The Unreal engine is commonly used to develop games for PC and consoles. For years, the game engine only supported development for these platforms.
But a few years back, Unreal added support for mobile game development. Ever since then, the game engine has become popular among mobile game developers.
Nowadays, almost every big and small game development company uses this game engine for developing mobile games. Acclaimed mobile games like Injustice 2, Fortnite, and Mortal Kombat Mobile, were developed with Unreal. There are many reasons for this popularity among mobile game developers.
Read on to learn all about the advantages associated with using unreal engine for mobile games development.
The following are some of the major reasons behind hiring an Unreal game developers for mobile game development:
With the Unreal engine, you can develop for both Android and iOS platforms simultaneously. You will only need to make minimal platform-specific changes.
In addition, you can also choose to develop your game for one of these platforms and later port your game to the other one in the future.
Furthermore, with the help of Unreal engine game development service, you can develop games for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and even AR and VR as well.
The Unreal Engine was created by Epic, one of the world’s leading game developers and publishers. Epic’s notable games include Fortnite and the classic Unreal Tournament.
As the game engine is developed by such a notable game company, the features in Unreal are comprehensive solutions that most game developers want to use. It is a trustworthy choice to deliver the right results because of its versatility and variety in tools.
In Unreal Engine 4, Epic added Paper 2D, which is a sprite-based 2D animation system that you can use to develop 2D and 2D/3D hybrid games. Paper2D has made the Unreal engine an excellent choice for developing 2D games.
Notable games developed using Paper2D include The Siege and The Sandfox, a 2D Metroidvania game, and Octopath Traveler, a JRPG with both 2D and 3D art.
However, the ability to create large-scale games with high-fidelity graphics is still the main draw of the Unreal Engine. Some of the best games created for mobile using the Unreal game engine like Injustice 2, Mortal Kombat Mobile, etc., are games with high-quality 3D graphics.
To use Unreal, you neither have to make an upfront payment nor pay a monthly subscription. You can use the game engine for free. Mobile games made with unreal engine have uncompromised quality while being cost-effective to develop.
You don’t have to pay Epic unless your game’s revenue exceeds $1 million. If it does exceed this figure, you have to pay Epic a 5% cut.
You can avoid this 5% cut, by paying Epic a certain amount upfront. You can avail of this payment model by getting in touch with Epic directly.
Epic has posted the complete source code of the Unreal Engine on GitHub.
You can get this source code and alter the Unreal Engine to suit your mobile development requirements. You can personalize the development experience and even add or remove features.
With a personalized Unreal Engine and a team of experienced Unreal developers, you can create your mobile game quicker and better.
Besides the option for multi-platform development, game porting is another advantage of the Unreal engine. This means when you create a mobile game using an unreal game engine, it can be transferred to another platform including a PC and a console. By making the game available on a variety of platforms, you can ensure the game reaches the maximum number of potential users. The game porting is made possible through the game source code and applying C++ API to develop Android games which can be easily ported to other platforms.
The Unreal engine has a lot of documentation for mobile game development which is useful to game developers to learn using the various tools. These documents are professionally created manuals and guides provided by the game engine. The game developers have enough learning materials that help them master the uses of the various tools on this platform.
Unreal has a plethora of toolsets that are suitable for professional game development. They are sufficient to cater to technical artists, mobile game developers, game testers, and other professionals working for any unreal game development studio.
The comprehensive suite of unreal game development tools is suitable for creating 2D as well as 3D games. The user-friendly visual editor helps to create intricate game worlds for a variety of game platforms. The developers do not need extensive coding knowledge to use these tools. There are debugging and profiling tools that help to identify and rectify the problems easily. You can significantly save on resources and time while streamlining the development process.
Unreal engine can help you customize the gameplay mechanics, and make it unique. The platform is very flexible and lets game designers adapt graphical fidelity that will be suitable for a variety of mobile hardware. As the source code is accessible from Github, you can easily customize the pipeline process as per your development style. This way the development process can be accelerated and done more efficiently. The customization helps to optimize the performance without compromising the visual quality. The customization also helps to accommodate diverse genres and game styles. Create innovative mechanics and gameplay experiences that will make your mobile game stand out in the market.
Unreal Engine has a diverse marketplace that also offers free as well as premium treasure trove of various assets, tools, and plugins that can be integrated into a wide range of projects. They are useful for streamlining development and saving time. This marketplace is particularly useful to mobile game developers who occasionally have time constraints as well as limited resources. A wide variety of features including plugins for monetization. Specialized optimization and analytics tools are made available through the marketplace. Overall, the entire system fosters innovation and accelerates the development process. You can incorporate cutting-edge technology and features that make your mobile game stand out.
Games made by Unreal engine for mobile comes with a variety of features provided certain criteria get fulfilled. The following factors have to be considered by the game developers to ensure their mobile game projects work on all devices smoothly:
Every mobile device has different hardware capabilities. To make sure the game runs smoothly on all these devices, it is crucial to optimize the game as per the requirement. The Unreal engine has toolsets that are specifically designed to help you optimize the unreal mobile games such that the game works out on different mobiles as well as platforms like Android and iOS.
The different graphics tools like the visual editor help to balance the visual fidelity and performance that cater to different player preferences as well as devices. The graphics need to be tweaked to enable streamlined gameplay on devices with varied hardware capacities.
Responsive UI design ensures the game works on devices with varied screen sizes without getting disfigured in the process. It is also crucial to devise intuitive touch controls so that the gameplay is smooth. The responsive UI also ensures the video game can be played on different devices such that the game does not get distorted. Mobile games made with unreal and designed by expert professionals showcase a streamlined UI that is easy to navigate for users.
It is crucial to configure the game design such that the file size is within a certain limit. Users would not want to download a game that is extremely huge and may cause lagging on the phone within a few days. Optimizing the assets and compressing the textures of the game will help to reduce the overall file size without compromising the quality of the project.
One must test the game for a variety of devices to eradicate any kind of performance issue with the unreal engine mobile games. There are several testing tools available on the Unreal game engine that are specifically suitable for mobile game projects.
Monetization is a crucial part of making the mobile game profitable in the long run. Unreal tools help features to integrate monetization elements like in-app purchases and ads. This is a crucial part of designing any type of video game for mobile or tablets and earning through it.
Mobile games must be updated periodically so that it remains compatible with mobile devices. This will ensure the game is playable for years to come. At the same time, it will remain compatible with the latest OS, new content will be released and also ensure optimum player engagement.
Mobile game developers globally use the Unreal Engine for mobile to develop their Android and iOS games. By choosing Unreal, you can get a lot of benefits that are unavailable on other game engines. So, if you want to develop a game in Unreal engine you have to look into it.
Juego Studios is a leading unreal game development studio offering a wide range of services that include mobile game development as well. Our game developers have the experience and skills to give shape to every gaming vision you have.