Google announces new tools to make Android game development easier

At the Google for Games Developer Summit, the search giant announced new tools and services that make it easier for you to develop games and new opportunities to drive your go-to-market success on Google Play.

For easier development of games, Google launched the Android Game Development Kit that helps you develop, optimize, and deliver high-quality Android games. Initially, it covers three areas:

• Tools for workflows (e.g. a new Visual Studio extension)
• Essential C/C++ game libraries (e.g. the new Game Text Input library)
• Performance optimization (e.g. frame profiler support in our GPU profiler and new loading time support in Android Performance Tuner)

Next, Google announced 'Play as you download", a new feature that reduces download times and allows players to get into gameplay in seconds with minimal developer effort. With this new feature, you can expect games to be ready to open at least 2 times faster on Android 12 devices.

⏱️⬇️ "Play as you download" reduces download times, lets your players into games sooner, and requires minimal engineering changes! See how it's available in #Android12 now at this LIVE #GoogleforGames session → https://t.co/REy73uWEVU pic.twitter.com/HvL7YKqyFv

— Android Developers (@AndroidDev) July 12, 2021

Now, Ratings and Reviews in the Google Play Console offer new ways to help you understand your game's ratings with views across different form-factors, the ability to access and query your ratings' history, and new historical rating metrics.

Pre-registration in Google Play Store has also been refreshed, with the ability to use App campaigns for building greater excitement for the game in open testing or to drive pre-registration in the Play Store.

Google is also investing in tools to help developers protect the integrity of their apps and games and reduce abuse. The new Play Integrity API will help you fight abuse, such as cheating and unauthorized early access by helping you determine if you're interacting with your genuine game binary, installed by Google Play, on a genuine Android device.