How to restrict your app to run on certain devices?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Playrix, May 21, 2010.

  1. Playrix

    Playrix Active Member

    Hey guys,

    I have a question: we submitted an app to the iTunes and for some reason, now the description page says that the game can run on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. However, it was not built to run on iPad. Please advise us what we should do to update the game and restrict the requirements. Thank you!

    -Dasha
     
  2. mobile1up

    mobile1up Well-Known Member

    Nov 6, 2008
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    do you have a reason not to support the ipad? iphone applications run in 1x or 2x scaling mode on the ipad with a black border/padding. no reason not to restrict it unless you have licensing concerns. you could check the device name and then quit the application if you do not detect an iphone or ipod touch.
     
  3. bmn0210

    bmn0210 Well-Known Member

    Feb 13, 2010
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    For that matter, there's no reason why licensing concerns would even affect what devices it could run on.

    There's a simple hack to get around it anyway, so all you'll be doing is pissing people of.
     
  4. mobile1up

    mobile1up Well-Known Member

    Nov 6, 2008
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    you need to be jailbroken to do that hack.

    in regards to licensing; if you have content you are reselling, your contract may not allow ipad, and only allow iphone/ipod touch - stupid, but from a legal standpoint it could exist :)
     
  5. bmn0210

    bmn0210 Well-Known Member

    Feb 13, 2010
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    Very true, it could legally exist. What I meant is there'd be no reason for any company to come up with an agreement like that. I suppose if a company really wanted to license out their content to a second developer for the iPad version we might see such a situation, but then that'd be more of a pain in the ass for them than anyone else.

    As for the "hack", I'm referring to the same trick that's for bypassing device and OS restrictions in GTA, which AFAIK never required anything to be jailnbroken. Unless something's changed radically since 3.1.3 (which it might have done, I haven't been following the jailbreaking scene at all lately) it should still work fine.
     
  6. lukeca

    lukeca Well-Known Member

    Jul 22, 2009
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    In general, you can't restrict your app from iPad, this has been discussed quite a bit in the official dev forums. The iPad was made to be compatible with iPhone/iPod Touch apps, it's a selling point of the iPad, and Apple doesn't want you restricting them. If you don't create a universal app then it runs in that compatiblity mode. The only way you can restrict it is to use a piece of hardware the iPad doesn't have, like a camera, but of course that restricts it from iPod touch as well.
     
  7. Playrix

    Playrix Active Member

    Thanks! You guys have been very helpful. Really appreciated your assistance.
     
  8. Mondae

    Mondae Well-Known Member

    Feb 26, 2010
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    Perv, why do you care?
    Yep. You're welcome.;)
     
  9. OctopodSquad

    OctopodSquad Well-Known Member

    Apr 25, 2010
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    noT to be all offtopic, but what is this (hack) called?
     
  10. SpaceHunter

    SpaceHunter Well-Known Member

    Feb 9, 2009
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    Let's say I design my app specific to the iPad but I would also like users of 3GS to buy the app but NOT ALLOW users of 3G or earlier phones.

    The reason is simple - 3G doesn't quite have the hardware to render a high polygon count (OpenGL) that my game pushes at a decent FPS. Therefore the user experience is hindered quite a bit.

    I remember once upon a time when submitting an app one could specify what hardware to run on. This feature appears to gone now.

    So, how would I accomplish this feat?
     

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