Vietnamese development team adapts blockbuster game to mobile

To port an action game with complex controls to mobile, the development team had to take many optimization measures.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is one of the most attractive action games of 2024. Photo: Chi Hieu .

In April, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown , Ubisoft's action game, was officially released on mobile platforms. This is a port that many gamers have been waiting for, because The Lost Crown is one of the best-rated action games of 2024, and received the "Best Action/Adventure Game of the Year" vote from IGN.

In the game, players take on the role of Sargon, the youngest of the Immortal Warriors, on a mission to rescue a kidnapped Persian prince. The 2D action gameplay is reminiscent of the original Prince of Persia game released in 1989. Players must take advantage of the terrain in the game, avoiding traps, while the combat system prioritizes speed and reflexes, skills. The puzzle aspect is also included with many side challenges in the game.

According to the Ubisoft homepage, the main person in charge of this adaptation project is the Ubisoft Da Nang team. Sharing with Tri Thuc - Znews , the representative of the adaptation team said that one of the main challenges was bringing the combat system, with a series of buttons and moves, to the touch interface.

"We had to convert more than 15 buttons, not to mention combat combos, to the touchscreen, and it was a huge challenge to keep the gameplay experience comfortable," said Alexis Denancé, Game Content Director at Ubisoft.

To ensure players aren't overwhelmed with too many controls, the development team has left many features running automatically, such as healing and blocking, as well as allowing players to set their own button positions.

"Phone screen sizes are varied, so making sure the interface is not affected and the game layout is not obscured or exposed is also a point to pay attention to," Ho Ngoc Bao Nhi, Production Manager at Ubisoft, further explained the challenge of bringing the game to mobile.

The game has been ported to provide options, allowing players to choose a console-like "difficulty" level, or use touch and simplify the controls. Photo: Ubisoft.

Not only the screen, the phone configuration is also very diverse. Although the iOS platform is quite uniform, the fact that the game supports the iPhone 12, a phone model released 5 years ago, means that the conversion team has to find a way to make the game "light" enough to meet the smooth experience. The team also has to test carefully to ensure that the game does not cause overheating or battery drain.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown launched with Nintendo Switch support last year, and Denancé credits the original development team at Ubisoft’s Montpellier office for doing a great job of optimizing the game, giving the porting team a good foundation to bring the game to mobile devices.

"If you compare hardware specifications, an iPhone 12 is not much different from a Switch launched eight years ago," Mr. Denancé commented.

Ho Ngoc Bao Nhi said the main obstacle in performance lies in RAM capacity.

"To make the game playable on iPhone models with low RAM from 4GB or more, we applied the trick of increasing the memory limit provided by Apple to reduce pressure on RAM and increase the stability of the application," the Vietnamese manager added.

The game supports both controllers and touch, which means the difficulty level has to be adjusted to suit a wide range of players. According to Mr. Denancé, the mobile game allows players to actively choose a complex, mobile-friendly control style or a "leisurely" one. The manager at Ubisoft believes that this is the way for the team to balance between maintaining the console experience, or having easier controls like other mobile games.

Source: https://znews.vn/nhom-phat-trien-viet-nam-chuyen-the-tua-game-bom-tan-len-di-dong-post1558264.html