Not a small important part of the development of the game, which novice developers do not think about is the Menu, its visual design and performance. When the main part of the gameplay is ready, there is a false feeling that the project is already ready, and you can prepare it for publication in the store tomorrow. Unfortunately, this is not done in a couple of days. This is a hard and routine job that requires concentration and increased responsibility. When something lights up, spins and moves in the menu, it disposes the user to itself. It’s not for nothing that all major vendors of computer hardware sell their goods with a great emphasis on dynamic RGB substructure, so there is a positive result!
Tip: Before creating your menu, play different games of a similar or related genre. Highlight useful interface and menu features for yourself. What’s interesting about them and what you like.
At this stage of development, many projects never reach release to the world. There are several factors contributing to:
fatigue
loss of interest
self-doubt
everything seems like hell and there is no end to it
Tip: I’ll tell you what I read when I passed this stage myself. DON’T GIVE UP! No matter how difficult it is, in no case GIVE UP and NOT A STEP BACK! Having reached the very end, you will know an avalanche of ecstasy and self-satisfaction from the fact that you did not give up everything! And of course an invaluable experience!!!
Single-user mode
A network game is, of course, good, but what if the user does not have access to a Public Information and Telecommunications System?(Internet)
Of course, it was decided to make a simple single mode, where the player will collect a certain resource for a while, and AI will interfere with him along the way, making it difficult to complete the mission.
Two weeks of work, and the original appearance was like this:
Conceptual differences with the final version lag behind
Conceptual differences with the final version lag behind
Optimization
Phew! Optimization is such a thing that you start to think about when your project on a smartphone produces 10-15 frames per second with friezes and drawdowns up to 4 frames per second. As soon as the testing of the project comes to assembling it on the phone, everything falls into place. When developing applications for mobile smartphones, optimization has a very important role. After all, they do not hide such computing power as on a PC.
I started optimizing my project only after 8 months of development. Because of what it was necessary to optimize a lot and for a long time:
pictures
materials
sound
shaders
camera settings, rendering
interface
scripts
It took me at least two more weeks.
Tip: Do not delay with optimization! Immediately study the question of how to properly use certain settings when working with certain resources in your project in order to achieve the best performance.
One head is good, but a few are better
Be sure to ask other people’s opinions about your project at different stages of development. A different point of view from a different angle will give a good feedback and new ideas for long-term work. Do not take negative feedback about your project as something terrible. A negative review, or even better constructive criticism, is an incredible luck and an incentive to make your project better!
Tip: Find the so-called “victims” that you will use as testers among your relatives, close friends and colleagues on the shop floor. Brother, sister, mom, Dad, boyfriend, girlfriend, boyfriend, girlfriend, anyone. Give him a smartphone with a game, put him next to you and just watch what he doesn’t like and what he likes. The main thing is just keep quiet and watch!
Advertising and in-game purchases
It’s time to embed advertising into your project and make a store. No matter what anyone says, but you won’t get far on enthusiasm alone and you won’t be fed up with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, this is a necessary development block. The main thing here is to approach this matter competently so that the player does not “spit” and the benefit is for both sides!
There are a lot of software for advertising integrations, including from Unity itself, the so-called Unity Ads. However, my choice fell on Google AdMob. Why not Unity Ads? After reading the reviews, I found out that the advertising content contains casinos, roulette and bets. There is already a taste and color, as they say, but I do not want advertising to be associated with such services. I used interstitial and rewarded ads.
Tip: Rewarded ads are much better, because the player himself clicks on viewing ads to get any “buns” in the game. The developer and the user are in the black!
In-game purchases, I implemented in a similar way:
The final version of the game
is “12 months” of hard work, and the final version looks something like this:
Game Menu
Game Menu
Online Gameplay
Online Gameplay
It would seem that everything is done and it remains a small matter, namely to publish the game. But not everything is as simple as it seems!
Tip: Here you need to open another “second” breath, to the previously opened +100500
Publishing the game
The big advantage of choosing Unity is cross-platform, which allows one project to be released on all desired platforms (Android, iOS, PC, WebGL, etc.). At the time of writing, the game was published only for Android in the Google Play Market, but iOS is just around the corner in the Apple Store.
What “pitfalls” are there?
Technically, publishing an application in the Google Play Market is not difficult — everything is intuitive and easy. Pass the age rating check, upload pictures from the game, the logo and everything is ready in principle.
So what is the problem and where are the “pitfalls”?
Privacy policy
It is not a necessary element for publication, however, if there is advertising or in-game purchases in your application, then you should get this “piece of paper” as soon as possible and specify a link to it in the Google Play Console. Fortunately, there are a subset of resources that this document generates in a matter of seconds and immediately offer to place on their website, satisfying Google’s requests.
If you ignore warnings from Google that you do not have a privacy policy, then the application can easily be removed from publication.
Tip: Do not postpone this item for later, do it in parallel with the publication!