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The higher the framerate, the better the game looks, but the faster it drains the battery.
What's a happy medium?
(I'm making a relatively simple 2D game with sprites moving constantly. I want the movement to appear smooth but I know how irritating it is when a simple game sucks your battery dry.)
Your framerate should be as low as looks good, but I think you're in a tough situation if all of your sprites are moving constantly. You should try your absolute hardest to keep a consistent framerate; a low, consistent framerate is better than a high but randomly stuttering framerate. Then turn it down until it doesn't look good.
Consider matching the framerate of movies on the big screen: they are only 24 FPS. But again, they are precisely consistent, which is why people are okay with just 24 FPS.
Alternatively, if your sprites have an animation sequence and that has a FPS value, try matching that or a multiple of it. For example if they animate at 5 frames per second, then maybe try 25 or 30 frames per second so that the sprite animations can be precisely timed and make the game appear more smooth and consistent than it really is.
I think the best option in this case is to try out some framerates and find a good default, and then put a setting in your options menu for the user to be able to turn it up or down according to the user's desired battery life.
It might seem obvious, but aim for whatever the refresh rate of the screen you're using, or a multiple of that, i.e. if the device does 24fps you could do 12fps. But as Ricket says, the ideal thing is to be consistent.
So first off, a disclaimer: I'm a Director at GameBench, and we make tools for measuring mobile app/game performance (frame rate and other metrics) for a lot of major companies (Rovio, Samsung, Seriously, NaturalMotion etc.) I also have a degree in Game Design.
With regards to target frame rates, there's a few answers here that touch a little on some important points (consistency/stability), but here's what I've learned after nearly 5 years of working in mobile game performance:
Lower frame rate definitely saves battery. This is evident through our own testing (which you can confirm at https://data.gamebench.net) and also as we've seen a lot of device manufacturers actually limit the display refresh rate to as low as 52hz as opposed to the standard 60hz commonly used.
On mobile devices in general, you have the option of selecting from the following target frame rates (this is because they are divisors of the max frame rate - 60 FPS):
Note: 90 and 120 FPS are only available on a few (as of writing this, two) devices.
However, the right target frame rate can only be decided once you have an understanding of the gameplay style and user interaction mechanics you're going to implement.
For a puzzle game where user response times (reactions) or physically realistic animations aren't important, then aim for 15 FPS, the lowest available target. For a fast-paced shooter where users will need quick reaction times, then definitely aim for 60 FPS.
You can completely ignore any advice stating targets like 24 or 25 FPS, and always ensure that when you target a particular frame rate, you stay as close as possible to it during gameplay, or else it will impact the user experience.
All the best, and feel free to reach out if you've got any other mobile performance questions :)
When developing for mobile devices I always aim for 30.
