The feature is an extension of the wider Android Instant Apps initiative where users can try a game out without installing it first.
Google has combined several announcements with its presence at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, many of those having been previously announced or building upon ongoing developments.
The company is pushing its ARCore SDK and Agones open-source server hosting to developers and is reacting to the latent trend of real-world geotracking games such as Pokemon Go with Google Maps API integrations. The APK size limit has increased to 10MB and neural development kits are coming into view. Soon, games publishers can participate in a beta group to launch “click-to-play video ads on Google Play” for full-on trailer power within the relevant marketplace.
Also, with the advent of Android Instant Apps, the company is launching Google Play Instant as its games-oriented consumer trialing process — publishers create a slice of the game that devices can access from the Google Play listing page, load and interact with and then, at the end of what’s effectively a demonstration.
Titles from Playtika, MZ, Jam City and Hothead Games such as “Clash Royale” and “Words with Friends 2” are early members of the so-called Instant Gameplay collection. The project remains in closed beta for now.
