How can i make the game keep running in the background on android

Hi i'm working on a simulation game, like Sims and SimCity etc.. where player builds a city or people whatever, and then comes back next day to get his income etc..please any help

 

Use server, or use OS clock.
Don't ask user to run app in background.

 

Thank you! I plan to create a multiplayer game and I will use the PlayFab server to store players' data and so on. The only problem is that the method of collecting money or gold in the game is through workers who do a movement and transfer between two building, there will be many of them for each player,and there are also many variables are linked to elements that use OnTriggerEnter To disburse resources and transfer them from one element to another randomly Also the coordinates of the elements (people, animals,etc) and their numbers change depending on the activity
The game is similar to (The Guild 2, sims,simcity) game
Do you think running this tasks on the server will not be expensive for the number of players may exceed 100,000?

 

"Expensive" is relative term, to how much you make from the app and which online service you will utilize.
Asking / forcing user to run app in background, you are risking (most likely) negative bomb reviews. That will kill your app and eventually any potential revenue.
Also, if you allow to relay on mobile device, while game suppose to be online, you are opening path to cheaters.

If you are concerning of cost, of running task on the server, you may need consider different solution, which may be cheaper to execute. At the end of the day, you need test you solution and see how it perform in real time.

You could consider to run beta testing campaign, or something similar.

 

You're right, that might make people get off the game,
Can I just prevent the game from stopping when I open another app with the game or lock the device?
its ok to stop when close the app or internet connection
I will make the game work on the server, but I do not want to disconnect the player once the device is locked, for example

 

You could look into background services solutions for android.
This topic is asked quite often on Unity forum.

 

You may do it on server in simple way: calculate not actual worker movements , but average, eg: each avg worker does X surplus in one hour, player has y workers, so in z hours he will get surplus= x * y * z

 

And you may do the same on mobile after awake from sleep

 

Hi ,thank you ! it's a good idea , The only problem is that the movement of workers is a little random, where there can be only one worker in some times and the rest of the workers participate randomly after a (random time) where it is difficult to take an average of calculations or predict it is look like hives and random movements

 

I am planning to do another solution and have come up with some solutions :
Calculate the game changes fast in loading screen before game start by
-"unbind view, recalculate models, bind view back"
- or update time component few times
- or push few values to time thread.
what i need to separate architecture to Data/Logic/View layers and after game resumes update only Data/Logic layers

I'm just looking for a source to explain these methods or any educational reference. Do you have any idea about that?

 

Regarding random, you can use seed. But for that, you need have deterministic mechanics, if you would like reliably gas forward for example.

Stil, your solution is open for cheating. For example simple is time change. Many mobiles game 'suffers' for that reason.

 

I will use the server time and not the mobile time in addition to storing data before shutdown and evoke when running the game from the server
Do you think there'll be a chance to cheat?

 

I mean, there is always way, chance to cheat. But you can reduce it greatly on different way.

As long you check game states with server states and confirm any critical actions with server, you would be rather safe. At least for major cases.

So if you want to buy unit for example, you should receive confirmation from the server, that such action is legal.

If you start app on mobile, you should retrieve states from the server. Or if deterministically gas forward, you need confirm game state with server. For example confirm current random values/hash. If there are differences, notify about desyncing, or simply request update from the server.

 

Thanks alot ! i will pay attention to that