作者：Keith Andrew

苹果最新iPad将在发布的第一天就引来众多忠实用户的哄抢。

全世界有无数的开发者在从事与iOS生态圈相关的业务，而该硬件的任何一次升级既会让这些开发者感到兴奋，也会让他们倍感焦虑。

以下是数名开发者针对新款iPad给游戏带来的发展机遇及挑战的看法。

ipad-video-games（from cnn.com)

Zee-3创始人Ste Pickford

“对于新一代iPad的发布我们并不感到惊讶。Retina屏幕可以说是所有人都翘盼已久的新技术，而传说中的屏幕触觉反馈技术却仍只是个传言。”

“它的Retina屏幕对于游戏开发者来说仍然是个巨大的挑战，对那些制作基于2D位图游戏的开发者来说尤其如此。他们都希望现有的iPad游戏在新Retina屏幕上能够呈现出相同的效果，即不需要利用更高的分辨率。”

“我想新设备可能与iPad2的游戏运行性能并不相称，因为改良过的硬件拥有更强大的功能，并且提高了4倍像素。”

“我们能够轻松地将新版本的《磁性圆球》图像放大2倍，该款游戏最初的图像设计分辨率就高于iPad Retina屏幕的分辨率，但是因为这是一款通用版应用，所以我们很难将其3G下载限制压缩在20 MB以内（游戏邦注：苹果最近已将应用无线下载上限提升至50MB）。”

“结果就是，为了适应iPad的Retina屏幕，我们要么得抛弃通用版本，要么就得放弃3G下载模式。这是个难以取舍的选择！”

Greedy Bankers创始人Alistair Aitcheson

“Retina屏幕是游戏开发者所需要面临的最大改变。”

“《贪婪的银行家》最初发布于iPhone 4，而我也很期待看到这款游戏的iPad版本！不过在此之前我们需要适当地调整游戏的图像和编程，从而让它更加适应这个新设备。”

“我非常期待屏幕触觉反馈这一功能。这一新技术将为平板电脑游戏的发展开创新机遇，而作为一名设计师我也希望能够对此加以利用。”

Spilt Milk Studios总经理Andrew John Smith

“对于新iPad所公布的那些功能我并不是很感兴趣。”

“与iPad 2价格差不多，但却拥有更棒的音效和视频显示——这些都是我们可预料到的变化，并且我也知道无数人会购买这款新设备，而我们也能够从不断增加的市场机遇中获益，但是我却对开发者需要针对更高像素且更复杂的处理器芯片制作游戏感到头疼。”

“也许明年我们还将迎来另一款更强大的设备，苹果什么时候会再给一个大惊喜呢？”

Hogrocket创始人Peter Collier

“现在的设备已有更强大的处理能力和更高清的图像分辨率，我想高端游戏即将迎来自己的历史，而掌机控制器也将慢慢退出主流。”

“但是这却让那些预算有限的独立游戏开发者倍感焦虑。”

“这好像是PlayStation 1时代的翻版，更大型的团队需要以更强大的图像能力或者更多预算武装自己，才能加入竞争。”

“我认为苹果应该更多关注于软件创新方面，而不是一味地依靠硬件取胜，不过不管怎样我们都期待他们有更好的发展！”

Xiotex Studios创始人Byron Atkinson-Jones

“作为一名游戏开发者，我想新款iPad最突出的进步之处就是图像视觉效果。”

“当然，我很高兴能够看到新设备分辨率的提升，但是同时也担心该设备中的图像处理器运行速度是否和iPad 2没有差别。我希望自己的担忧并非现实。”

“我不希望看到开发者之间再次出现掌机游戏领域的那种图像质量竞赛，但是从苹果的视频演示内容中我们可以看出，这是不可避免的现实。”

独立开发者Jonathan Prestidge

“与众多独立开发者一样，我们并没为为新iPad的出现感到沮丧。相反，我们很高兴能够迎来Retina屏幕，因为我现在正开发的iPad游戏采用的是矢量图，我不需要进行额外调整便能够让这些内容自动呈现在更高分辨率设备上。”

“只要新iPad功能可以比早前的iPad更快速地渲染矢量图就行。”

“我很期待看到新iPad支持四声道功能——即在设备的每个边缘中都安装一个小小的扬声器。因为这一新功能能够让开发者无需使用耳机便能在游戏中呈现出立体音效。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Retina reveal proves painful for indies: Instant developer reaction to Apple’s new iPad

by Keith Andrew

The impact of Apple’s new iPad will go way beyond the bank balances of keen consumers who stand in line to pick one up on day one.

