How (and why) we developed the Back-End Engine Template to enhance mobile game development
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With mobile game development timelines often extending beyond a year, and costs averaging between $100,000 and $500,000—some going as high as a few million—finding ways to streamline production is vital. As a full-cycle development partner to dozens of the largest gaming companies, we, like any other developer, constantly wrestle to overcome time and cost constraints.
To tackle both challenges, our engineers built the Back-End Engine Template (BEET). This “starting equipment” serves as a set of templates for our engineering teams to use when making mobile games, letting us finish assignments faster and more reliably, cutting development costs in the process. With this engine, features that typically take four months to develop can now be completed in just a few weeks.
The Template Engine’s Capabilities
BEET is an amalgam of the knowledge accumulated after having developed and co-developed over 100 projects over the past decade and having worked with most of the largest gaming companies. As we developed it, our goal was to address the many aspects of development that seem manageable but always add up. The engine comprises a variety of standardized components that can be integrated into most projects:
- Automated Build System: streamlines the build process by considerably reducing manual effort and accelerating release cycles to save costs and time.
- Base Game Flow Management: provides a structure for game state transitions and logic flow, ensures consistent game behavior.
- Battle Pass Template: offers a structure for implementing battle pass functionality to, encourage player monetization through exclusive offers.
- Dependency Injection with VContainer: enhances code maintainability, reduces development complexity and improves long-term project scalability.
- In-Game Windows Management System: efficiently manages UI elements and windows, ensuring a smooth user experience and optimizing interface adjustments.
- Localization System: optimizes the handling of localized text through a standardized system for stronger integration and management overall .
- Module for Local Data Handling: manages local game data storage and retrieval, ensures fast access and reliable performance for features like player progress and settings.
- Scene Management: facilitates seamless transitions and loading between game scenes, optimizing performance and enhancing immersion without lengthy load times.
- Shop Template: provides a framework for in-game purchases, enhancing monetization opportunities without extensive development time.
- Unique ID System: generates and manages unique identifiers for game entities, ensuring data integrity and simplifying object tracking and interaction.
- Base Sound System Management: streamlines control over game audio, ensures consistent sound quality and immersion.
- And more.
Common Challenges, Common Solutions
Casual and free-to-play mobile games often require a recurring set of features: vertical and horizontal layouts, icon configurations, featured offers, daily activities, seasonal areas, and payment systems, among others. Building these elements from scratch for each new game is time-consuming and resource-intensive.
The Back-End Engine Template transforms this process by offering a database of ready-made solutions for these common features. Our approach not only streamlines development but also mitigates risks for gaming companies. By leveraging our template engine, we ensure smooth collaboration that’s up to 75% faster than the industry norm, saving time and resources while delivering consistent quality.
As we work on more projects and deepen our expertise, the BEET will evolve and keep up with industry norms.
Why Build Our Own System At All?
While similar tools already exist, like, say, the ones available on the Unity Asset Store, they come with certain drawbacks. Firstly, other tools often pose legal challenges and require special licenses, which costs money. Secondly, the available plugins are always at the mercy of the platform or engine owner. They could be randomly updated, which may ‘break’ the game, or they could even be discontinued. To mitigate this risk, our clients get access to the source code, ensuring that they maintain full control and are not dependent on the engine owner’s decisions.
By creating a robust system according to industry standards, we ensure the near indefinitely functionality and reliability of our solutions, addressing the publishers’ and developers’ need for cost- and time-effectiveness. Room 8 Group has been successfully using the Back-End Engine Template for the past two years, including our work on Redline Royale and other (confidential) projects. Our experience with it so far shows that it is nothing short of a life-saver. We look forward to continually putting it to the test.
