Since 2000, Gameloft has been entertaining players around the world with their games for all ages and platforms. These days, the publisher has expanded its scope beyond mobile games and now develops titles for all gaming platforms with their own IP and with beloved brands.
One of the studio's most successful titles is their mobile Minion Rush game, which turned a decade old in 2024.
To ensure Minion Rush keeps running and delighting players for many years to come, the team at Gameloft partnered with Unity for their entire game development cycle - including porting the game to the new Unity engine, scaling and monetizing with Unity Ads and ironSource Ads, and consulting with Unity Game Design & Revenue Consultancy (a team of dedicated Unity game design and monetization experts).
Here, Gameloft’s Anton Shabelnyk, Global Director of Live Games, and Igor Antonov, VP Live Games, provide insights into why the studio looked to Unity for solutions and expertise, and how they’ve leveraged Unity recommendations for Minion Rush Massive Update, the most recent iteration of the game.
1. What were some of the considerations that led the team to move from an in-house engine to Unity, and what benefits did that change bring? What new features or gameplay were you able to offer Minion Rush players that weren’t possible with your previous engine?
Anton Shabelnyk: Minion Rush is a beloved game for millions of players, and we’re eager to keep on bringing exciting content for new and existing users. However, it became harder to keep up with the technical upgrades of the in-house engine to deliver modern features quickly and of the highest quality. We also wanted our players to feel a stronger connection to the brand, with graphics and animations as close to the movies as possible. Switching to Unity gave us a perfect balance of flexibility, stunning visuals, and performance.
2. How did using the Universal Render Pipeline impact your platform strategy for the Minion Rush upgrade? How was that supported by the Unity Profiler and Device Simulator?
AS: It was important for us to find a ready-to-use solution suitable for mobile and with enough room for game-specific customization to achieve our artistic vision and stable performance. Universal Render Pipeline was perfect for hitting these goals, and Unity Profiler and Device Simulator were essential in helping us achieve the desired results across various devices.
3. The new graphics look incredible – which Unity features were the most helpful to the team to create the vibrant imagery and animations that make Minions Rush pop visually?
AS: Our primary goal was to enhance the visuals and bring them as close as possible to the look and feel of the movies. Shader Graph gave our artists the flexibility to create vibrant materials that truly brought the environments and characters to life, while custom tools built on Unity’s capabilities allowed to reduce both the number and variety of shaders used.
The team thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with custom shaders and particle systems together with post processing, which enabled us to deliver visually stunning yet optimized effects.
To achieve the best lighting results, we employed a hybrid lighting system: baked lighting was combined with simple real-time lights and light probes for dynamic objects.
Regarding animations, Unity's flexible and robust tools allowed us to transfer a lot of animations from the previous version using a universal format, and rework them extensively to meet new quality standards and our artistic vision.
4. How did you use Unity’s UI tools in Minion Rush? What were the benefits?
AS: A full UI/UX rework was one of the main pillars of the update, and once again Unity hit the spot with a lot of useful out-of-the-box tools to save tons of time on generic tasks, allowing us to create complex custom solutions for unique situations.
5. What’s a challenge your team faced while building Minion Rush, and how did Unity help you overcome it?
AS: For a more than 10-year old game available all over the world, one of the biggest challenges is device coverage. We wanted to utilize modern devices capabilities to give players a high-end experience, while also bringing new game version to thousands of players with older devices, for which some native tools don’t work anymore, and it was a tough problem to solve. But still we managed to optimize the game and cover a great amount of devices thanks to Unity.
6. What made Unity Ads, ironSource Ads, and LevelPlay mediation the right solutions for your monetization?
AS: To start, Unity networks represent a big chunk of the quality demand on the market. Unity networks and mediation are also highly configurable in terms of settings. The two networks offer great engaged demand with strong eCPMs, and LevelPlay is an amazing mediation tool with transparency in terms of performance alongside great administration and stats tool packages (Real Time Pivot, Ad Quality, etc.)
6. How did Unity’s tools give you unique insights into optimizing ad placements without compromising the gameplay experience?
AS: Unity offers many tools to provide insights, but I would highlight Real Time Pivot and the new upgraded performance section of LevelPlay mediation. Generally, understanding the engagement is key - for example the engagement by user segment (cohort) is a must, this way we can optimize the custom offers presented to our users.
7. How did Unity’s game design and monetization consultancy help you balance monetization and retention to ensure a fun yet sustainable experience for your players?
Igor Antonov: There were two main vectors of utility of the consultancy provided by the Unity team. The first was confirmation of the internal doubts and users’ feedback we received earlier (we definitely appreciated validation of the issues by industry experts as well as the proposed solutions). On top of that, the Unity team found some key areas of improvements in the game design and live ops which could be critical for future success as a GaaS title.
8. Can you share any specific advice or innovations suggested by Unity’s experts that were instrumental in monetizing and designing Minion Rush ?
IA: Key areas which the team adopted as high priority based on Unity’s recommendations were the FTUE and onboarding overhaul, as well as implementing mini-tutorials for gadgets and power-ups. The Unity team also helped us streamline progression and rebalance the rewards pacing in the Hall of Jam feature, as well as others linked to it. The action phase feel was also improved by adapting the speed curve, optimizing power-up usage and overall responsiveness to actions.
9. Was there a specific issue that Unity’s experts helped resolve or provide a valuable perspective for your team?
IA: It was especially useful to get an independent and “fresh” review of the new UI and uncover some blind spots which turned out to be vital for the engagement with the game, including:
- Notification behavior during the action phase, as well as highlights in the HUD
- Main menu UI improvements to reach balance between its various elements
- Polishing related to location navigation and linked missions
- Task and mission reorganization for better visibility and accessibility
11. What are you most excited about for the future of Minion Rush, and how does Unity fit into your long-term roadmap?
Anton Shabelnyk: Switching to Unity gives us an exciting opportunity to experiment and react to community feedback with much higher agility than before. Flexible tools allow us to prototype and iterate faster, especially with complex UI features, which is incredibly important for dynamic liveOps support. There’s a huge backlog of ideas for new game modes, locations and gameplay mechanics we can finally try with Unity tools, so stay tuned!
