How would you sdggest keeping size of game apps down? My apps are all larger than I think they could be? (ie 80mb give or take)… How can I go about it and/or what is best for this? [import]uid: 165071 topic_id: 32227 reply_id: 332227[/import]
Depends. I’d need to see the game and how you built up your assets (sounds and images) to evaluate whether 80mB is over the top or not. As always: optimize, optimize, optimize. Posterize your images in Photoshop to reduce the number of colors, reduce resolution etc. Construct your backgrounds intelligently, using and reusing sorts of tiling. But like I said, I’d need to see your project to see if and where there’s room for significant savings.
My best bet would be on how you use your images. Often people tend to use too rigid a logic supplying high-res images or resolutions for every size. For example, in certain situations, you don’t need images at multiple resolution ( the @2x thing etc…) and can just go for the highest alone. But again it depends on the type of project and the number of devices you want to run it on.
Cheers,
Thomas [import]uid: 70134 topic_id: 32227 reply_id: 128309[/import]
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Don’t use 44Khz Stereo sounds. 11Khz Mono sounds sound just as good on the devices speakers.
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Use JPEGs for images that are solid, like backgrounds.
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If you have multiple graphics that are similar for instance a red rectangle with a blue circle inside, a red rectangle with a green triangle in size. Then have the larger red rectangle as a separate graphic with smaller separate graphics for the inside bits and put them together using displayGroups. In real life, the app I’m building now uses the same background for the login screen, the how do you want to login, for in-game messages and so on. I’ve got like 5 different times I use it and I have 5 copies of that background with different graphics on it. I had the artist just make smaller graphics with the bits I need for each screen and I reuse the one background graphic multiple times. This change alone is stripping about 1MB from my app. 1MB isn’t a lot by itself, but it will add up and with the goal of staying under 50mb (for WiFi downloads) or under 30mb to avoid having to FTP your file to Amazon, every bit counts.
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Figure out what resources you actually need to ship with your app and what could be downloaded later. Lets say you have 3 worlds and you have to play world 1 before you get to 2 and 3, download 2 and 3 in the background while playing world 1.
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Don’t include @4x graphics where you don’t need them. For instance, have a separate Android version that only has the 1x and @2x resources in them. No need for uber big files yet. Also along the same lines, some of your @2x graphics will look fine on the Retina iPad without having to have @4x versions. Those 1536x2048 images eat up space in a hurry.
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Make sure there are no extra resources laying around. Like don’t have the photoshop .psd files for your art in your bundle. That one should be obvious, but you never know.
[import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 32227 reply_id: 128311[/import]
Thank you so much for responses guys… That is so great… Sounds like re-working for some of my apps is in order 
[import]uid: 165071 topic_id: 32227 reply_id: 128312[/import]
Depends. I’d need to see the game and how you built up your assets (sounds and images) to evaluate whether 80mB is over the top or not. As always: optimize, optimize, optimize. Posterize your images in Photoshop to reduce the number of colors, reduce resolution etc. Construct your backgrounds intelligently, using and reusing sorts of tiling. But like I said, I’d need to see your project to see if and where there’s room for significant savings.
My best bet would be on how you use your images. Often people tend to use too rigid a logic supplying high-res images or resolutions for every size. For example, in certain situations, you don’t need images at multiple resolution ( the @2x thing etc…) and can just go for the highest alone. But again it depends on the type of project and the number of devices you want to run it on.
Cheers,
Thomas [import]uid: 70134 topic_id: 32227 reply_id: 128309[/import]
-
Don’t use 44Khz Stereo sounds. 11Khz Mono sounds sound just as good on the devices speakers.
-
Use JPEGs for images that are solid, like backgrounds.
-
If you have multiple graphics that are similar for instance a red rectangle with a blue circle inside, a red rectangle with a green triangle in size. Then have the larger red rectangle as a separate graphic with smaller separate graphics for the inside bits and put them together using displayGroups. In real life, the app I’m building now uses the same background for the login screen, the how do you want to login, for in-game messages and so on. I’ve got like 5 different times I use it and I have 5 copies of that background with different graphics on it. I had the artist just make smaller graphics with the bits I need for each screen and I reuse the one background graphic multiple times. This change alone is stripping about 1MB from my app. 1MB isn’t a lot by itself, but it will add up and with the goal of staying under 50mb (for WiFi downloads) or under 30mb to avoid having to FTP your file to Amazon, every bit counts.
-
Figure out what resources you actually need to ship with your app and what could be downloaded later. Lets say you have 3 worlds and you have to play world 1 before you get to 2 and 3, download 2 and 3 in the background while playing world 1.
-
Don’t include @4x graphics where you don’t need them. For instance, have a separate Android version that only has the 1x and @2x resources in them. No need for uber big files yet. Also along the same lines, some of your @2x graphics will look fine on the Retina iPad without having to have @4x versions. Those 1536x2048 images eat up space in a hurry.
-
Make sure there are no extra resources laying around. Like don’t have the photoshop .psd files for your art in your bundle. That one should be obvious, but you never know.
[import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 32227 reply_id: 128311[/import]
Thank you so much for responses guys… That is so great… Sounds like re-working for some of my apps is in order [import]uid: 165071 topic_id: 32227 reply_id: 128312[/import]