Forums » Help » Just curious about the possibility of running on iPad/iPods later...

Does it take a long time to tweak a game to be iPod/iPad ready if you don't design a game from the start with these devices in mind?

I've been putting a lot of time into my game, not really designing it for portable devices at all. But I got to thinking... Depending how resource hungry it is, it might an OK idea to just throw in some A* pathfinding to eliminate the need for keyboard keys.

I guess what I'm asking is... are there some known common things you CANNOT do with Impact if you're hoping to run the game on iDevices later (certain features, perhaps)?

It depends :)

If you want to package your game with iOSImpact, you will have quite a few restrictions: no AJAX, no DOM, no vector drawing stuff for the canvas etc.
More: http://impactjs.com/documentation/ios/overview

On the other hand, if you're developing for mobile browsers, you can't have sound and have to take a closer look on drawing performance.
More: http://impactjs.com/documentation/impact-on-mobile-platforms

Drawing performance is still the bottleneck in most cases - iOSImpact or browser. If you can get your draw calls down (e.g. using the BackgroundMap's preRender mode) to about 30, you should be fine. iOSImpact can handle a bit more.

Is there a work around for no sound in browsers yet?

Quote from dominic
If you want to package your game with iOSImpact, you will have quite a few restrictions: no AJAX, no DOM, no vector drawing stuff for the canvas etc.

Thanks Dominic. Better to know this now than later. :P

Quote from Bum
Is there a work around for no sound in browsers yet?

It's my understanding that yes, there is, but it more like "hacks". And they mostly work on a per browser basis. There's no one fix-all.