8 is not going to work at all for what I want to do. Landscape is probably better, since my concept has two screens side by side. Is it mostly going to be a 2:1 ratio? Because I can probably make it work as a 24 x 12… maybe I could put the user interface on the side instead of the top…
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For the landscape it is a 2:1 ratio that seems to fit the screen nice and it seems to be the most it can take before hanging off. So that would probably be your best bet if you planned for your game to be a mobile device.
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Well, my original concept currently looks like this:
If I change to a 2:1, I’ll probably have to put the UI on the side, like this:
Example 1 admittedly would probably not fit most mobile screens correctly. Example 2 however just… I don’t like it.
And you probably have one of the newer phones that use an 18:9 aspect ratio (just looking it up). My phone I believe is the older standard 16:9. So maybe I should go with something in between… 32 width 18 height would probably be ideal for my phone in landscape view, but not so much on yours. I wonder how to “split the difference” so that it displays correctly in both ratios…
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Mobile devices all have different aspect ratios, so there is no way to really predict what it will be played on. I think 16:9 or 18:9 are probably decent starting points.
If the game gets exported as a native mobile app, there are a few options for dealing with aspect ratio mismatches:
- Letterbox the game (most common)
- Expand the view (can show previously invisible areas)
- Zoom to fit (can hide previously visible areas)
- Stretch to fit (downside is obvious)
- Do nothing, and keep game the same size everywhere
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I definitely do not want to hide viewable areas on any device, because that could make the game unplayable.
And yeah, stretch to fit makes the characters look weird.
“Same size” would make the clickable objects tiny and hard to click on properly.
I’ll probably go with a 16:9 ratio, and those with 18:9 phones will just have to deal with the blank bars on the edges (ad space? LOL)
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I don’t think I’ll be participating in this jam, unfortunately. Maybe this winter though!
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Alright, so I am participating.
But when I’m finished, how would I submit my game (sorry if this question was already asked and answered, I haven’t looked through the thread yet- sorry)?
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I think around the second week or second half of the second week Grazer will put up submissions on the flowjam page. You can submit your game there if it qualifies within the time limit, after July 12 and before July 26. I think you have to add your phone number, email, shipping address (For the prize), and then what prize you want to aim for.
The submissions page isn’t up yet for people to spam games yet, plus it gives people more time to work on the game without thinking there’s a rush.
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These are things that should probably be requested through private message after the winner has been selected, I think.
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They are requested privately, no one will be able to see those (except for grazer).
When the time comes, you will understand why because its all explained (tl;dr: just in case the winner “ghosts”, grazer can still send the prize)
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I can already see at least one reason why, to prevent people from submitting multiple entries under different accounts; also, probably, to prevent people from hacking the winner’s account and giving their own address and information to steal their prize, etc.
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I’m curious, anyone wants to share images/gifs of your progress for Flowjam? 
´
So excited to see the results of this flowjam
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I would, except that right now it looks bizarre, because I haven’t added UI and other mechanics yet. And by the time I do add those, a screenshot would probably give the entire idea away. Not that I think anyone would want to copy my work, but anyone with significant talent easily could take my entire concept and probably create something 10x better in a day or two, which will automatically turn my “hopefully unique” concept into looking like an amateurish ripoff of someone else’s game.
I have seen examples and screenshots of other submissions, and many of them look really impressive, but none of them look similar to mine at all (and no I won’t be copying any of their work, since I already envisioned the entire concept of mine and I’m sticking with it). Originality factor is probably the only thing I have going for me right now. 
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I have all mechanics in place, there was an enemy but I decided to delete the code because the AI would take too long to program, and now I’m trying to decide on a goal for the player to have when playing.
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For the Flowjam, does the game have to have swipe or can it just have tap?
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It’s Swipe OR Tap so I’m assuming it could be either or both. I couldn’t figure out the swiping feature until JR_01 made a new one, but its kinda too late now since my game is pretty close to being done. I hope you don’t get docked points for not having Swiping, lol.
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You can have either, or both, doesn’t matter.
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Pog.
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