Journal 113 — Unity 2D Mobile, Dungeon Escape Google Play Publish

Objective: To create a Google developer account and publish a working demo to the Play Store

In the previous series of articles, I got the basic version of Dungeon Escape working on Android devices, including Unity Ads. In this article, I will go over publishing to the Google Play Store.

We first need to create a developer account at Google.

You will need to sign up with a Google account or create a Google account, fill out some basic information and pay a one-time $25 registration fee.

After creating a developer account, you need to wait a few days for the approval process.

Unity Keystore

While waiting for developer approval, we can prepare for the Google Play Store by creating a keystore, to digitally sign the app.

In Unity under Player Project Settings → Publishing Settings, we can create a new Keystore Manager in a secure location. You will need to generate your own password for the Keystore Manager, and also the app/game.

Build Ready

Now we need to update a few parameters in the Project Settings before building the final app.

Per a communication from Google, the API target level needs to be 30.

Some other settings to include: Scripting Backend needs to be IL2CPP, and Target Architectures needs to include ARM64.

Note that during the upload process to the Google Play Store, you may need to delete one of the uploads and start over with a new version. Google Play won’t allow the exact same build file to be uploaded again, so update the Bundle Version Code.

We have also been working in demo/test mode, so we need to switch this off, and make sure ads are on.

Finally, we can make a build and use the setting “Build Apps Bundle (Google Play)”. I went ahead and made for archive both a regular .APK file and a Google Play apps bundle file.

Google Play Create App

Now I will go through the creation steps for my first app on Google Play.

Fill in the basic information and review the declarations and add the check boxes.

The next updates include several questionnaires on the type of game, description, target audience, privacy policy, store description, screenshots, and finally uploading your game to “Production” and “Testing”, which is optional.

For this game, I decided to skip the testing cycles and just go right to production.

Finally, we need to wait for review of the game.

Thank you for your time!