What DEVICES do you use to TEST with?
Hymloe
Member Posts: 1,653
Hi there,
I'm wanting to really explore the variety of publishing options for Game Salad.
My question is, for anyone who's published to a bunch of different platforms, what devices do you use to test with?
It seems like you could get away with just 3 or 4 devices that cover all the basic resolutions. I know that doesn't necessarily cover low end devices, so you can't see how slow it might run on a worse device of the same resolution, but apart from that, it seems pretty well covered.
What do you think of this range of testing devices? I'm wanting to get one of each, I think...
* iPod Touch 4 (covers testing for all 2:3 iOS devices - iPod Touches and iPhones)
* HTC Desire HD (covers testing for all 2:3 Android devices)
* iPad 2 (covers testing for all 1024x768 tablet devices)
* Nook Tablet (covers testing for 1024x600 devices - Nooks and Kindle Fire)
Do you think those devices alone would cover all your basic testing needs?
How would you feel about releasing a game for Android tablet, for example, while only having tested your project on iPad 2?
Is it necessary to also get say, a Samsung Galaxy 7" or 10"? Or does the Desire HD phone cover the 7" tablet resolution, anyway?
Obviously it'd be great to have a good 10 or 30 devices in your testing arsenal.
But I can't afford to buy 10 different devices at this point. So I'm wondering what you'd suggest as a really effective range of test devices that cover as many options as possible.
Any warnings, or words of recommendation?
Cheers!
Murray
I'm wanting to really explore the variety of publishing options for Game Salad.
My question is, for anyone who's published to a bunch of different platforms, what devices do you use to test with?
It seems like you could get away with just 3 or 4 devices that cover all the basic resolutions. I know that doesn't necessarily cover low end devices, so you can't see how slow it might run on a worse device of the same resolution, but apart from that, it seems pretty well covered.
What do you think of this range of testing devices? I'm wanting to get one of each, I think...
* iPod Touch 4 (covers testing for all 2:3 iOS devices - iPod Touches and iPhones)
* HTC Desire HD (covers testing for all 2:3 Android devices)
* iPad 2 (covers testing for all 1024x768 tablet devices)
* Nook Tablet (covers testing for 1024x600 devices - Nooks and Kindle Fire)
Do you think those devices alone would cover all your basic testing needs?
How would you feel about releasing a game for Android tablet, for example, while only having tested your project on iPad 2?
Is it necessary to also get say, a Samsung Galaxy 7" or 10"? Or does the Desire HD phone cover the 7" tablet resolution, anyway?
Obviously it'd be great to have a good 10 or 30 devices in your testing arsenal.
But I can't afford to buy 10 different devices at this point. So I'm wondering what you'd suggest as a really effective range of test devices that cover as many options as possible.
Any warnings, or words of recommendation?
Cheers!
Murray
Answers
Yeah, I'd like to get an iPod Touch 2, or an iPhone 3GS.
I've tried on my old iPhone 3G. Dis-gust-ing. So at least I have that as a good very-low-end testing device.
But it sounds like luckily, they are really dying off now, and the 3GS was quite a step up from that in performance.
I need to get better at making more optimised, simpler games, though! Mine is far from perfect on the iPod Touch 4, so hmmm...
- Murray
<><
He's ALWAYS working on some new platform, and new games!
What have you got there, TShirtBooth?
- Murray
Sadly, I only have an iPhone 3GS, so that's what I'm testing on at the moment. But I think the whole point of using a service like TestFlight (besides having many more testers than you might otherwise) is to test your app on a variety of devices.
Looks like you're pretty iOS focussed, there!
So, have you released your Android games for ONLY the Kindle Fire, or also for Nook, and other tablets of a compatible resolution?
- Murray
So couldn't you release your Kindle Fire games into the other Android Marketplaces?
Or is it not that simple? Just wondering how cross-compatible all the Android devices / marketplaces are when using Game Salad.
- Murray
iPod 2nd Gen
iPhone 3G
iPhone 3GS
iPhone 4
iPhone 4S
iPad
iPad 2
iPad 3
I've not done any Android publishing yet. I want to work on Nook and Fire, but not got round to importing a Fire yet (they aren't for sale in UK)
Ace
For iOS, I test on a 3GS (for performance), a iPod Touch 4 (for retina), and an iPad original.
That's really helpful advice.
How do you deal with the difference between Android device resolutions and aspect ratios?
Does Game Salad handle it for you to some extent?
Or do you have to be careful to set up all your HUD elements so that they're placed using "relative rules", rather than fixed placement...?
- Murray
ipod 3 gen
ipod 4 gen
iphone4
iPod Touch 2G
iPod Touch 4G
iPhone 3G
iPhone 4
iPhone 4s
iPad 1
iPad 3
(No Android at the moment, but hopefully soon!)
It doesn't look perfect, but I can see how I could tweak it to fit across a variety of devices, and not have to do a lot of hands on fiddling to publish on different platforms. Which is a great relief for me! (It starts to look pretty ugly at iPad size and shape, though).
@redsky, do you find the performance on the iPod 2G to be significantly worse than the iPod 4G?
I suppose it depends from project to project. Do you try to keep all your projects running smoothly on the iPod 2G? Or even the iPhone 3G? Or have you given up on getting things running smoothly on that? I assume a very simple game should still run fine on it.
- Murray
PS: You guys have an impressive amount of devices! Whoa! I need to go shopping.
iPhone 4
iPhone 4s
iPod 2nd Gen
iPod 3rd Gen
iPod 4th Gen
iPad 1
Kindle Fire
Droid X 2
Droid X
So you've done an iPad game, and just tested on iPad 1?
That seems like a good idea, seeing as the iPad 2 and 3 should really just work the same, but smoother, I guess?
I hear the Droid X / Droid X2 has an unusually high ratio, as in it's taller than most devices.
Did you have to allow for that when publishing to Android? I suppose you can test on the Kindle to see how different it looks on there, as one way to see the difference.
I have just an HTC Desire HD, which is 800 x 480. I'm thinking of just using that as my test device for Android, and the Nook/Kindle project on my Mac runs at 1024 x 600, so I can at least test that resolution in the viewer.
- Murray
You haven't been able to smuggle one yet?
I test on:
iPod Touch 2nd gen
iPhone 4
iPad 1
Kindle
You have more like a tidy little testing rig like I want. I'd be happy to have some more devices. But I think even a set like that has the important ground covered. Do you find they've served you well, just having those ones?
Have you released games for all of those devices?
- Murray
As for the iPad if something runs well on the iPad 1 it will run well on all the others, even though I will probably get an iPad 3 to test retina iPad games when they will be available in GS.
As for the Kindle I use it to test Android games. This is a new market for me and given its fragmentation I will probably get another non tablet device to do some other testings.
Ace
iPad
iPad 2
iPhone 3G
iPhone 4
iPhone 4S
Ipad 2
Motorola Xoom
Ipod touch 4g
Yes, I find the iPod 2G is significantly worse than the iPod 4G