The screen size for mobile app development can play a very important role based on your decisions of platform – especially for game development.

In web apps, you will almost always follow the simple rule of “stacking” (list or grid) for your layouts.  Using web based interfaces that can simulate native apps, provide the most ‘bang for the buck’.  While your designs might take on a ‘small’ and ‘large’ screen versions, they most likely will be fine with implementing just the small version.

In game development, the whole game experience and function might need to change with a smaller screen.   So, planning and prototyping on the different screen sizes (small and large) will be key to verifying play-ability.

In either case, your graphics should be designed for the largest screen size (currently that is iPad at 1024 x 768).  You can scale and crop those graphics later as needed.  For more information on dealing with different screen sizes and the best practices:

http://uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/10/going-mobile-designing-for-different-screen-sizes-promoting-your-mobile-app.php

(Corona specific details, but still helpful)

http://blog.anscamobile.com/2010/11/content-scaling-made-easy/
http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/01/dynamic-image-resolution-made-easy/
http://developer.anscamobile.com/content/configuring-projects#Runtime_Co…

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Posted in Mobile by charles No Comments Yet