How to Optimize Game Performance for Mobile Devices?

The gaming world has evolved into a digital wonderland, where stunning visuals and sounds, instant chat, and smooth connection create the ultimate mobile game experience.

Imagine the past. Could you possibly do this back then?Hmm! The answer is most probably a straight , “NO”.The gaming world has changed radically. With an immersive experience, cross-platform capabilities, and unique control systems, it gives you the ultimate thrill. What’s even more interesting is the evolution of gaming itself.

Back in the days, video games used to be a thing only for computers and dedicated consoles. But look around now. Smartphones and other mobile devices have become a new standard for game development.

Gaming companies are now dedicating huge capitals in R&D and for creating games for mobile devices. On the other hand, smartphone companies are putting equal efforts to churn out devices with the latest hardware and software configurations for maximum game performance.

As per the report from Newzoo: Global Games Market Report as of May 2023,

Mobile game revenues in the year 2022 accounted for 50% of the global market, reaching $91.8 billion.

The mobile gaming market seems to be unstoppable with the massive figures. And this is the perfect playground for giant corporations both in the gaming and the smartphone industry.

Well, its not uncommon for the smartphone manufacturers to hit bottlenecks with the gaming performance of even the newest devices. Games are becoming much more complex pushing smartphone makers to create even better devices. Okay! Enough about the gaming and smartphone industry.

What about testing these games to make sure that they perform well on mobile devices?With so much capital and market share for mobile games, its crucial to make sure that the game works flawlessly with maximum device coverage.

However, providing an error and lag free-gaming experience is not an easy feat.That’s where mobile game performance testing comes into play.

With the growing number of mobile gamers as well as the developers who build these games, its very important for the games to be tested well.

With heavy investments and countless hours put in to develop these games, its equally important to test these games by the QA professionals.

In this blog, you will learn about the essential strategies for mobile game optimization and testing to achieve precision with top-notch testing methods.So, Let’s dive in!

Table of Content

1. Maximizing Mobile Game Performance
2. Testing Approaches for Mobile Game Optimization
3. Challenges Involved in Mobile Game Testing
4. Game Metrics Every Tester Must Know for Mobile Game Optimization
5. FAQs

Maximizing Mobile Game Performance

Mobile devices comprise an extensive range of screen sizes and operating systems. Thus, it is essential to test the responsiveness of your mobile game.

Factors like screen resolution, configurations, and operating systems vary which affect the game's performance. That’s why it becomes extremely crucial to verify the performance of a mobile game before it reaches the end users.

Below are some key ways to maximize mobile game performance.

#1 Resource Management

Mobile devices as compared to computers or consoles have significantly fewer resources. Thus, optimizing these resources is essential. One aspect of resource management is effectively utilizing the CPU (Central Processing Unit) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).

Furthermore, mobile devices have limited memory capacity that’s why it is important to minimize unnecessary memory allocations and efficiently manage memory resources. It enables mobile games to utilize the available processing power memory to increase load times.

It also helps improve frame rates to create an enjoyable gaming experience for players.

#2 Optimizing Battery Life

Optimization of mobile game applications is important to ensure uninterrupted gameplay for prolonged hours. Minimizing background activity helps in enhancing the battery life. It includes minimizing network requests, background downloads, and optimizing background tasks.

Moreover, graphic rendering leads to extensive battery drainage which requires optimization. Implementing energy-efficient animations consumes less power which helps in saving mobile batteries while gameplay.

Other battery-friendly features include toggles for lowering frame rates and visual effects. It enables players to enjoy gaming without the need for frequent charging.

#3 Utilizing Profiling Tools

Profiling tools allow you to analyze various performance metrics of your mobile game. With the help of these tools, several areas can be targeted for make the mobile game even more performant.

Memory Analysis with these tools can uncover potential memory leaks across code base and provide insights on possible memory fragmentation if any.

By analyzing these patterns you can optimize memory allocation and address memory-related issues that may impact stability in mobile gaming apps.

#4 Graphics Optimization

Game textures takes up a lot of memory inflicting heavy load on the device while gaming. Compressing textures can improve the gameplay without affecting the visual quality.

Generally, mobile devices support various texture compression formats including ETC2 (Ericsson Texture Compression) and ASTC (Adaptive Scalable Texture Compression).

To increase loading time, you must utilize formats to optimize texture sizes without compromising on quality. Post-processing effects, such as bloom, depth of field, or motion blur, can enhance visual quality but come at a performance cost.

Carefully adjust quality settings with real-device testing to fine-tune the graphical settings of the game. However, using shader techniques such as dynamic batching, instancing, and shader improves the overall rendering performance of mobile game apps.

Also Read: What to Keep in Mind While Testing a Game Like PUBG?

#5 Cross-Platform Compatibility

Cross-platform compatibility is essential for mobile game app development to ensure consistent performance and gameplay experience across different devices and operating systems.

First of all, clean and efficient code which is portable across different platforms is necessary. Mobile game optimization also requires seamless adaptation of input and control systems such as gamepad controllers, touchscreens, and gyroscopes.

