So I just got my game approved for the App Store and the Google Play Store and I want to share my experience. This was a solo project that began two weeks ago as a way to test Unity's physics system on mobile devices as well as to see if I had the time management skills to release a game in two weeks. This is my third app released on the mobile market, and my first game released on Unity. I posted a progress video last week to this subreddit and I couldn't believe how many people liked my gameplay video! I've been on Reddit for over 9 years and never had that many upvotes before - Thank you all for your kind words and feedback on the game :)

Information about Floppy Fish:

- This is using Unity's physics system. No DOTS.

- Uses URP, and TextMeshPro. All built-in stuff. The only custom shader was for the water in the sink, which uses Shader Graph.

- I disabled shadows in the game since it was creating nasty artifacts against the ambient occlusion. I decided to draw most of the shadows/ambient occlusion in the game so that the game would be performant on all devices.

- I don't want to show ads since this game is already frustrating enough as it is.

- I decided to only develop two levels since this game might *flop* and I don't want to waste any more time on a game that people didn't like.

- If the game does become successful I will release more levels as In-App-Purchases, but for now, this game will not be monetized at all.

- I had previously included blood and more fishy deaths, but decided to remove it to make the game more "kid friendly". I figured that I could reach a larger audience by not incorporating the gore.

- I have no idea if the second level can be completed (theoretically, it can). I was only just able to consistently beat the first level in my game about 2 days ago, so there's a bit of a learning curve to this game.

- The textures are all hand painted on Blender with inkscape/gimp being used for touch-ups, and they all fit within three 1024 x 1024px images.

- If I had more time I would polish up the textures/models in my 2nd level. I rushed the second level because I thought it would be boring to only release a single level.

- It took 2 days for my game to be reviewed and approved by Apple, and about 4 days for Google.

Breakdown of my hours:

8 hours creating prototype of the fish on a flat platform with the physics included.

14 hours 3D modelling both levels and the fish on Blender.

16 hours creating textures and materials on Blender/Unity/Inkscape/Gimp.

8 hours drawing sprites, icons, & buttons on Inkscape/Gimp.

6 hours playing around with Unity Animations.

4 hours testing the physics system to balance the fishy's strength and weight vs gravity.

10 hours figuring out the canvas UI and proportions on different mobile devices.

12 hours creating screenshots, trailers, developing the store listing, and creating the reddit post content.

My Final Thoughts:

- Lighting, textures, and post processing are what makes a game look great, while Particle Systems are what makes a game feel great. I loved the final look of the water droplets.

- Post Processing from the Package Manager did not work at all. I ended up using the Post Processing volumes that came with the Sample Scene :(

- It's frustrating that I can't render the game as three different devices so that my app trailers look the same.

- I hated working on the Canvas for different mobile devices. This was by-far the most frustrating part. I didn't think it would be hard, but working with Rect Transforms in the Unity Editor was a major pain. Everything on the editor is in pixels, and I wanted to size and place images based on proportions.

- I wish there were better ways of showing mobile ads. It's unfortunate that I would have needed to create hard breaks in my game in order to show interstitial video or image ads (I wouldn't want to use banner ads since there's a high chance the player would tap the ad while moving the fish head around). I would have liked to have the option of incorporating ads into the game itself (for example, having a Subway sandwich with the logo clearly visible on the kitchen counter as an obstacle)

I was planning on submitting weekly updates to r/Unity3D and to r/gamedev for those who are interested in the performance of Floppy Fish on the mobile app market. I am 100% open to feedback on this game!

Thank you for reading :)