I'm developing a 2D indie game for Android using [mention your engine, e.g., Unity, Godot, LibGDX], and while it runs smoothly on my high-end test device, I'm encountering significant frame rate drops and stuttering on older or budget Android smartphones. What are the most effective and practical strategies for optimizing a 2D game to ensure smooth performance across a wider range of Android devices, especially those with limited RAM and weaker CPUs/GPUs? I'm looking for advice on specific techniques related to sprite sheet optimization, draw call reduction, texture compression (e.g., using ETC2), physics calculations, garbage collection (if using managed languages), asset loading, and any other "gotchas" that commonly impact performance on low-end Android hardware.
I'm developing a 2D indie game for Android using [mention your engine, e.g., Unity, Godot, LibGDX], and while it runs smoothly on my high-end test device, I'm encountering significant frame rate drops and stuttering on older or budget Android smartphones. What are the most effective and practical strategies for optimizing a 2D game to ensure smooth performance across a wider range of Android devices, especially those with limited RAM and weaker CPUs/GPUs? I'm looking for advice on specific techniques related to sprite sheet optimization, draw call reduction, texture compression (e.g., using ETC2), physics calculations, garbage collection (if using managed languages), asset loading, and any other "gotchas" that commonly impact performance on low-end Android hardware.