So I've noticed on here that a lot of people are giving their apps iPad support but don't have an iPad to test it on. Theoretically this makes sense because they're basically the same system so how could it run differently, right? Well, you'd be right to think this, but not only are there unforeseen issues with switching to the different device size, shape and layout but there are also a few issues with Clickteam's Xcode project builder which are inconsistent with what Xcode needs to get iPad apps running fully. I've decided to list the issues I've spotted here to save those of you without iPads hoping to release universal apps some trouble.
Just so that you know I am using an iPad 1, purchased for the sake of testing projects.
The Launch Images
This feature doesn't work properly with the iPad at all. There are two main issues.
- MMF asks you for a 768x1004 file. This is only any good if your app displays the status bar. Since most of you will not be displaying the iPad status bar in your app/game, this should be 768x1024. Xcode will give you warnings about this image and may display the iPhone image instead, which will make your splash screen look awkwardly zoomed in and you will lose a whole bunch of the right hand side of it. You can resize the frame to 768x1024 in MMF while editing the launch image, so you can do it this way if you want, but due to the next bullet point you might find it easier to overwrite the launch image manually in Xcode.
- MMF also only asks you for one file. This file is set as the portrait image. Unlike the iPhone, iPad uses TWO splash screen images, one for portrait, one for landscape. If the required one is missing, it uses the iPhone one instead, leading to the same problem as above. You simply need to rotate your image to a landscape position and drag it into the empty space in the product info in Xcode.
If your launch image is blurry and pixellated due to being zoomed in and all misaligned due to being the wrong aspect ratio for the screen (it doesn't crop it, it just chops the remainder of the image off of the right or bottom depending on orientation so you get badly aligned logos etc.), no doubt it'll make your app look quite amateurish.
Orientation issues
MMF has some orientation issues with the iPad which are no longer present, or at least are much less common, on iPhone. A lot of users (including myself) like to use the Question and Answer object to create a dialog box to act as the pause feature for our games. When using this feature on the iPad it's quite common that the iPad still thinks it's in the orientation the user was holding it in when they launched the app, so anybody playing your landscape game after having navigated to it's icon in portrait mode will get your dialog box on its side when they hit the pause button. There's not much we can do about this until CT fix the issue but if you're trying to be uber-professional with your iPad app you might consider using a different method of pausing/asking the user questions/etc. This can also affect game center features.
How does my game resize to the iPad screen?
Unlike Android tablets, the iPad is not windscreen. It has a 4:3 aspect ratio, the same as old TVs. This is to keep it convenient for web browsing and to hold and use in either orientation, to keep it feeling like a folio and not a laptop with the keyboard lopped off (if you've ever used an Android tablet you will probably have noticed how useless the things become once you switch them to portrait, and how little of the websites you're viewing you actually get to see without using a 3rd party full-screen browser). The iPhone presents itself at 3:2, which is somewhat similar to the 16:9/16:10 widescreen ratios you can expect from TVs, PCs and Android devices.
So how does MMF scale a universal app between devices?
Be aware that if you create a universal app, you will be presenting your app with black bars on one of the devices. If (and I assume most of you will) you create your project at the iPhone resolution you will have black bars at the top and bottom (if your app is landscape) when presented on iPad (think of when you used to watch widescreen films on a 4:3 TV). If you use the iPad's resolution, the iPhone will display with black bars at the left and right (think of watching old TV shows on a widescreen TV).
If you have a black background or border, this will obviously hide it, and I'm sure users wouldn't see a problem with games in particular choosing to keep their wide aspect ratio on a taller screen, but if full-screen presentation of your app on both devices is important to you, you may want to consider locking it to iPhone and releasing a re-cropped iPad version separately.
