Mobile Game Release and Live Operations
Promote the exact tested artefact through current platform gates, retain rollback and diagnosis evidence, and operate updates without compromising player trust or offline access.
Prerequisites
Load game-testing-polish, existing Android/iOS mobile operations skills, security/privacy skills and current official platform requirements.
Use When
- Building release pipelines, signing, store metadata, privacy declarations, ratings, analytics/crash consent, IAP, rollout, hotfix, support, DLC or live-event plans.
Do Not Use When
- Store, SDK, tax, privacy, age-rating or platform requirements have not been checked against current primary sources.
Required Inputs
Tested artefact and manifest, package identifiers, signing ownership, target territories/ages, data inventory, SDK/permission register, monetisation, store assets, support owners, rollout/rollback plan and legal approvals.
Workflow
- Verify current Unity/Godot, Android, Apple, store, privacy, rating, payment and tax requirements; date every check.
- Produce reproducibly signed Android/iOS artefacts from tagged source and preserve symbols, dependency lock, SBOM/licence and provenance manifests.
- Audit permissions, SDK data flows, consent, child-user posture, offline failure, account deletion and purchase restoration.
- Validate store copy, screenshots/video, localisation, accessibility, content disclosures, ratings and cultural claims against the tested build.
- Run internal/closed testing, staged rollout, crash/performance/player-support monitoring and explicit go/no-go thresholds.
- Promote the tested artefact; do not rebuild between approval and release.
- Operate patches/events through change control, save compatibility, economy simulation, content download fallback and rollback drills.
- Conduct post-launch review and convert evidence into a prioritised roadmap rather than a raw request list.
Quality Standards
- Keep signing keys, credentials and environment secrets outside source and with named custodians/recovery.
- Collect the minimum telemetry needed for a named decision; disclose, consent and retain it appropriately.
- Preserve offline core play unless the approved product model genuinely requires connectivity.
- Reject dark patterns, pay-to-win, undisclosed odds and manipulative child-directed monetisation.
Anti-Patterns
- Store checklist copied from an old book. Fix: dated official-source verification.
- New release build after QA approval. Fix: promote identical artefact.
- Analytics SDK admitted for convenience. Fix: data-flow, size, performance, security and exit audit.
- Hotfix without save migration. Fix: compatibility and rollback gate.
- Reviews treated as backlog votes. Fix: triangulate with crashes, support, telemetry and research.
Outputs
Release manifest; signing/custody plan; store compliance evidence; privacy/SDK/data map; rollout/rollback plan; support/runbook; live-ops calendar and economy controls; post-launch report.
References
Evidence Produced
| Category | Artifact | Format | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Release evidence | Mobile game release and live-event record | Manifest plus Markdown | tested artefact hash, store gate, privacy, rollout threshold, event guardrail, support, and rollback |
Decision Rules
| Condition | Decision |
|---|---|
| Official requirement cannot be verified | Block submission and record the gap |
| Crash/performance threshold breaches during rollout | Halt or roll back |
| Event changes durable economy or save state | Simulate, migrate, test and version it |
| Core experience works offline | Keep account/cloud/telemetry optional where feasible |
Read Next
Pair with existing mobile-platform-operations, Android/iOS release skills, security/privacy skills, and game-testing-polish.
