SonyEricsson gives us some tips on creating games for a landscape resolution rather than the more normal portrait displays of cell phones. They are talking about holding the phone sideways and not landscape screens that we see all the time. This is the simplest approach and targets the shortest width offered by a given screen size. By assuming a common screen size of 176x220 pixels but designing towards 176x176, a virtual square can be created that will cater for both landscape and portrait modes and will be highly portable. A drawback to this approach is the inherent "dead space". A popular solution is to mask the dead space with suitable user interface additions. One might ask why you don't just adjust for the screen sizes in code. Well, they address this and it isn't the answer you might expect: This is considered "best practice" as it can be scaled to any screen size. However it relies heavily on the positioning of other artifacts to work effectively and may lead to increased development time. It can also lead to a stretched appearance although this may have relatively little impact depending on application type and genre. Landscape gaming design tips for a new angle on mobile games |
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