On the first day of the 2021 Game Developers Conference, Google launched a series of Android 12 exclusive game features, including the introduction of a game console and the ability to enter games faster. The Android 12 game console will appear as an overlay, allowing players to quickly access core tools when playing games.
Judging from the functions enabled during the test, it is similar to the power menu in the Android 11 era, with a row of buttons at the top for taking screenshots, starting screen recording, viewing FPS, and turning on Do Not Disturb (DND) mode-automatically when entering the game enable.
You can choose the tools you want, and these tools will appear in floating pills attached to the edge of the screen. Followed by various dynamic tiles, including the ability to start live broadcasts on YouTube Live, view achievements, and provide one-click optimization for supported games.
Through the new Game Mode API, players can optimize the game to obtain longer battery life (Battery Saver) and peak frame rate (Performance). This requires additional developer support, and Samsung has been announced as an initial OEM partner.
Google said that the game console will be available on selected Android 12 devices later this year. Another Android 12 game feature displayed in this event is Play as You Download. As before, you visit a list of games you want to get from the Play Store.
The Install button features an illuminated lightning bolt icon to show that you can start playing while downloading the remaining assets in the background. In one example, the Play button will appear when the total download capacity of 127 MB reaches 18%. The initial round will immediately see with Google that the game is ready to open at least 2 times faster.
The company also announced today the Android Game Development Kit, which includes tools and libraries to develop, optimize and provide high-quality Android games. There are three tentpoles:
- Integrated workflow (such as the new Visual Studio extension).
- Basic C/C++ game library (such as the new game text input library
- Performance optimization (for example, support frame analyzer in our GPU analyzer, support new load time in Android performance tuner
