Google introduced tools at its Game Developers Conference to improve discovery of games on its app store and help developers deliver more engaging experiences.

“With all the great games available on Google Play, we want to make discovery easier and remove friction during the install process,” the company said in a blog.

One of these features is Google Play Instant, still in closed beta, through which players can try a game without having to download it first. Games with this option currently include Clash Royale, Words with Friends 2, and Bubble Witch 3 Saga. Google Play Instant also lets players invite friends to try out games and allows developers to share games through marketing campaigns.

Google plans on opening up the feature more broadly later this year.

New tools also include an internal testing track designed to enable developers to quickly test new games and features.

The blog post noted the number of Android users who installed a game had more than doubled in the last year, with nearly 40 per cent of growth coming from emerging markets including Brazil, India, Indonesia and Mexico.

In its bid to tap into a lucrative gaming industry, Google recently launched several other tools. One of these is Agones, a dedicated open source game server built on the Google Cloud Platform designed to handle multiplayer games which it developed in collaboration with Ubisoft.

At last month’s Mobile World Congress, the company released version 1.0 of ARCore, an augmented reality (AR) software development kit for Android, enabling developers to publish AR apps and games to Google Play for the first time.

Over the next few months, it plans to roll out a beta for click-to-play video ads on Google Play, which it said was “a new way to reach players with sight, sound and motion”.