation of the Snake. It has become a profitable market for most of the tech entrepreneurs. Now there are millions of free or cheap mobile game options for each user. Most of the games are cross-platform. It does not matter whether you are using IOS or Android phone as you can find different versions of the same game for every mobile device. But have ever thought how big the IOS or Android game development industry is? We have researched it and collected some statistics for you.
Initially, we would like to mention that mobile games still have some problems when we compare it with PC or console games. However, it has developed a lot over the years and come with better graphics and visuals. And today, the mobile gaming industry is on the rise. By the end of 2015, the gaming market has been worth about $25 billion. Mostly, the US, China, and Japan dominate the market. Overall, 56% profit of the gaming industry comes from the Asia Pacific countries.
Additionally, 93% of the purchased apps are mobile apps. When it comes to social network games, 61% of the total 100 million gamers play them on Facebook. More than 50% of mobile phone users play mobile games every day.
Future of mobile gaming
While considering about mobile gaming, we see the bright future. There are lots of startups working on mobile gaming. Additionally, venture capitalists are investing a lot of money in the gaming industry. Mobile devices are becoming an essential part of our lives, and the mobile gaming industry is gaining an advantage from it. Of course, we can't predict the exact future of mobile gaming as it also depends on other factors. But statistics reveal positive feedback about it.
There could be newly introduced technologies in mobile gaming such as artificial intelligence, sound sense, color detection, motion sensing, and a lot of new ones.
Mobile platforms games will not only be about mobile phones. You will be able to control a game with your voice or thoughts. Experts also note that in future we will see more cross-platform games. There will be different ways to access the same game. You will be able to start your game on TV, continue it on your phone, and then continue playing on your PC.