Limitations of games based on platforms

When considering what your game will be, it's important to factor the limitations of your target platform into the equation. It seems like forever that Android mobile platforms limited applications to 50 MB in base size (one could make them bigger with extensions, but this could require some extra coding). A 50 MB video game is not very exciting, especially when you consider that a mere 10 minutes of music for such a game would take up around 10 MB or 20% of the game package.

Luckily, in late 2015, the powers that be raised that limitation of the base application (also known as an APK file) to 100 MB. While that's still not a lot by today's standards, it's still plenty for developing an entertaining game. Since Android's limitation is 100 MB—and so is iOS (Apple)—that's what we'll use as our hard limit. However, if we were strictly developing a game for Windows or Macintosh computers, we could ignore this limitation. This brings us to...

The platforms for Buildbox games

Buildbox is pretty amazing in that it can export games for several platforms. As each platform has its own unique intricacies, you can see just how exciting it is that a developer may create one project that exports to several different distribution channels for several platforms. Let's take a quick look:

Note

Downloading the color images of this book:

We also provide you with a PDF file that has color graphics of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. These graphics will help you better understand the changes in the output. You can download this file at the following link: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/Buildbox2xGameDevelopment_ColorImages.pdf.

The preceding image shows the various platforms Buildbox 2 is designed to support. Again, with Buildbox, you won't be making the next PlayStation or XBOX FPS. But you can make the next Flappy Bird or Mario Bros.

The actual process for getting the games onto the various platforms is a bit more complex than the previous image implies. We'll get into the nuts and bolts of the various workflows for export in a later chapter. Suffice it to say, though, that the ability to use one project is definitely a big check mark in the pros column for Buildbox.

You'll notice that there is some duplication of platforms among the various distribution channels (Windows EXE and Steam, or Amazon and Google Play). This is because exporting and some parameters differ between those distribution channels. Confused? Don't worry, we'll clear up the differences between distribution channels and platforms in just a bit.