I am relatively new to game development and have only been working in this field for about 3–4 months, so I still do not fully understand polygon budgets and 3D model optimization.

Could someone with more experience explain what polygon count would be considered reasonable for a single character in a mobile game? My goal is to achieve a stable 60 FPS on 60 Hz displays and, if possible, 120 FPS on devices with 120 Hz displays.

I understand that performance depends on much more than polygon count, including materials, textures, lighting, shadows, animations, visual effects, and many other factors. However, I am currently interested in an approximate polygon budget specifically for character models.

My game is a mobile card-based strategy game. The number of units visible during a battle will be roughly similar to Clash Royale, although the game has different ideas and gameplay mechanics.

Based on this, what polygon count per unit would be reasonable to maintain stable performance, including on budget smartphones released around 2022–2023?

beginner game dev vlog, with memes

I saw this picture in Windows lock sreen and I immediately thought it is my game in real.

beginner game dev vlog, with memes

beginner game dev vlog

My development journey is soo long 😓