Dear TouchArcade (mighty) community! Currently I'm developing a 2D game and I'm reaching the point where - using my limited budget - I have to hire a freelance pixel artist to give a soul to my baby. In the long run I'm willing to support iPhone/iPhone retina/IPad. But for a starter I want it to run on iPhone3/4 using low res. How do you deal with the various screens resolutions of the iPhone3, the iPhone4's retina and the iPad with it's slightly different ratio? I'm not speaking about the programming/technical side but about what you ask to your artists (i.e. two version, one HD version then resize it, only low res)? And also what is the most efficient budget wise.
Well, you want to start at the top and work your way down meaning, have them design it in the largest size needed and then have them resize it for smaller screens. If you want to support iPad, iPhone 4/3 and iTouch, no need for HD version, just make it universal instead. Start with 1024x768 for iPad then have it resized (not scaled) down to 960x640 which is Retina for iPhone 4/iTouch and then scale that down to 320x480 for iPhone 3. Easiest way, probably cheapest, too!
If you simply scale a 1024x768 to fit in the 640 pixel of height of the iPhone retina, you'll loose a part of the picture at the top or the bottom. I agree with the previous comments, do all your stuff for the iPad rez, and if you want to be really safe, you should even double the size (2048) so that if an iPad 3 or some sort of tablet comes out, or if you want to publish a PC/mac version, you can.
Good heads up, because I was thinking (as with others) that there would/could be a retina iPad in the near future.
For me this work starts in photoshop with mockups; the biggest issue is that the aspect ratios differ between an ipad and an i-anything else. If you're also developing for other tablets, 99% of them have yet another (widescreen) aspect ratio to deal with, thats different than the ratio of the iphone. A variation on the approach is to have your artist work at 2048x1536, and provide photoshop mockups of scalings to the different resolutions. If designed well, (not placing important elements at borders), you can offer share the same art resources between retina iphone, and ipad.