There are a lot of different platforms and marketplaces like Play Store or App Store for game hosting. Most times, these guidelines differ from one another and can be very specific.

It’s very important to properly understand these to make sure that the game checks green on compliance and compatibility. It allows players to enjoy the game on every device leading to increased satisfaction.

#6 Frame Rate Optimization

The frame rate of any game has a direct impact on overall gaming experience. A higher frame rate reduces input latency for accurate action responsiveness. It leads to creating an immersive and engaging virtual experience with instant action response.

Utilization of best code practices throughout the mobile game application can result in an optimized performance. This plays a key role efficient processing as well.

Additionally, the specific codes that affects or takes care of the frame rate needs to be identified and optimized. The codes for complex algorithms and game physics calculations are some of the areas to be focused on the most.

Therefore, striving for optimal frame rates enhances mobile game optimization leading to maximum performance and a seamless experience.

Testing Approaches for Mobile Game Optimization

Game testing for mobile devices differs from traditional software testing due to unique challenges such as different screen sizes, operating systems, and hardware configurations.

A well designed approach which covers specific testing strategies is required while testing mobile games. By combining these testing approaches, game developers can identify and resolve issues early in the development cycle.

Let’s check out the following testing approaches to optimize mobile game performance.

#1 Performance Testing

Mobile game performance testing focuses on evaluating the performance under different conditions which include testing the game’s responsiveness, frame rate, and network performance.

#2 Automated Testing

The process of automated testing involves using automated tools for simulating user interactions and testing various aspects of the mobile game. It can be used for functional testing, regression testing, etc.

#3 Functional Testing

It involves testing various features, game mechanics, user interactions, menus, controls, levels, and any other functional aspects of the game.

#4 Load Testing

Load testing involves testing the mobile game by simulating scenarios that includes huge user traffic surges, variable loads, and evaluating loads for muti player scenarios. It is essentially helpful in identifying bottlenecks that may arise while playing games.

#5 User Experience Testing

User experience testing focuses on evaluating the overall experience including audio, graphics, controls, immersion, and navigation.By combining these different approaches, QA teams can thoroughly evaluate and optimize their mobile games, ensuring a high level of quality, performance, and user satisfaction.

Challenges Involved in Mobile Game Testing

Mobile game testing comes with its fair share of risks and challenges. Some of the key challenges involved in mobile game testing include the following.

#1 Network Connectivity Issues

Most mobile games, especially multiplayer games rely on network connectivity. Variable network speeds can severely affect the gameplay. Most common issues include slow-response times, frequent disconnections, and lack of synchronization while playing.

#2 In-App Purchase

Testing in-app features involves checking purchase flows, payment gateways, and currency systems to ensure that the game complies with the relevant regulations. Potential risks include fraudulent transactions, virtual currency redemption or balances, etc. which must be checked thoroughly.

#3 Bugs and Game Balancing

QA testers must also focus on game balancing ensuring fair gameplay with appropriate difficulty levels. Otherwise, it leads to progression issues, gameplay mechanics, and critical bugs which affect the player experience and gaming integrity.

#4 User Control and Interface

Mobile game optimization also emphasizes user control and interface. Touch-based input like, tap, swipe up and down, drag, etc. requires precise and intuitive control.

These risks include accidental touches, unresponsive controls, poor user design, and input lag. Hence, testing the game’s user interface, button placement, and gesture recognition, is very important.

Also Read: No Bugs Allowed: How To Keep Your Quality Testing Flawless

Game Metrics Every Tester Must Know for Mobile Game Optimization

By optimizing your mobile game with QAble, you unlock its full potential which is fine-tuned to perfection, enticing players to spend more time exploring its immersive worlds.

As a tester, monitoring game metrics is essential to evaluate the engagement and performance of the mobile game.

Here are some of the popular game metrics that every QA must know for seamless mobile game optimization.

• Daily Active Users- It represents the number of unique users who are actively engaging daily.
• Retention Rate- The retention rate measures the percentage of players continuing to play the game. Thus, low retention rates indicate gameplay issues, lack of content, etc.
• Monthly Active Users- MAU measures the number of unique users who actively engage with the game over a month.
• Conversion Rate- The conversion rate is used to measure the number of players making in-app purchases, subscribing to a premium service, or performing any pre-defined objective within the game.
• Average Revenue Per User- It calculates the average revenue generated per user by providing significant insights into the game monetization performance.
• Level Competition Rate- The level competition rate measures the percentage of the players who complete the levels in the game.
• Crash Rate- It helps in measuring the frequency of game crashes which is essential for mobile game optimization.

• Session Length- It indicates the level of player engagement and the game's ability to captivate and retain users.

By monitoring and analyzing these metrics, QA experts can provide valuable insights to the stakeholders. As a result, you can make informed decisions for mobile game optimization.

It’s time for you to reach a wide audience and achieve leads with QAble’s mobile game optimization services.

We ensure that your game achieves the best quality and stands out from the crowd.In conclusion, choose QAble today and realize the power of mobile game optimization by partnering with the leading game testing company in India.