Game at 480x320 res to save memory - good idea or not?

DigiChain

Hi. I'm just putting together ideas and testing an initial level of a new game idea.

It requires a number of large images per level - and I can see in the viewer that my image usage is already pretty high, and I'm down to about 30fps before I've even done anything.

So, my question. Is it wise to work at iphone3 resolution - or will I be alienating much of my potential audience?
I imagine it'll give me a huge boost in frame rate doing this - and cut down the project size massively too.

DigiChain

Or perhaps using some images that utilise the retina resolutions, and others that are designed as though for 3g - and using them in the same game?

Does anyone have thoughts on this?

I think I may have read that Firemaple has decided to do something similar with his forthcoming Grisly Manor followup game?

Photics

With BOT, I went and made retina display graphics. It was a lot of work to optimize the images, just so that I could upload the game to GameSalad. And then, when the game was finally available, one of the complaints about the game was that it was too big.

So... Retina Display is important, but so are other things too. If your game has pretty graphics, but lousy frame rates, that could annoy the player.

DigiChain

Thanks Photics, thats what I'm thinking too. Its seems a tricky balancing act trying to make a pretty game that runs at decent fps!

niftydesigner

I believe that the fps is more important than the graphic resolution.