The layout of the iPad
It's also worth noting that the iPad has a different layout to the iPhone. Since MMF doesn't yet support orientation switching, we have to pick which orientation we believe will give the best experience for our game. I've found that the vast majority of iPhone games use "Landscape (Right)" (the home button on the right, volume buttons underneath) as the default, and not all of them allow orientation switching, so I've followed suit. Developers can't seem to make their minds up with iPad games though, and I'm finding that many of the games I download start at different orientations from each other by default, but most allow me to re-orient them to my preferred angle by tipping the device a little. Since we can't offer this option, we have to consider some of these points when choosing our orientation:
- The iPad also uses the home button to describe which direction it is being held in, so "Landscape (Right)" means holding the iPad with the home button on the right hand side.
- The volume controls are on the opposite side. If held in "Landscape (Right)" orientation, you can find them on the TOP of the device, not underneath.
- There is no particular way people tend to hold their iPads when in landscape (whilst it's more common to hold iPhones in "Landscape (Right)"), but some like to make the connection that the home button on the left takes them 'back', and this is the orientation the majority of iPad cases assume the user wishes to hold their device.
- The speaker, if the device is held in "Landscape (Right)" orientation, is at the top right. If held "Landscape (Left)", you'll find that the user is covering the speaker with their left hand.
- HOWEVER, if the user wishes to use earphones, the socket is on the opposite corner to the speaker, so if held "Landscape (Right)", their earphone plug will be in a rather awkward position for them and they'll have to hold the device more awkwardly; if you're providing a particularly cinematic or musical app which users will want to experience with earphones or can't play without sound when in public, you may consider switching your orientation, or, if necessary, releasing a separate iPad version which uses the opposite orientation.
- Whichever landscape orientation the iPhone is held in, one hand will cover the speaker and the other will clash with the earphone plug, so people may probably be used to this.
Long story short, consider that if producing a universal app using "Landscape (Right)", the most common orientation for iPhone games, iPad users may have to hold their device "upside-down" compared to what they're used to, and their iPad case may be built for the other direction.
Remember the size of the device and the way people hold it!
A common problem I've noticed with universal apps created by people without an iPad is the positioning of virtual buttons and the like can cause serious hand-cramping. Having to hold a tablet in landscape and stretch both thumbs out towards the centre is tough, and no matter how addictive your game might be, nobody is having fun getting hand cramps. Unfortunately MMF currently offers us no way of detecting the kind of device our app is running on, otherwise we'd be able to move and resize the buttons like some universal apps do. People using iPads are usually used to a little bit of awkwardness holding the device in both hands and pressing buttons with their thumbs at the same time but if your buttons are kept towards the edges/corners of the screen, you won't have an issue, even with how much larger they become, so you might want to consider this if your game is to be universal. You don't want a tenth of your reviews to be from people for whom your game caused physical pain!
Universal app vs. separate iPad version
I don't know about all iPad users, but speaking for myself I can say that seeing separate iPad versions of games is frustrating and annoying, especially when the iPad version offers no extra content so there was no need for it. I often see an app which interests me and have to sit and decide which device I'd prefer to use it on etc. and that can be frustrating, so seeing that an app is universal often further compels me to buy it. Not that I often have much installed on both devices, but I like to be able to pick which I prefer to use it on; to put it on my phone (or both) if I'm going to be using it on the go a lot, or on the iPad if the large screen makes it better or my girlfriend is going to use it.
On the other hand, if people really love your game, they might be happy to pay for it all over again to experience it on a bigger screen/take it with them on their phone. It's slowly becoming a less common practise but some devs even charge more for the "HD" version on iPad.
A universal app, unless particularly large screen oriented, will usually have a larger number of iPhone users, but I do know a lot of people who have an iPad but either don't have a smartphone or are using an Android device, BlackBerry, etc. Android fanboys can be quite militant but you'd be surprised at the number of people who use an Android phone but prefer the iPad as their tablet. For these people's sake you might consider making your iPhone-based app universal just to include them.
I hope these have been helpful. As an iPad user I can say it's a fantastic device but I (and other iPad users most likely) don't like feeling like I've just been cheated into buying a cheaply upscaled and possibly not even tested mobile phone game. Hopefully after reading this you should be able to make your apps more efficient on the iPad without having to go out and buy one!
Originally Posted by jregork
