Question about game art resolution

Hi, I am a new guy here. me and my friends (4 including me) are putting our brains together to make an game

I'll just go straight to the point if you dont mind: we are at the pre-production stage, and currently me and one other member are in charge of the visual aspect of the apps. unfortunately we have no experience, and we do not know what are the dos and donts.

I was thinking that we should make the arts with a res of 1280 x 1920 in photoshop, and then resize it down to 640x960 so it will fit the iphone 4. The reasons for doing this is that
- bigger canvas is easier for us to draw on
- having higher res arts is future-proof (say, perhaps Iphone 5 will have 1280x1920 resolution?)

I am thinking of using this approach for the Ipad version of the arts (2048x1536), moreso since there are rumors circulating that the ipad3 will have this resolution.

Of cause, we will keep going back and forth between the 2 resolutions to make sure the quality of the illustrations isn't affected. I was wondering what other problem would we face if we create our arts this way? Is there any other art related problem we should take note of?

Unfortunately me and my friends only know how to use photoshop, so vector graphics are out of the question

I think you are doing alright.

Just some random reminder: depending on your art style, you may need to fix the lower resolution version of your art since it's not always perfect to use Photoshop's resize algorithm, especially for 480x320 rez (if you intend to support it).

Also it's not always necessary to create 2 sets of art assets for both iphone4 and ipad. Their resolution difference is not that big.

Depending on your UI design, you may get away with one set of art assets and 1)make it fit for iPad resolution and crop a bit for iPhone4, or 2)make it fit for iPhone4 resolution and add some decorative frames on iPad. This will save you some precious build size.

just my 2c

It's Always better to do art in High Def.

I don't think that the iPhone 5 will be in super Retina format. But you must expect it for the iPad 3. (if you want to port your game in the MAC app Store, is always good to have this kind of resolution)

I don't see what kind of problem you will face if your art is bigger.

In our games, the in-game art is in HD, we downscale it into our code to feet in the screen. It's working like a texture on a tradictional PC/Mac games.

For example, in a 3GS ( 320x480 res ) a squared sprite is showed: 100x100 what we do is that we make sprite in 256x256 and the code will downscall to 100x100. So, if you launch the game is a retina desplay, the square will be, of course 2x, 200x200. You still have a good polished sprite.

thanks for the tips

we are thinking of creating a point & click game, so background arts will be quite important as they will be part of the gameplay. As such there are many stuffs we have to keep in mind like not drawing an important item too small or blend into the background too much that the gamers might miss them or have a hard time touching them on the screen after we shrink the arts..

A while ago I was thinking that we will do the arts in 2048x1536 for the ipads, then rearrange the layouts and modify the size to fit on the iphone size. I hope this approach works without problem

Depending on the graphics you are creating, you might want to use vectors so you can always enlarge your graphics without losing quality.

If your designer is smart enough, it will do always your arts at a higher resolution than the required format...

I ask my artist to work on the double of the resolution of the ipad(2048x1536), and I made him a canvas that help him see what it will look like with the different ratio on ipad / iphone 4.

It's very handy to have graphical things in double resolution:
If you decide to increase the size of a sprite -> no problem you already have the double resolution version.

The drawback: the artist usually have more work doing a double resolution version.

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Last edited by Hercule; 08-19-2011 at 02:21 PM.

That drawback you mentioned is one big point that I missed entirely. Big canvas does means easier for the artist and better graphics, but that also mean more works to do. Thanks for the reminder.

No, the time work is the same. When you paint, draw, create shape, only the size of the canvas change but the creativity is the same.

The creativity is the same but the execution is not.

If you work with vector image Yes. If you work with pixel, No. the time is not the same from what I heard during several artist discussion.

From what I have understand, if you work on high definition, you have more pixel to fill and of course more potential error that needed to be cleaned.

Of course it don't take them twice the time. It's more something like 10-30% more time.