Mobile game development is one of the cornerstone service offerings of the Magic Media group. Though PC and console games have a significant share of the gaming market, mobile gaming is massively successful and continues to grow in popularity year after year. As such, Magic Media is proud to offer mobile game development services for all our clients regardless of project scope and genre.
No two mobile game development projects are the same, but through our extensive experience, Magic Media has developed a broad approach to these projects that can be modified as needed depending on our client’s project requirements. Bolstered by the expertize of the Magic Media Mobile Studio, we’re ready and willing to take on mobile game development projects of all shapes and sizes.
Magic Media is not just a game art development company; we are a team of gaming enthusiasts who breathe, eat, and sleep gaming. Our driving force is the understanding of the vital role that visuals play in creating addictive and engaging games. We specialize in creating stunning mobile game art, including animations, characters, props, environments, and more, which are the soul of great games.
Preparing for Mobile Game Development Projects
The first step for Magic Media on the mobile game development journey is to gather as much information about the project as possible. We need to clearly define critical aspects of the game, such as its genre, target platforms, target audience, monetization strategy, and much more. Additionally, the success of mobile games often depends on user retention. We consider this as part of work on mobile game development projects and craft strategies related to marketing and gameplay incentives to keep players engaged.
Understanding target platforms, in particular, is crucial information we need to understand from the beginning of a project. Despite the similarities between iOS and Android games, each operating system has different requirements and considerations we know intimately well. For iOS mobile game development, Apple requires using tools like Xcode and TestFlight. Android tends to be more lenient with its requirements, and development is compatible with Windows and Linux PCs, but this also necessitates critical decision-making on our part to decide on the best tools possible to deliver Android games.
Mobile Game Development Testing and Platform Requirements
Compared to their console and PC game counterparts, mobile games require particular attention due to their relative lack of power compared to other platforms and the requirement for rapid testing across a wide range of mobile devices.
Mobile games need to be playable on multiple devices, both new and old, so they require rigorous fast-paced testing to ensure smooth performance across the board. Magic Media has a two-pronged approach to testing mobile games, leveraging the talent of our technical artists and quality assurance testers. Our technical artists work on assets to compress textures and use LOD (Level of Detail) models to ensure smooth performance without compromising on visual fidelity. They play a crucial role in adhering to performance constraints.
Our QA team is an essential part of the mobile game development process. They identify code inefficiencies and bugs and regularly test features and performance across a range of devices of varying power and screen sizes. This compatibility testing consists of testing across mid-range and high-end mobile devices to ensure smooth performance. Extensive user experience testing is undertaken to identify any issues related to lag, user inputs, gameplay fluidity, and anything else that could negatively impact the player’s experience.
Performance profiling is a crucial part of the mobile game development process. Our QA team works diligently to monitor performance and identify any possible bottlenecks in GPU, CPU, or memory usage. Once these issues have been identified, our quality assurance department sends detailed reports to the development team so they can be resolved.
Mobile Game Considerations
Working within the realm of mobile game development necessitates certain requirements regardless of the game’s genre. User-friendly UI is critical to a trouble-free user experience. Considering the limited screen space afforded by mobile device screens, especially compared with TV screens and computer monitors, we believe making the most of the space available is paramount in the mobile game development process. Most mobile games need to rely on their touchscreens for players to interact with their game, so they must be well laid out and easy to understand.
Online connectivity is a primary concern for some mobile games. Slot machine games, for instance, require seamless online functionality to provide stable real-time interactions in multiplayer games. In our experience, even the most seemingly simple mobile games, such as multiplayer word games, require painstaking diligence to provide stable connectivity. Depending on the game’s genre, further considerations are related to gameplay logic, mathematical equations, and real-time data synchronization.
Magic Media is a veteran services provider for all things gaming, entertainment, and tech. We offer dozens of services across a wide range of disciplines including full-cycle game development, game VFX, game trailer production, and much more for our valued clients. Get in contact with Magic Media today, and let’s create magic!
