Screen size - a few newbie questions

mysticjim

Hello, I've got some quick queries about the screen size options for starting a new project, I hope you good people can assist a bit.

So, I'm new to GS, loving so far, and very grateful to this community for assisting with a few technical issues I've already come across. I'm working on my first project, it's just a prototype, I'm just learning how to do basic stuff in GS, building and adapting as I go, it's not a very well planned or pre-designed thing - as I suspect most people's first efforts are!

Purely because it was the default, I set my game to the Iphone screen size, and based all my graphics on those dimesnions. Yes, I do hope eventually to publish games, and I'd love to get games on the Istore, but I'm wondering if starting with the Iphones screen size is the way to go? I know most people will say develop for the device you want to publish on, but I'm wondering if there is a setting that offers the most flexibility for publishing on larger and smaller screen devices? I'll explain why I ask this below.

Okay, so my first game - purely because I'm just learning and I'm doing so in my spare time, I'm using the Free GS membership and I have not paid up to release apps on Apple or Google's marketplaces, so as I understand it I'll be limited to releasing this game, should I choose to, as a free web based thing on the GS arcade? This is actually fine for me right now, my decision to go pro with GS will be a business one, if it happens it'll be some months down the line and with the aim of actually trying to make a go as a professional developer business, so anything I do now are simply test pieces and proof of concepts.

So question 1, considering the above, should I have really started the game using the arcade screen size defaults and build my graphics to suit that?

Question 2, I see a lot of games on the arcade that look very pixelated, I'm guessing that this is as a result of having been created using a smaller screen default, like the iphone one, is this the case? I

Question 3, if the above is the case and developing for smaller screen leads to the graphics looking poor on the bigger screen, what about the reverse. Can you develop for the arcade then easily publish to the smaller screen sizes without having to redesign or resize all of the graphical assets, or would you end up with mobile games that appear stretched or mis-shaped on an Iphone?

I've seen of threads on this, and usually they seem to be applicable to a specific end device, but is there a magic screen size that works well no matter what device you're hoping to adapt it to? I don't expect there is something exact - with all the different devices available and the range of sizes, there can't be a one size fits all option, but what does everything think is the best starting point to make life easier later on at the publishing phase?

ogreofwart

A general rule of thumb is design big because it will look better scaled down rather than magnifying.
This of course a very,very broad idea from someone who hasn't actually done any cross platform testing, but It's what I personally have experienced with graphics I use/draw.