Learning how to develop a mobile game using AI is an exciting and innovative way to create engaging experiences for users. The mobile gaming industry is booming, with over 2 billion active players worldwide, and the integration of AI can take your game to the next level.

In this article, we'll explore the world of mobile game development and show you how to make a simple clone of the popular game "Flappy Bird" using Unity. With its powerful tools for developers, Unity is an ideal platform for building mobile games that utilize AI.

Project Prerequisites

Before diving into the tutorial, please note that this project assumes you already have some basic knowledge of Unity. If you're new to Unity, we recommend starting with resources focused on getting started with the platform (you can always come back to this project later).

Additionally, we'll be referencing the comprehensive Mobile Game Development Mini-Degree from Zenva, which provides an in-depth guide to Unity game development, covering topics such as game physics, UI design, and monetization using Unity Ads and In-App Purchases.

Setting Up Your Project for Mobile

To start developing your mobile game, you'll need to set up your project for mobile. This involves creating a brand new 2D Unity project and changing the build platform from desktop to mobile. You can choose to develop for either Android or iOS platforms; however, keep in mind that developing for iOS requires a Mac running macOS.

Screen Resolutions

Once you've changed the build platform, it's essential to set up your screen resolution correctly. Since we're developing for mobile, we have limited freedom when it comes to determining the resolution of our game. For this project, we'll be using portrait orientation and setting the game view to a specific portrait resolution.

Importing Assets

To get started with building our game, you'll need some graphics to work with. You can download the assets used for this tutorial and import them into your project folder. The "images" folder contains backgrounds, obstacles, and UI elements that we'll be using in our game.

Setting Up Your Sprites

In your scene, you'll notice a gizmo that shows the size of your camera and therefore the screen resolution you chose. This is a helpful guide for scaling and positioning images within your scene. Drag in an airplane, background, and ground image to get started with building your game.

Remember to save your scene as "GameScene" in the "Scenes" folder and scale the background to fit your scene. You'll also need to set up your obstacles by dragging in a pair of rocks from the "rocks" folder and positioning them within your scene.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we've covered the basics of setting up a mobile game project using Unity and creating a simple clone of the popular game "Flappy Bird." By integrating AI into your mobile game development process, you can create more engaging experiences for users. With Unity's powerful tools and the growing opportunities in the mobile gaming industry, now is an exciting time to start developing your own mobile games with AI.

Target keyword: ai in mobile apps