R&D for Mobile Game Development

I haven't coded two of our latest games and now, one is on App Store and Google Play, here is browser version with links to mobile and the other is going to be available at FGL pretty soon. Now I go further I haven't tested technologies just set a task, publishing demos, sharing impressions and conclusions :) Now I can be called R&D manager for sure :P

The task is to get our next games work properly in Browser, on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The last requirement makes AIR not a variant, so in focus HTML5+JavaScript and Unity. We made AIR/Flash based performance test demo too anyway. Also Visual Studio was involved %)

The laziest and easiest solution is PhoneGap

Pretty easy and nice but performance of 1,5 FPS on Motorola Defi+ makes it not quite usable.

So we've tested natural performance Unity, HTML5+JavaScript/jsFl and AIR/Flash. We havn't find the way how to display FPS in Unity, so will tell that all three variants runs fast in Browser. On Android Unity, Flash, JS works the same as for Browser naturally. Android selected for showcase because no certificates required to run.

And the most interesting case about Unity build for Windows Phone. It's not too trivial and I'll post howto and some results  As soon as I have more time...

[Updated #1] Hello ... :) I've finally found time to launch it, error was in project for Android, clean new project launches fast and easy :) I'll share more info on actual demo run on Windows Phone and Windows Market submission too ASAP  #gamedev

+ Meanwhile one more Unity tech demo and one more in progress, hope we'll have a new game on Unity pretty soon ^)

[Updated #2] Three more articles [R&D] Unity First Impressions #1, #2 and #3 and several tech demos there.

[Updated #3] Working on one idea how to invent games, don't know have I seen It somewhere or it's or know how, going to share ASAP too :)

In short it's a table of who, what and how it would be getting random values for categories, for example:
Character: Man
Speed: Quickly
Action: Cut
Shape: Round
Characteristics: Large
Goal: Faster
Style: Cartoon Graphics
View: Top
Controls: Mouse
Person: First
Genre: Avoider
It was intended to translate in English but than we decided to provide a link to English words source if anyone interested can place it to table ;)

Anyway idea came in natural way from nowhere not from the table :) Windows Phone development is still on it's way so it's going to be at least one more update %)

[Updated #4] Windows Phone development part of the article finally written as promised and delayed a Year or so with the game close to release made on Unity: Naughty Who? builds for browser and Android at FGL + preview for those who don't have an account there Naughty Who? trailer and more info at IndieDB.

WP development cycle looks like simplified iOS one.

• Unlike Android it has some problematic moments with development builds distribution, so it problematical to share your build for people with phones without unlock and jailbreaks to test.
• The bad side is that you need Windows 8  to build your Unity project, Windows 7 and earlier is not supported. Same about Macs.
• Time to time you need to make developer's unlock of your phone, but it's simple operation and takes few minutes, but it can takes some time while searching solution for first time you doing.
• running on Windows Phone is stable, but running on Lumia 720 shows less fps then on Xperia Play (model of 2011 year). Don't know reason maybe it's the runtime implementations.
• Also some problems with correct model rendering found. Still not found reasons, maybe caused by incompatible shader instructions.
• some APIs that works for Android and iOS are not supported, so spent some time searching solutions and fixes, especially for compiled libraries.
• positive moment is that WP platform is small fragmented, so it's not problem to deploy for models with different specifications.

See You soon in stores with  Naughty Who? release ;)