Theres a recruitment in my region where i can get some European Union funds for a micro business self employment thing. It’s in a few days and i have to quickly decide what software and hardware i want to buy with it. Normally when i buy stuff i take my time and research deeply each thing for a few days, but right now i need to have it written down for them beforehand. And ofcourse it’s not like they are giving it to everyone, I need to prove them that i’m capable of running it, but it’s another story (interviews, interviews…).
So this is my quick list for iOS gamedev:
Unity Pro + iOS pro
Maya
Photoshop
iPhone 4s
iPad 2
iPod touch 4g
Mac Mini + monitor + mouse/keyboard
PC(have) + office 2010 pro + windows 7 ultimate
I still have 1k $ which i thought i could use for resources at Assets store, but i dont have many ideas what i would need, as normally i would buy something based on the project im running and whats needed at that time.
I can’t use the money for hiring, only hard and soft products if you know what i mean:P
What do you think? Should i resign from something and get something else?
The setup could be used as two workstations, but how do you guys work? Should i get Maya and PS for Mac or PC? Maybe it should be Mac Pro with everything on it?
Any ideas for “universal” assets that are necessary?
hmm a 3GS device would potentially be usefull as the resolution delta and the delta of ‘much more relative fillrate vs slower cpu’ makes quite a difference. iTouch 3 is enough for that task.
What’s the conventional wisdom nowadays about what iDevices to have to test on for performance/usability? Will an iPod Touch 4th generation work as a substitute for an iPhone 4/4S test-bed? Will an iPod Touch 3rd gen work as a substitute for the 3GS? Is it a “necessity” to have an iPad 2, or is it enough to just test mock-ups on any tablet of about the same size, i.e. is the performance better than the iPod Touch 4th gen and thus that end of things isn’t an issue but rather usability size-wise?
My personal phone’s contract with VZW comes up in December, but I’d prefer not to burn the renewal on an iDevice if I can help it, as my main personal phone is Android-based (rather keep the option open either way). An iPhone 4S would be an option at that point, but if it’s unneeded and I can do my testing with an iTouch or two, that would be much better.
Do you really need to spend money for Maya and Photoshop? How about free Open Source softwares such as Gimp and Blender?
Also, if you going to buy iPhone 4S, do you really need to buy iPod touch 4g? (Actually I would suggest to just buy iPod Touch 4G instead because it meets the minimum requirement).
$99 iOS developer account (yearly) and $99 MacOSX App Store Developer Account (yearly) are a must, Android Market if you still have budget left to invest in Unity Android Pro ($1500 + one time $25 Android Market Developer Registration + an Android phone).
Oh and if your budgets allows, and you are a mobile person, I think getting a MacBook Pro is preferable. You can take your work anywhere. Its a bit of “luxury” I suppose. But on the other hand, MacBook Pro is $600 dollars more than Mac Mini, and if you factor in the peripherials for Mac Mini - add in the keyboard + mouse (good logitech wireless mouse + keyboard = ~$100), a good decent size monitor (24" are around $200~$300), + external DVD drive (latest Mac Mini has removed the DVD Drive altogether so if you need that you have to buy external DVD drive which Apple sells its Apple Macbook Air Super Drive for $79) the real difference is only $100. But for MacMini, you get a larger monitor (depending on selection and price) but you trade off the mobility.
Generally, you want to reach as wider audience as possible. So normally you would choose the test bed device to be bare minimum requirement because if bare minimum is met, all devices “should” work. Currently, iPhone 3GS, is ideal because it meets the minimum. One of the thing to look for is memory - iPhone 3GS has 256 MB DRAM only - same with iPod Touch 3G and 4G. If you get an iPhone 4 which has 512 MB of RAM, its possible you won’t detect a problem with memory when you are testing, which potentially will exclude a larget segment of your customer base.
