Building a Release Copy of Our Game

Building a release copy of our game is a crucial step in the process of submitting our game to the app stores. This step involves creating a version of our game that is stable and ready for us to release to the public.

In this chapter, we will walk you through the steps required to build a release copy of your game for both iOS and Android devices. We will cover some extra steps that need to be taken in order in order for our project to work. We will also provide tips and best practices to ensure that your release copy is of the highest quality and free from bugs and other issues. So, let’s dive in and get started on creating a release copy of your game. This chapter will be split into a number of topics. It will contain a simple step-by-step process from beginning to end. Here is the outline of our tasks:

• Generating release builds for app stores

Technical requirements

This book utilizes Unity 2022.1.0b16 and Unity Hub 3.3.1, but the steps should work with minimal changes in future versions of the editor. If you would like to download the exact version used in this book, and there is a new version out, you can visit Unity’s download archive at https://unity3d.com/get-unity/download/archive. You can also find the system requirements for Unity at https://docs.unity3d.com/2022.1/Documentation/Manual/system-requirements.html in the Unity Editor system requirements section. To deploy your project, you will need an Android or iOS device.

You can find the code files present in this chapter on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Unity-2022-Mobile-Game-Development-3rd-Edition/tree/main/Chapter13%20and%2014.

Generating release builds for app stores

We exported copies of our game previously in Chapter 2, Project Setup for Android and iOS Development, but there are some additional steps that we should do before actually releasing the game on an app store:

1. The first step will be to confirm you are currently ready to deploy your project to the mobile platform of choice. You can check this by going into the Build Settings menu by navigating to File | Build Settings.
2. From there, you should see the Unity logo to the right of the Android or iOS selection depending on the platform you wish to build for. If it is not at the correct platform, select that platform you wish to build to and then click the Switch Platform button and wait for it to finish reimporting the assets for the project:

Figure 13.1 – The Build Settings menu

3. After confirming whether we are building for Android or iOS, open up the Player settings menu by clicking on the Player...