I've just been wondering about what I'm going to do for my apps with iPhone 4, and what the hell they should be named by? I was thinking I could do universal builds for the iPhone 4 and previous iPhones, and leave iPad games as a separate 'HD' titled app? The added work to make all 3 platforms universal, on top of the fact that universal builds hurt your visibility on the iPad store, just doesn't sound worth it. What are your thoughts?
As an iPod Touch and iPad owner, that's exactly what I don't want to happen! I think a lot of iPad owners are concerned that upcoming games won't be optimized for the iPad...ever. I don't agree that universal builds hurt your visibility on the iPad app store. Most of us are a lot more likely to buy an app that we can use on either of our devices, so having a universal app is a big plus. Just my opinion...
The issue is that it means that you need both sets of art assets (for 2d stuff at least) in the build, which for 2D games can add substantial size to the apps... While universal apps are in theory great, it's also unfair for someone with an 8gb iPod Touch to need to have an App triple the size because it's universal and has all the un-needed iPad artwork included... What would be good tho is if Apple integrated a means of bundling Applications together, so the same game could be bundles for all platforms and you just buy all 3 (iPhone, iPad, and iPhone 4) for the single price... This could also work great for studios with multiple products (e.g. selling 3 games for $0.99 each, or you can buy 5 games for $2.99 etc)...
Looks like it will be expected of developers to supply the multiple platforms just to remain competitive. The only hope we do have is that more and more devices are being sold increasing our audience.
Please create a universal version for the iPhone 4 and iPad. They can both share the same resources with an optimized UI for each. Otherwise, the iPhone 4 won't benefit as much from the A4 chip and OpenGL 2.0 compatibility and the rest of the devices will have an app that takes up more space than necessary.
While I get the fact that this seems the best way to deal with this from a customer's point of view I personally think the iPad should be treated as a completely different platform. Why? I simply believe that the larger screen warrants is better suited for other kind of games than the iPhone/iPod touch. I also believe that people are more likely to play more complex games on the iPad.
It's too bad that Apple doesn't offer the ability to offer a discount if you've already bought the app. IE if you bought our iPhone app for $2.99, you get our iPad app for $0.99 (when in reality it too costs $2.99).
RE: So how are you guys titling your iPhone 4 games? I agree that I wouldn't want to waste the storage space on my iPod Touch for universal apps when I don't own an iPad yet. What about putting hooks in each separate version where someone with a legal copy can download (e.g. DLC) the other version (either iPhone or iPad) when and if they choose to? Rodney
iPad versions What I don't like to see is iPad apps selling for 4-10x the iPhone/iPod versions when most of the artwork is scaled down for those devices anyway. Seems like a ripoff to me.
With regards to universal builds unnecessarily bulking up file sizes for apps, I think that argument can no longer be made, considering the new iPhone 4 has a resolution of 960x640, compared to the iPad's 1024x768. There's not THAT much of a difference in resolution — especially if you compare it to the previous iPhone's resolution of 480x320. So from this point onwards, there should never be a game made ONLY at a 480x320 resolution. It should make it easier to make a universal build with only the higher-rez artwork. As for the original query of what to title these apps, I think "HD" should be reserved for referring to the iPhone 4 and "XL" should be used when referring to the iPad. Why? Because HD stands for High Definition, and there isn't a difference in the amount of pixels per inch between an iPhone 3GS screen and an iPad screen. They both have the same PPI. It's just that the iPad screen size is larger. However, there is a big difference in the PPI between an iPhone 4 screen and an iPhone 3GS screen, even though they are both physically the same dimensions.
The number of pixels isn't what matters, it's the amount of physical size that they take up. A regular iPhone game and an iPhone 4 game should be the exact same in layout and gameplay, the iPhone 4 will just have crisper graphics. The iPad, on the other hand, is a completely different form factor, and the screen is much larger. Games SHOULD be designed differently to suit the iPad's strengths and weaknesses. iPhone games should keep their same names, and iPad games should have the HD suffix.
I'm going with "RD" as I had compaints when I used "HD". Apparently some people bought it via AppShopper and thought it was for iPad. In any case I like "RD"