On Day 42, students shift focus from building to refining and optimizing. The day teaches effective scope reduction—cutting down features and visuals that add little value but consume time and system resources—and project compression, which is vital for smoother performance and lighter builds.

You’ll begin by analyzing your game project’s complexity. Students will assess whether they’ve overextended in features like large open worlds, heavy particle systems, or excessive number of characters. You’ll then learn how to trim down gameplay scope while preserving core mechanics—e.g., replacing complex puzzles with simplified versions or reducing enemy types to improve clarity and polish.

Next, you’ll explore asset auditing using tools like the Reference Viewer and Size Map. These help identify large or unused textures, audio clips, skeletal meshes, and materials. You’ll remove redundant or non-essential assets and ensure assets are shared and reused efficiently (modular design principles). Texture compression becomes a key focus—resizing high-resolution textures, converting file formats, and baking normal maps when appropriate.

The day also includes an overview of:

• Level streaming vs world partitioning

• Blueprint nativization

• Light baking for static environments

• Disabling collision on non-interactive objects

Students will also learn how to split projects into smaller modules, useful for teamwork or prototyping. For mobile games, Android-specific tips—like reducing draw calls, texture streaming, and managing audio file sizes—are discussed.

By the end of Day 42, students will have significantly reduced file sizes, improved runtime performance, and streamlined their projects for faster load times and smoother gameplay. This practical session ensures your final game not only looks great but runs reliably on its intended platform.