What are the most common mistakes to avoid when optimizing a mobile game for different devices?

One time, I was working on Mayan Jumble (a 2D puzzle game), and I tested it only on Android devices. Everything worked perfectly. Then I built it for iOS and found out that the object scaling is not well adapted for iPad. If I hadn't tested it on all the devices the game could be played on, I would have delivered an incomplete project. That's why you need to make sure you test everything properly and on every device.

When we develop a mobile game, and publish it so it's user don't have same devices some have good device and some don't have, so when we develop a game we must have to test it on different devices to make sure that it's run on every device smoothly.

When optimizing a mobile game for different devices, it’s crucial to avoid common mistakes to ensure a smooth and enjoyable gaming experience across various platforms.

Culling is a technique that ensures only the necessary elements are rendered on the scene. Frustum Culling is a technique that hides all objects that are outside of the viewpoint (camera pyramid), this way you only render what matters, things that the player can see. Diving deeper into this technique you have… Occlusion Culling goes a step further, you hide everything that the player can’t see from his current viewpoint. If you have a room and you have some clothes in the wardrobe, with this step you hide the clothes because the player can’t see them.

Object Pooling is another optimization technique commonly used in game development to manage the instantiation and destruction of objects. Instead of creating and destroying objects dynamically as needed, object pooling involves pre-allocating a pool of objects at the start of the game and reusing them through the session. This reduces the rendering complexity associated with creating and destroying objects during gameplay, resulting in smoother performance and reduced memory usage.

Optimizing audio involves smart management like pausing distant sounds to save CPU resources and prioritizing essential audio to ensure crucial sounds remain uninterrupted. Also, keeping a close eye on frame budgets and device temperatures can prevent overheating and maintain performance. Techniques and insights from sources like Game Dev Beginner and Unity Blog offer valuable strategies for effective audio optimization in mobile gaming.

Optimizing mobile games for diverse devices involves key strategies like compressing textures with ATSC for most, using PVRTC for older iOS, and ETC2 for early Androids to balance quality and memory. Mesh import settings need careful management to minimize memory use. Time budgeting per frame is crucial to prevent overheating, with a recommendation to use about 65% of available frame time. Profiling helps identify if the game is GPU or CPU bound, directing optimization efforts effectively. Reducing garbage collection impact by avoiding unnecessary heap allocations and employing the Incremental Garbage Collector can also enhance performance.