Play as you Download expands to more phones as Google simplifies mobile game development
The2022 Google for Games Developer Summitis kicking off with the traditional series of announcements about the company’s upcoming plans and projects. Like some previous events, the central theme is focused on removing limits by bringing Android games to more devices with more form factors, and in less time.
One of the stars of the show is the recently announcedGoogle Play Games for PC, a project that brings Android games to Windows PCs. In January, the beta program began accepting sign-ups from early adopters in South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, but thefirst closed beta only just launchedabout two days ahead of the Developer Summit. There doesn’t seem to be a timeline yet for a wider rollout. In the meantime, Google was keen to point out that Android usage on Chrome OS grew 50% between 2020 and 2021, and the leading cause is likely games.
The other big highlight aimed at users is theplay-as-you-download featurethat enables some games to be launched while only the necessary portion has been downloaded, and the remaining segments of the game are then subsequently transferred in the background. This feature was officially announced nearly a year ago with an initial rollout to a limited set of devices, and there have been some updates inJanuaryandMarch. Today, Google is announcing that play-as-you-download support will be expanding to all devices with Android 12 soon. There’s no formal timeline for the full rollout to all users or a public SDK for developers, but Google is encouraging developers to apply to be part of the beta with their own games.
Developer-oriented announcements are also a significant part of the event. Last year Google released the brand new Android Game Development Kit (AGDK), and this year it is gaining a new Visual Studio extension that supports compiling for Android and linking to Android Studio to perform live on-device debugging. There’s also a new Memory Advice API in the AGDK for getting a better grasp on the limitations of a device.
The developer console and Play Store are getting some upgrades as well, predominantly focusing on the side of improving profitability for developers. These include theReach and devicesandStrategic guidancefeatures for getting a grasp on where there may be potentials to increase user spending and improve revenue.Android Vitalswas introduced to help developers with troubleshooting issues at scale, and a newDeveloper Reporting APIfor direct programmatic access to statistics and crash reports.
And finally, there’s a new program in the works under the monikerGoogle Play Partner Program for Games. The goal is to bring scalable and custom solutions for game studios that need more resources to accomplish bigger goals. Unfortunately, this is aimed at larger developers, but programs like this often result in products that scale well for indie developers after they have a chance to mature.
The 2022 Google for Games Developer Summit is a purely digital event and all of its sessions are pre-recorded. Thekeynote is available to watchright now; and after it finishes, all of thedeveloper sessions will be releasedat 10AM PST to watch at your leisure.
This article is sponsored by Total Wireless.
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