[MUSIC PLAYING]
PATRICK MARTIN: Hi, everybody.
My name is Patrick Martin, and welcome to the "Android Game
Show."
If you're tuning into this show, you're probably an Android game
developer.
You've invested in building an excellent game
that players all over the world are already enjoying.
You've found a fun gameplay loop,
you've already integrated Google Play and Google technologies
into your game, and you may be looking to grow your audience,
or just keep them more engaged.
So far, your Android game already
runs on phones, tablets, and possibly even
Chrome OS laptops.
But wouldn't it be nice to follow your most dedicated
players onto their gaming PCs?
I don't know about you, but when I settle in
for a long gameplay session, I walk over
to my desktop computer.
This is where I have my large monitor, personalized mouse
and keyboard setup, and, of course, my comfy gaming chair.
Which is why we've created Google Play Games for PC.
It's a brand new form factor for Android games, a first class
Google-supported environment that
allows you to bring the Android game you've already
built and shipped onto the PCs of Windows gamers.
In the past, onboarding a totally new platform
may have cost months of work.
There's no rendering stack to integrate,
totally new system APIs, and SDKs to swap out.
You may need to find a new way to monetize your game.
Of course, with the proliferation
of cross-platform game engines, some of this work
is already taken care of.
But even if your game engine has a built for PC button,
most games will have platform-specific bits
to update.
There's still plenty of non-portable logic needed
for any of the major platforms.
And this is where Google Play games on PC comes in.
When building for this platform, you'll
give PC players a new way to experience
their favorite mobile games that actually feels native.
Now, I know what you're thinking.
This sounds great, but will my game really
just work out of the box?
And the answer is yes and no.
If you just recompile your game for the x86 architecture,
it will usually run.
But our goal is to create an environment where your Android
game will look and feel like any other native PC game,
from the game's performance to how it handles player input.
If you think about the majority of Android games,
though, they're often designed with a mobile form
factor in mind.
And this means a few things.
You will have to support the x86 processor architecture,
preferably x86-64.
Now, if you have a simpler game, mouse clicks
are automatically turned into single-tap events.
But we found that most games, even these simple ones,
can benefit from a bit more input work.
So Play Games on PC provides access
to the mouse and keyboard, allowing
you to support everything from scrollable events
to keyboard presses.
Keep in mind that Windows does not
guarantee the presence of a touch screen,
meaning that it will be your responsibility
to replace interactions like pinch
to zoom with scrollable events.
Remember that this is supposed to feel native,
so you won't find touch overlays or fiddly multi-touch emulation
here.
There are also some unsupported APIs and features.
Some are obvious, like you can't access the compass
or telephony.
But others may be work in progress,
or just not planned for the PC gaming environment.
Check out this page, link in the description below,
for the most up-to-date information.
You'll also want to make some UI changes in order
to make your game feel native on the PC.
For example, I mentioned that you'll need
to support mouse and keyboard.
This means that you'll likely want to add hints to the game
UI, maybe even show a tutorial to tell users
when to use keyboard shortcuts.
We've also built a new input SDK that
makes it easy for you to show users what keyboard and mouse
controls are used in your game.
Link in the description below.
You'll also definitely want to ensure
that you have high-resolution assets and textures for your PC
players.
Unless you're evoking a retro aesthetic, the low-poly models
and low-resolution textures that you can get away
with on a six-inch screen won't impress PC players
with 32-inch monitors.
But you'll have some additional horsepower on the PC,
so you can usually afford to use a little bit more VRAM.
Many developers will also want to tweak their UI layout a bit.
Giant touch-friendly buttons rendered on a six-inch phone
screen will give your game the look
and feel of a '90s computer kiosk
if they're just scaled at the screen size.
PCs also tend to use the 16 by 9, 16 by 10,
and 3 by 2 aspect ratios.
So you need to make sure that your game's UI can handle those
appropriately.
While you're at it, Google Play PC Games
are expected to run at 60 Hertz at a minimum
to maintain a premium feel.
We find that there's enough performance headroom coming
from a phone to throw in the extra frames.
And PC players won't have the same thermal or battery limits
that a phone player will experience.
Another key feature you'll need to implement
is continuity between devices.
This means that a player should be
able to confidently bounce between a PC and a phone
without thinking about it.
Remember, this isn't just about adding PC players
to your mobile game.
You'll also want to let your most dedicated players fire up
their epic battle station when it's
time for some serious business.
To support you in this effort, we've
redesigned play game sign on in version two.
Link in the description below.
Your players will now be signed into their Play Games
account from the moment your game launches,
just as you'd expect from any conventional console
or the major PC game stores, which means that you'll also
completely cut out any churn you'd see from account creation
or registration.
Players will just automatically have a verified identity,
thanks to this new SDK.
Once the player is signed in, you
will have to keep their data up to date.
Imagine spending all night grinding
on some epic armor on your PC, then
not having that progress the next time you pull out
your phone.
I can almost guarantee that you'll churn some players
whenever that happens.
Although we consider seamless continuity between devices
to be a core requirement for Play Games on PC,
we want to leave you in control of your data
and how it's transferred.
So if you're already storing player progress
on your own servers, the easiest thing for you to do
would be to add Play Game sign in support to your mobile game
and start automatically associating
your in-game accounts with the player's Play Games ID.
Then, whenever a player decides to try a game on a PC,
their progress is automatically there without even a sign-in
prompt.
But if you don't already have some cloud backend,
I'd suggest checking out Firestore, play saved games,
or open saves.
But just like games with existing back-ends,
you have no obligation to use these.
You could even opt for something completely wacky,
like writing saves to an IRC channel,
if that's really what your heart truly desires.
I may have done this once.
And that's it for this brief overview
of Google Play Games on PC.
Today, this is an open beta in select countries.
We're really excited to roll it out more broadly.
If you want to join us in this journey,
visit the Overview page, link in the description
below, and register your interest
in becoming an Android on PC developer.
And remember that in addition to building a stronger connection
to your most dedicated players, changes
you make to support the PC will improve your game's experience
on Chrome OS and large-screen Android tablets.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments
below.
We're excited to see what you build.
Bye, everybody.
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