Google recently claimed that 500,000 Android devices are getting activated every single day! At this rate, there will be more phones than people in the next few years. But does that mean it’s time game developers started focusing their energies on building games for Android and focused less on Apple? I am not sure if that’s a good idea. At least as of now. Here are 8 reasons why. 1. Screen Sizes One big advantage of Apple devices is that there are only 2 screen sizes that game developers have to deal with; the 3.5 inch screen size for the iPod/iPhones and the 9.7 inch for the iPad. This makes it easier and cheaper for developers to focus on building out UI and graphic assets that cater to only these sizes. Android devices on the other hand, have an average of 20 different screen sizes! There are about 14 different screen sizes for the phones and another 5-6 screen sizes for the tablet versions. Building out art assets that don’t get distorted on such a large variety of screens can be a hard if not futile task. A lot of developers talk about using vector images so that the image can automatically adjust to the screen size without losing much resolution, however, based on my personal experience, this does not always give you the best results. The biggest problem I have faced is that the images on the screen tend to get displaced or lose their proportionality. This can look odd making the game lose credibility. 2. Playable on Tablets Almost every iPhone/iPod app can be played directly on the iPad. This feature is almost native to Apple and will most probably be hard to implement on Android. People who have used the iPad must have noticed the 2X button which enlarges the app window to somewhat fill the iPad screen. Even though the resolution goes down, in many games, it’s not a big deal.
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