Is unreal engine not designed for android game development?

General Feedback & Requests
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Hi I am using unreal engine 5.0 for developing android game development and these are the problems I am facing:

  1. I can not save game data on newer android devices (android 13 or above). As unreal uses deprecated saving methods.

  2. I can not use google play game services save game option. At least I don’t see any blueprint node to do that. Neither any tutorial/documentation available to do this.

  3. It uses all the deprecated version of libraries to prevent you from publishing your game to google play. (for example play billing library)

  4. Game developed with Unreal Engine does not support in 50% of android devices.

    I don’t understand if there is no way to save your game progress then how can we even develop a game?

2

I get you, and hopefully I can shed some light on this subject. Unreal Engine is made to also be used for Android and mobile devices. However it is mostly focusing on games for the PC platform. It received more support when Fortnite started getting more popular on mobile devices.

  1. Cloud saving is a huge thing. You can also use legacy save when developing. For my game https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.EliasWick.BubblePop2 I use the legacy save feature. (Saving data to the device)
  2. I am unsure about this, I think I have mostly seen nodes connected to ads and monetization. There is a firebase plugin which could be worth looking into as it connects to the google play game services: Firebase - Features in Code Plugins - UE Marketplace
  3. It does, and I had to do some code changes in the included build files to get it working. Luckily I didn’t have to change the project into a C++ project to get it working.
  4. I am not sure how far back you want to support. My game supports 6,837 devices out of 22,563. The main reason is because I only support from API level 21 - 31. Lowering this would increase the number of devices the game supports.
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Because your target sdk is set to 31 save game is working. If your target sdk is set to 33, which is a requirement of google play, it won’t work anymore. And there is no solution available to solve this problem. So my game also does not work on newer androids either. Android 13,14 etc. Honestly, I will not recommend anyone to use unreal engine for android game development.

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What do you mean that if you set it to 33 it won’t work any more?

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From sdk 33 onwards scoped storage is compulsory. And you can not ask for WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission from sdk 33. That’s why save game no longer work from android 13.

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