Unreal Engine For Mobile Game Development: A Detailed Overview

The recent game trends are about achieving realism and futuristic looks in a wide genre of games, which is possible using robust game engines. Unreal Engine for mobile game development is a highly recommended game engine as it develops highly realistic and immersive games as if they exist in real life. 

 

Unreal Engine is developed by Epic Games, which is one of the world’s recognized game developers and publishes mainly known for games like Fortnite.

 

Mobile game development revenue is expected to reach an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2027) of 6.42%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$222.70bn by 2027.

 

With its continuous growth, game developers and publishers show their interest in mobile games but find themselves in the dilemma of choosing the right game engine for game development on Android and iOS. Let’s see why Unreal Engine is the right platform to develop games for mobile. 

 

Can you make mobile games with Unreal Engine?

 

Yes, you can make mobile games with unreal engines as it provides open source code, game development kits, and game porting to different platforms. For 2D and 3D games, UE 4 and 5 have a lot of features that are quick solutions for developers, hence time and cost-saving. 

 

Technologies in Unreal Engine for Mobile Game Development 

 

The fifth iteration of Unreal Engine introduces many new features, including Nanite, Lumens, virtual shadow maps, and temporal super-resolution. Let’s take a look at each of these features: 

 

Nanite

 

Nanite is Unreal Engine 5's virtualized geometry system, which renders pixel scale detail and high object counts using a new internal mesh format and rendering engine.

 

 

Lumen 

 

Lumen is the default global illumination and reflection system in Unreal Engine 5, and it is a completely dynamic global illumination and reflection system developed for next-generation consoles. 

 

 

Virtual Shadow Maps

 

Virtual Shadow Maps (VSMs) are a new shadow mapping method that uses Unreal Engine 5's Nanite Virtualized Geometry, Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections, and World Partition features to deliver consistent, high-resolution shadowing that works with film-quality assets and large, dynamically lit open worlds, game environments, and game assets.

 

 

Temporal Super Resolution

 

 

TSR (Temporal Super Resolution) is a platform-independent Temporal Upscaler that allows Unreal Engine to create stunning 4K visuals. Images are produced at a fraction of the cost by spreading parts of the expensive rendering calculations across multiple frames. It is accomplished by rendering lower internal resolution than Temporal Anti-Aliasing Upsampling (TAAU) in Unreal Engine 4.

 

Why choose Unreal Engine for Mobile Game Development? 

 

Some prefer Unity for game development, while others prefer Unreal engines 4 and 5. There is a dilemma and debate over choosing a game engine that is best suited for mobile game development. To answer this question, we have compiled a list of reasons for choosing the Unreal engine for developing games: 

 

Allows Cross-Platform Development 

 

Cross-platform games have a wide reach, mostly to the global audience, i.e., iOS and Android users, so many game developers and publishers opt for cross-platform games. Unreal Engine provides an immaculate platform for cross-platform game development with its special visual scripting tools like Blueprint to create game visuals supported by different platforms at once without any lag. 

 

Seamless Game Porting

 

One of the prominent features of the unreal engine is that it allows developers to create games for multiple platforms, including PC, mobile, and consoles. Its application of cross-platform development is broad as it enables game porting from one platform to another. By this, it means that if a game has been developed on a PC, it can be easily ported to a different platform, such as mobile or console, using an Unreal Engine.  

 

Open Pool of Knowledge Base and Resources 

 

Unreal engine is one of the most-used game engines for development. Hence, its knowledge base documentation and resources are easily available. It not only lessens the hassle for beginner game developers but is extremely useful for expert game developers to solve the blockers and seamlessly introduce features to the game. 

 

Reduces Need for Third Party Software 

 

Unreal Engine 4 and 5 have several tools that allow game developers to create 2D/3D characters, environments, props, etc. It has drawing and painting tools and sculpting, rigging, modeling, texturing, and animation capabilities. Having various tools and features reduces the need for other game design softwares, which reduces dependability and saves game developers time. 

 

Open-Source Platform 

 

Unreal Engine has its source code available on GitHub, making it a highly customizable platform for game developers. It enables developers to customize their game development pipeline and make it efficient for their projects. 

 

It’s free 

 

Unreal Engine offers three types of licenses, i.e., standard license, enterprise program, and custom license. Its standard license is free for game developers and publishers until they reach $1M in revenue. Not only this, but another amazing factor about working with Epic’s Unreal Engine is that after you reach the threshold of $1M, you will only have to pay 5% of the revenue. 

 

Guide to Developing Mobile Games with Unreal Engine

 

Developing mobile games with an unreal engine has proven beneficial for game developers. It might seem daunting initially, but starting with the right approaches and using its robust, developing games with UE 4 and 5 is worth it. Let’s take a look at the overview of important steps:

 

Setting up project on UE 

 

To start with Unreal Engine, set up your project as it allows developers to choose Android and iOS setups. Choose the setup and configurations per your project requirements, depending on whether it is iOS or Android.

 

Optimize game for mobile devices

 

Mobile devices have hardware limitations as compared to PCs and consoles. Therefore, while developing a mobile game on an unreal engine, ensure you properly optimize the game assets and design, such as props, characters, environments, etc., so that they run smoothly on devices like tablets and smartphones. For optimizing game assets, you can do the following:

 

• Reduce poly count of 3D models

• Reduce the texture size and compression quality

• Implement LOD models

• Create assets batch to improve rendering performance 

• Compress audio files to reduce their size and memory usage

 

Design mobile-specific input

 

Mobile devices require different input as compared to PC and console devices. Therefore, it is necessary to design your game input system based on the mobile platform for the game. It entails support for touch input, accelerometer input, and gyroscopic input. You can also implement touch and gesture controls that provide an intuitive and enjoyable gaming experience.

 

Utilize mobile-specific features

 

Unreal Engine offers specific mobile game development features that cater to different hardware and software needs. Mobile games have different features, such as creating scalable user interfaces to provide optimized gameplay across different screen sizes. Moreover, using UE, you can employ different mobile-specific rendering techniques, such as dynamic resolution scaling and occlusion culling, to improve performance. 

 

UE also supports integration with Google Play and Apple Game Center, enabling developers to add achievements, leaderboards, and other social features to your game.

 

Testing and deployment 

 

Once you have completed mobile game development, it’s time to thoroughly test your game to ensure high game performance and experience. After fixing the bugs, you must create a build for the app stores. To create builds for the app stores, following the guidelines provided by Apple and Google is essential. 

 

5 incredible mobile games made with Unreal Engine

 

Now that we have discussed some of the most important factors for understanding unreal engines for mobile games, it’s time to look at the five best unreal engine games. 

 

1. Life is Strange Mobile

2. Blade & Soul Revolution

3. MAD8: Raid Battle

4. Overhit

5. Shurado

 

Unreal Engine for Mobile Game Development

 

Are you looking for Unreal Engine 4 and 5 experts who can create immersive gameplays and give your project a unique gaming experience? 

 

At InvoGames, we offer unreal engine development services to equip you with expert game developers who create immersive games, and realistic game environments and deliver a top-notch epic experience for your audience. 

Reach out to us today and unlock your gaming success with us!