I’m quite interested in mobile gaming, though feel that phones and iPod touch devices are too small for the games I want to build. It feels that by trying to include these small devices, I’m limiting the experience on larger and more capable devices. Is it common or encouraged to target tablets only? What are your thoughts when it comes to developing a mobile game and deciding what hardware to support?
A tablet is like a smaller PC. Where not all games are easily supported on a touch screen, I feel that you have much more flexibility building a PC game and making it fun on a tablet as well. Think FTL or Hearthstone. I believe these games came out on PC first, then were released on the iPad, though not iPhone/iPod. Thoughts? Thanks!
I’m developing a game that was originally planned for tablets only, but changed my mind later to support smartphones as well, because of a larger playerbase as target. But I have a problem, my game was designed for 4:3 aspect ratio (iPad landscape), and most phones have a much wider screen, and I simply can’t make it play on another ratio because of how the game works (it’s a 2d top-down defense shooter, so wider screen would mean shooting stuff from further away and wider levels and rebalancing specifically for that platform…). I’ll have to do black borders then, not sure how people will react to that, but the other option, stretching would be much uglier. Or I’ll have to do something creative with the UI so it keeps a 4:3 playing area.
So my reason to support smartphones is simply for more players, even though it brings me this problem.
@elmar1028 I agree. Tablets have more screen space to take advantage of, and are often more powerful. Though there are far more smart phones than tablets. If the game is simple enough that a smart phone can play the game, then it’s a simple decision. Alas, the lack of screen space limits a number of game concepts I have. Which is why I feel limiting the game to tablets is needed.
@Stonewood1612 I too am building a top-down defense shooter. The extra screen space is quite important, otherwise it’ll be hard to identify threats before they are up close to your defenses. It’s interesting to find others with the same problem. Are there any other limiting factors you’re facing trying to adapt your game to the smaller devices?
A few thoughts
Although smartphones are quite numerous, the all-time iPad sales are over 220 million devices (not counting android tablets, windows tablets, or Amazon tablets). The largest application revenue from iPads (from what I recall) was games. I guess I feel that it may not be worth the work, and possibly changing your game (simplifying it) so that it works on all devices. If I can make a better game and target just tablets, as a game designer, I feel that’s more important than the extra sales. And possibly, by trying to fit my game on all devices, it takes time away from building the best and most fun game. Though, with that said, if the game will be mostly unchanged (generally, much simpler games), then supporting smart phones seems like the best solution.
Anyone think I’m missing something? Or feel there’s more to consider? Let me know. Thanks!
Oh that’s interesting. I simply planned my game out to be played in 4:3 aspect, the camera is stationary, and enemies come from the right. So on a wider screen you could see them from further away and shoot them as well. While I could limit the range on weapons, my levels backgrounds would need to be extended as well to support widescreen aspects.
What I’m probably going to do is have the game play in widescreen, and have menus and the mapselection screen be fullscreen, while the actual battle would have UI panel borders to keep a 4:3 playing area. The advantage of that is that I could stick UI elements on those borders, saving a little bit of playing space, which is pretty precious on a smaller screen.
Apart from that, I haven’t ran in to other limiting factors for now, although I feel the game would be too small if played on screen smaller than 4 inches. For now I’m only targeting iOS, so nearly all iPhones are bigger than that nowadays, however there will be always people asking for Android. In that case I would have to make it pretty clear that a screensize of 4 inches is minimum. But I’m not worrying about that, as the game is still a bit early in development, but it’s coming along nicely.
Yeah, aspect ratio can definitely be a concern. Tablets being 4:3 and Phones / iPod being 16:9.
Instead of having defenses on one side of the screen, in my game, the player can build anywhere. They can also be attacked from all sides (at least, that’s the plan for now). Thus, I have half the space in my game than you do, as I have to worry about both sides. I’m prototyping my game now, so I’ll see what I can make work. Thanks for your replies and good luck on your game!
I’m prototyping my game now, so I’ll see what I can make work. Thanks for your replies and good luck on your game!