How should the iPad iPhone background image size be developed? Newbie but ready to start

hzapps

Aloha,

I have spent over a year with a number of tutorials and combing through the forums constantly. It always impresses me how bright a number of the folks on here are. I have a ton of art ready and have worked with a bunch of the physics in testing, but I have some Background Image questions that I want to gain clarity on so that I'm not going back later to fix all this stuff.

1. If developing an iPad game, a long cannon shot for example, I have cartooned a field image but the actual view will extend for say 3 full screens long and one and a half high. What should the field image look like in size? Three individual images each 1024, or two at 2048 so that the projectile flys across the screen.

2. Is there a size differential for iPad 3,4,5 etc because of the Retina image? I get confused with that. Does the image have to be oversized to appear the correct on screen of Retina so that there are enough pixels? Or if I use the iPad selection in Gamesalad, does it manage that for me? I know seems stupid question.

3. Is it still best to create the images for iPad and then shrink them down for iPhone?

4. I use GIMP and an image resizer on Mac, is there anything that is better to convert the background image down to the correct size.

5. I currently use the free version, but have saved the cash to purchase the Pro in the next few weeks so that I can use the added tools. Does the Gamesalad software add a built with GS Place a GS Screen as the load screen in my game or do I need to add it?

6. If I put my logo as a two second screen, does it follow that GS Screen?

Thank you again for all of your assistance.

Hang Loose
Mike

quantumsheep

1. If developing an iPad game, a long cannon shot for example, I have cartooned a field image but the actual view will extend for say 3 full screens long and one and a half high. What should the field image look like in size? Three individual images each 1024, or two at 2048 so that the projectile flys across the screen.

2. Is there a size differential for iPad 3,4,5 etc because of the Retina image? I get confused with that. Does the image have to be oversized to appear the correct on screen of Retina so that there are enough pixels? Or if I use the iPad selection in Gamesalad, does it manage that for me? I know seems stupid question.

Retina graphics basically need to be 2x the size of the actor, with the added bonus of being divisible by 4 and staying even. Do a search on GS for 'power of 2' to see what I mean.

With that in mind, the maximum width on an iPad for an actor would be 1024 - this is because if you're using a retina device, 2048 is the size of the graphic you'd have to use. I believe that GS won't accept images larger than 2048 x 2047.

So to answer your question, I'd go with three actors for your field, each containing a 2048 size image.

3. Is it still best to create the images for iPad and then shrink them down for iPhone?

I'd say so, yes.

4. I use GIMP and an image resizer on Mac, is there anything that is better to convert the background image down to the correct size.

Not sure. If you're aiming for Universal builds, making your images retina size for iPad will be fine. When played on different devices, the graphics will automatically be scaled down for you.

5. I currently use the free version, but have saved the cash to purchase the Pro in the next few weeks so that I can use the added tools. Does the Gamesalad software add a built with GS Place a GS Screen as the load screen in my game or do I need to add it?

6. If I put my logo as a two second screen, does it follow that GS Screen?

When publishing, you can add your own splash screen, whether you're a PRO user or not. NOT adding a splash screen will bring up the GS one.



Hanging loose,

QS =D