Making iphone game - but don't own iphone!

DigiChain

Yep, that's correct - I'm halfway through making my first iphone game but don't own or have access to an iphone!

Its a simple touchscreen puzzler, that runs well within GS but I don't know how I'm going to be able to test it when complete. Any ideas how/who may be able to test it?!

And before you suggest I just buy an iphone... I really can't afford one right now! Maybe once my app hits the big time I'll be able to splash the cash! haha

Any thoughts?...

micksolo

Couple of suggestions:
1. buy an iPod Touch - its much cheaper and has nearly the same specs as an iPhone.
2. Borrow your friends iPhone - you must know someone with an iPhone or iPod Touch that won't mind lending it to you for testing now and again
3. Get a job and save some money - or borrow some money off parents, friends, whoever or anyone believes in what you're doing.

You will need to get some kind of device for testing, sometimes things run a little differently on viewer than they do on the device, especially the biggest one is framerate differences, but also the mouse control on viewer and the touch controls on the device are very different. What might be fun with the mouse controls or keyboard, may not be fun on the device and vice versa.

So yeah, whatever you can do, get a device.

DigiChain

I hadn't even considered ipod touch, I know very little about them.

So, would ipod touch4 be a suitable test device for GS? Would it pretty much replicate how a GS game would play on the iphone4 (such as speed, touch screen capability etc)?

And how do you go about testing on the ipod touch? Do you still need to setup the iphone developers account etc?

AppChogie

@ChopperKhan,

Hey mate I have a great tip that most people dont use.You are able to test all your gamesalad games using the XCode ios device simulator. This will give you a virtual idevice for every type, iphone, touch, pad etc

Here is how.

1. Download the latest Xcode
2. Download the latest gamesalad viewer.
3. launch the viewer in Xcode as normal as if you was going to build for device.
4. Make sure you select the simulator (Top left) and select the simulated device, iPhone, Pad etc
5. Click on "Build" and the gamesald viewer will run on the simulator.
6. Hit "Stop" in Xcode and close the programme.
7. Manually open the ios simulator (find with spotlight search "Simulator")
8. Click on the gamesalad app and run its status will turn green
9. Send to device from gamesalad creator.

Other tips are that you can rotate device, change device etc from the simulators menus have a play and a look. It works great.

Only one drawback sometimes sound does not work to fix install "sunflower"

Just one option if you dont own a device.

Cheers

Keith.

jb15

OK--there are two ways to test on an iOS device. One is adhoc. This takes a little bit of work and isn't good if you test every 5 minutes--it's more of a, OK, my game is done, let's make sure it works.

The other way is thru the GS viewer. This requires wifi.

BTW, I use a ipod touch, 2nd gen to test my games. It works fine. It's actually got a broken screen--you might consider purchasing a broken itouch off ebay, that has stuff you need.

LumpApps

I have a crappy video on how to get the viewer on the simulator here.
It doesn't explain how to set up the viewer in Xcode but you can find how to do that on the GS site.
The only difference is that you have to put it on simulator instead of device before you click build and run.

DigiChain

Cheers guys, I'll look at setting up the device simulator - and will also see if I can find myself a reasonable priced ipod. Thanks

jonmulcahy

The problem with the simulAtor is that it does not reproduce the actual performance of the iPhone. Anything tested on the device will run much better than on the device itself.

DigiChain

So, just to cofirm - will games run the same on both the latest iphones and latest ipod touch?

JohnPapiomitis

ChopperKhan said:
So, just to cofirm - will games run the same on both the latest iphones and latest ipod touch?

see thats the whole thing right there. You never now how anything gonna run on any of the devieces till u test. Thats why u need as many devices to test on as possible.

you cant develop without any test devices end of story.

tenrdrmer

JohnPapiomitis said:
see thats the whole thing right there. You never now how anything gonna run on any of the devieces till u test. Thats why u need as many devices to test on as possible.

you cant develop without any test devices end of story.

Yep and the simulator is worthless and really no different than the GS preview. second the viewer on the simulator is even father from how it will work on a device the viewer on the device is not how it will actually play on a device. its to give you an idea of how things are going so you dont have to keep building adhocs.
Sorry mate but you NEED to buy a device. and yes generally the same generaltion iTouch will play as the same generation iPhone. BUT... and this is a big one. EVERY genration device will play your game differently. my first game played great on 2nd gen device but was nearly impossible to play on 4th gens because of the speed difference.

GameSalad make game creation free. NOT iOS development. There is still a lot of cost involved in iOS development and that comes from Apple Fees and Cost of devices.

And sure you can have other people test your games for you on thier devices. But your the Developer. Your the only one whos gonna actually know if its playing right. Your friends are just gonna say "yeah thats cool" they are not actually gonna test anything.

Rattlehead

tenrdrmer said:
Sorry mate but you NEED to buy a device...

GameSalad make game creation free. NOT iOS development. There is still a lot of cost involved in iOS development and that comes from Apple Fees and Cost of devices.

Definitely agree with that comment. While it was fun to get used to GameSalad prior to making the investment in an iOS device, there really is no way to get from A to Z successfully without getting the device and deploying to it. I think it also makes you a better developer as you start to learn the capabilities of the platform and the device.

Best of luck!

micksolo

I do most of my testing on an iPod touch second gen. That way I know if it runs fine on that it will be fine on anything newer. You could probably pick one up on eBay for $100 or so.