What 'master' resolution are you now building your games at?

DigiChain

With the new resolution requirements from apple, and different format sizes, what are you guys now producing your 'master' games, art images etc at?
I'm wondering whether to produce graphics at ipad resolution - but wider, so that I can then downscale everything to iphone5.

Be interested to know what others are now doing. Cheers

jigglybean

Im just not developing for iphone currently. Android is a much bigger market and easier to arrange hi res images for

The_Gamesalad_Guru

We do all our stuff at ipad size.

DigiChain

@jigglybean - In my case iPhone is the best market, I always make more sales on iPhone than any other format.

@FryingBaconStudios - so I guess you just design you apps so that the top/bottom can be cut off on iPhone without losing anything important?

PBEmpire

ios is of course 2048x1536. For android, i suggest go for the max of 2560x1600.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Since @RP does all our art what we do is design it depending on the game of course is to make the boarder images as separate images that can slide in and out. Kind of like one of those RVs that slide out to create more area. Then we ca. Just tell those boarder images to slide out more on iPad and slide back on iPhone. If you know and design the layout at the beginning with the sizes in mind you can design the art in clever ways to accommodate any screen size with just a slight bit of adjustment. Also, let part of the art hang off the scene this way when you increase the camera size it crops to the scene size so if you don't increase the scene size and let the images overhang it allows for more control of cropping without distorting the image so basically you just reveal more of the edges. I spend a week playing and testing the camera and how scene size effects the crop and images and we came up with this method. So like say in Puck it for iPhone on legacy it looks like the iPad version but on 5 you see audience in the upper decks on the sides in horizontal. So basically it looks like you get an expanded view and makes sense to the perspective. You really have to plan, test and be clever. The side audience hangs outside the scene so on iPhone legacy it just crops past it and on 5 it shows it as the height determines how much of the side is cropped. By not increasing the scene size I trick the crop and reveal the outside images.

DigiChain

@FryingBaconStudios - Cheers. I think I understand that! ;-)

DigiChain

Ok, so after looking at this again I've come to the conclusion that one of the best ways is to create all art at iPad Retina Resolution (2048x1536) - but not having anything important within the top and bottom strip of the image, because when playing on iphone 5 these will be cropped out.

Does anyone have any reasons why this may be a flawed idea?

richicon

I can't imagine being able to create a game where is would be OK to crop top and bottom unless there were just marquee style images there.

Currently my project is iPad res, and it uses the full vertical - but it is proving difficult to work out what the hell to do with Android other than letterbox.

I have been scratching my head for a while wondered what to do.

DigiChain

@richicon - and what about iPhone5 for your game? Or do you plan not to release an iPhone version?

richicon

For iPhone I've got with the iPad to iPhone method from Darren at Deep Blue Apps - which covers the iPhone 4 and 5 resolutions.

But Android is scary given the number of devices out there and the huge range of resolutions. I can't do custom camera code for them all - so it is letterbox only I guess.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Once @RP finishes the last bit of new art I'll do a video on how we did it.

DigiChain

So whats the largest image size we can currently import into Gamesalad?
Is it 2048 x 2048 (retina)?

goliath

If you are doing artwork, make sure you always work at a bigger size (I start all my projects as iPad now). It ALWAYS simpler to size things down than up. I hope this helps.

fishbowl1

Will the upcoming "stretch" mode announced in the nightly builds change any of this?

RP

Game art...layers...screen sizes...cropping. I dunno you just have to treat your art "universally" when you make it.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Don't forget stretch will distort your image. It's not the holy grail of aspect ratio issues.