Thanks. I’m aiming to target 3GS+ devices. I recall awhile back people saying an iPhone 3GS was needed instead of a 3rd-gen iPod Touch for some reason, but I wasn’t sure if that was actually the case… some lines about how the phone portion slowed down game speeds enough to matter. I do think I should get an iPod Touch 4th gen as well as a 3rd-gen though since the higher screen resolution would be much more demanding on performance and give a decent approximation of the iPad delta as well… am I thinking along the right lines? Obviously, as with anyone, I don’t want to spend money where it’s not needed.
That saying you quote there is or was a consequence of people not knowing anything about hardware.
Apple during 3GS days sold 2 versions of iTouches. One of them was the itouch 3GS offered in 16gb and 32gb versions. That was the same hardware as the 3GS and all fine. The other device was the iTouch 2nd gen which was sold as well in an 8GB version (similar to how apple will continue to sell iphone 3gs and iphone4 in 8GB versions from now on) which many missassumed to be a 3GS itouch cause they are either to lazy to read or to ignorant to even consider doing it as apples page had the relevant differences mentioned to do an informed decision.
An iPad is definitely necessary. I was initially only using an iPod Touch 1st Gen and an iPhone 4 to cover those resolutions, and using the Unity Game window to see how it looked on an iPad. I did do a test on someone else’s iPad to make sure it worked, but I still missed out on getting the ergonomics right. My control positions and sizes were not ideal on the iPad, something that improved dramatically when I bought a refurb iPad 1 when the iPad 2 was coming out.
Better for development than the devices suggested would be the lowest spec of each format you will be developing for. If you have an iPad 2, you won’t know how it performs on and iPad 1 (the slowest device of all for fill rate). So based on developing for armv7 only, I suggest an iPod Touch 3 (or iPhone 3GS), iPod Touch 4 (or iPhone 4) and iPad 1. The newer devices are only needed if developing something that uses the latest features, but still nice to have.
Thanks for the replies. Sounds like an itouch 3 and maybe 4 will be fine for me as I have an android tablet to test ergonomics etc. on for now, and maybe the ipad before launch…
Thank you for Prime31 suggestion, those plugins look great!
I was thinking it’s good to learn software used by professionals, if something goes wrong, i can go back to corpo work (or do some freelance). I’ve got CD Projekt and People Can Fly nearby and they are using Max/Maya/PS. The community and tutorials are also strong for those two.
I thought of Mac Mini as a mobile solution, but i guess MacBook may be better.
Would be like PC for graphics job with two monitors - PS/Maya Windows license;
And scripting done on MacBook, laying on a hammock
iPad 1 has the same GPU as the iPod and iPhone so i choose iPad 2 for cool factor;)
I see that downgrading stuff is a thing to always consider, but shouldn’t i think of the future and the number of those old devices being reduced each day as they are discontinued?
Any real difference between iOS 3.1.1 and iOS 3 and such version differences?
I’ll try to slide in Android license. Thanks for feedback guys.
cheap intel mac
ipod touch 3rd gen
unity free + ios basic
total: around 1k investment in dollars
best setup:
decent intel mac
ipod touch 3rd gen
ipos touch 4th gen
ipad 2
unity pro + ios pro
Having an ipad2 + entry level ipod touch 3rd gen (3gs) and the 4th gen will let you cover all bases. The ipad2 has 4S performance too. Depends how serious you are. We have every phone possible except 2nd gen since we will never, ever support those.
The ipod touches are a neat way to get your compatibility sorted. They’re not only representative of the hardware, but also have less ram, which will increase how reliable your programs are. You don’t really need a phone at all. Unity will pause it all on incoming calls anyway.
The ipad2 is a better choice than the 4S because performance is similar, but it has a different aspect ratio. You could get an ipad1, but the performance of ipad1 would be similar to an ipod touch 4, but more expensive, i’m sure. Unless you can find a really cheap ipad1 second hand.
Dont waste your time on 3g (2nd gen), just don’t. I don’t care what people say, it’s dead, nobody who has one will buy your game.
The fact they’re still on the 3g will mean either a) it’s jailbroken or b) they just can’t afford anything at all. If the battery even works for longer than a few hours at this point, is a short miracle.
