Which iPod should I buy?

AfterBurnett

Okay, I used to be rich but now I'm a pauper who lives in a slum. I can't afford fancy stuff (until my iPhone game makes one MEEEEELLION dollars) so my question is this... should I save up and buy a new iPod Touch or would a crappy old first gen second hand one do the trick? My first game is a retro-inspired side-scrolling shooter (think R-Type). It does have a fair bit happening onscreen and I'm not sure if an earlier model would cope... I dunno...

AND if it games don't run well on earlier hardware, is there anyway to make it 3G or 3GS only? Or do you just need to make it clear in the App Store?

Basically, I'm poor and want to spend as little as possible... my investment so far is a second hand Mac Mini Core Solo, Apple dev license and a second hand 17" Benq LCD. I've spent about $600 Australian, which isn't too bad but I'd really like to be able to make my money back! LOL.... actually, why am I LOLing? It's not funny... I'm off to eat some instant noodles...

EDIT: Does GameSalad have a proper "emulator"? In Unity you can actually test to see how well your games will run on the actual hardware, all on your computer screen... oh yeah, I have a Unity iPhone license too... not that I'll ever use it... I CAN'T CODE!!!

Photics

In this situation, your lack of money might actually steer you in the right direction. I think it's better to test with the oldest hardware you want to support. That way, you can see if your game is getting lousy frame rates and loading times.

Heh... and if I don't start making some decent money in this endeavor, my iPod Touch might be up for sale.

QuinnZoneStudios

Oh yes and the Gamesalad Viewer (emulator) will give you an idea of frame rate and all but I find it always plays worse on my actual device so I would say, decide what your minimum spec device should be (3G for example) and make sure it runs for real on that actual device.
The last thing you want is bad revues and peeps mad at you 'cos it doesn't work as advertised.

Hope that helps. You could also perhaps borrow someone's iPod to test on occasionally?

Good luck Mr. Poly Game

Photics

POLYGAMe said:
EDIT: Does GameSalad have a proper "emulator"? In Unity you can actually test to see how well your games will run on the actual hardware, all on your computer screen... oh yeah, I have a Unity iPhone license too... not that I'll ever use it... I CAN'T CODE!!!

Is your Unity license transferable? Maybe you could trade it for an iPod / iPad.

AfterBurnett

@Photics Hmm, that's a good idea... I'll look into it

@MikeQuinn Can you used just any old iPhone/iPod touch? It doesn't have to be the one assigned to your dev license... certificates... blah blah blah... like Unity? I don't understand all that stuff... hopefully GS will make that side of it easier too!

JamesZeppelin

Get a new gen with a crack in the screen on bay for 50 bucks.
Can't go wrong.

quantumsheep

POLYGAMe said:
@MikeQuinn Can you used just any old iPhone/iPod touch? It doesn't have to be the one assigned to your dev license... certificates... blah blah blah... like Unity? I don't understand all that stuff... hopefully GS will make that side of it easier too!

It *does* have to be the one assigned to your dev license/certificates etc.

There are some fantastic (if complicated - but that's Apple's fault!) wiki entries on this. Have a look through those and follow step by step.

Make sure you have a cup of tea handy

QS

AfterBurnett

Thanks QS