Working out what artwork to have

Never in my head.

With the game design I make sketches of what I imagine each screen to look like, identifying all the different objects on each screen.

Then our artist takes a look at each of those and does a mock up, gives his own suggestions and we alter the list accordingly.

Finally, when we're actually producing the game lots of little bits get added or removed. The initial lists are great for a start, but rarely include more than 70? per cent of the final asset list.

 

I'm with @Blackharon, make a list, and find a artist that is willing to work with you after the initial purchase, because no matter how much you plan everything out, their always seems to be something that slipped your initial overview.

 

As an artist, I like the sketch idea. Do a mockup of screen flow This button leads to --> this screen. Even if you're a horrible artist, you should be able to sketch the game completely out even if it's with stick figures and boxes.

Also, once you're done, have another person or developer look at it. Take a look the next day and see if it's what you want or if you forgot anything.

I find a lot of my clients forget about some of these. A basic game would include:

App Icon
Logo
Default load screen (splash screen, usually with your company on it)
Main menu screen
main menu buttons, don't forget social ones like gamecenter and facebook.
Other screens and menus before, during and after the game
In game graphics, backgrounds, sprites.
In game UI
Text and game over screens
Tutorials

Don't forget marketing graphics as well, images for webpages and screenshots.

 

Can you explain what you mean clearer? Fudamently there is no difference between someone at home and someone half way around the world in terms of in app purchases as long as your store status is "Available" .

 

Well if you have a way of connecting game instances to each other you have a way of transferring data. You'd be holding the status of your in-app purchases somewhere and can simply check if these are all the same when connecting to an app.

I don't typically deal with this sort of thing, but that's the simplest way I can think.

 

This should be answered in your game design. Do you let players only play with commonly unlocked packs, do you let them play from all packs that either player has unlocked or do you let players pick from only their packs but alternate who gets to pick.

My latest game - All In & Friends - lets players unlock packs of questions. Every round consists of 6 questions: 2 from player 1's unlocked packs, 2 from player 2's unlocked packs and 2 random questions including either players unlocked packs or from the general pack.

It all depends on your presentation, what you feel is fair and what your players will perceive as fair.

 

Determining what you is comes from analysis of Scene Flow and Game Play interfaces.

As people have suggested you need to make simple diagram that outlines your scene flow. Example Main Menu can go to Help, Credits, Shop, Play. Help can go to Main Menu. So on and so on...

That step will help you define all your GUI elements which is very important. Nothing like realizing you missed a button for turning music on and off and having a screen laid out and elements sized knowing it all has to change now.

The non game play screens will some background elements and such so account for those.

Now to game play. Totally depends on what the game is but for discussion I will talk about an endless runner.

Background such as the sky box will be one image. Now the moving parrallax background images. three layers really helps gives depth to the game. Less and you loose something and more you better damn well make sure they work.

Foreground art is next and that can consist of 1 or 2 layers. These layers will have several elements that are moving by on the screen.

Collection Items, Obstacles, Enemies and the Player images all add to the count.

As you can see having the Scene and Game Play Flows worked out first really can help with this.

Next double the number you have for iOS as you need support for retina/non-retina devices. If you are universal app then double again. Yes Universal retina/non-retina supporting apps general have 4 sets of art assets inside them. also remember that if you are using Cocos2D or some other game engine that the button has 2 or three states that each can have their own image. You really need to do pressed and not pressed images at a minimum.

So there you have it. A bit of a ramble but that is all the art assets I have to think about when I do game. Oh there are of course the sprites with animation and number of frames each animation has that drives the number well.

the too long did not read version - Requirements and Design phases make your life much easier. Never just start coding and make art as you need it. You will be much slower that way.

 

This is a BAD idea. Telling a player to make an in-app purchase to play with a random person who HAS made a purchase will give you a very negative reputation.

You allow the player to play whatever he has paid for. If you cancel a match because player A purchased something player B didn't - AND you have (as you say) over 300 'packs'? No one will ever be able to play a match.

You should probably re-think that bit of madness, unless I didn't understand you correctly.