Scores of developers around the globe have businesses that depend on the iOS ecosystem in one form or another, making any upgrades to its hardware both exciting and frightening in equal measure – an often agonising balance we have previously been privy to.

As a result, we caught up with some PocketGamer.biz faithfuls for their take on Apple’s latest piece of kit, and what it means for the future of indie games development on iPad:

Ste Pickford, co-founder, Zee-3

“Well, there were no surprises in the new iPad announcement. Everyone expected the Retina screen, and the unlikely but intriguing rumours about some kind of haptic feedback proved to be just that – rumours.

“Retina on the iPad remains a pain for game developers, particularly those making 2D bitmap-based games. Hopefully existing iPad games will simply look identical on the new Retina screen, without taking advantage of the extra resolution.

“I suspect the machine won’t quite match the performance of the iPad 2 for games, with the improved hardware probably not quite up to the job or pushing around four times as many pixels, and frame rate is worth more than graphical fidelity any day of the week!

“We’ve could add double-sized graphics to a new version of Magnetic Billiards: Blueprint very easily – the original art assets are drawn at a higher resolution than iPad retina, but as a universal app there’s no way we’d be able to also stay under the 20 meg 3G download limit.

“So if we support iPad retina in future, we either drop being a universal app, or drop being downloadable over 3G. It’s a tough choice!”

[Note: Apple has upped the over-the-air app download limit to 50MB.]

Alistair Aitcheson, creator of Greedy Bankers

“The retina display is the biggest change for game developers.

“Greedy Bankers was a delight to first see on iPhone 4, and I’m very excited to see how the iPad version will look! Of course, it will take a bit of extra art and programming work to support, but I’m looking forward to seeing it in action.

“I had been getting excited that the rumours of haptic feedback might come to fruition. That’s the kind of technology that could open up whole new avenues for tablet games, and I’d love to be able to make use of it as a designer. One day…!”

Andrew John Smith, Spilt Milk Studios MD

“I’m pretty underwhelmed by the annouced features of the new iPad.

“Same price as the 2, better grunt, better screen. All fairly predictable and – while I’m sure that many many people will buy it and we’ll all benefit from te increased market – the very idea of making games that take advantage of all of those extra pixels and processor chips make my head ache.

“Another year, another incremental update – but when are we going to see the next brilliant surprise? I remember the original iPod, iPhone and iPad unveilings. It’s been a while since I was that excited.”

Peter Collier, co-founder, Hogrocket

“With the extra processing power and shaper resolution I can see, higher-end games becoming more to the forefront on the device now, console power on the move.

“Where this leaves indies with limited budgets is a worry.

“It’s like the PlayStation 1 era all over again – bigger and bigger teams needed with the art capacity/budget to compete.

“I think Apple should focus more on the software innovation side rather than keeping on with the hardware one-upmanship, but we’ll see how it goes!”

Byron Atkinson-Jones, founder, Xiotex Studios

“As a developer, all I see when looking at the new iPad is more graphics to push around.

“Yes, I’m excited about the increase in resolution, but at the same time I wonder if the graphics chip i going to end up realistically being the same speed as the iPad 2 is currently. I would have liked to see more power behind those pixels just to ease those worries.

“What I would hate to see is developers falling into the same kind of graphics race that we saw with the consoles and the demos that Apple chose to show seem to indicate that’s were we could be heading.”

Jonathan Prestidge, indie developer

“I’m not down on it as many indie developers are. In fact, I’m pleased it has the Retina Display – as predicted – because the iPad game I’m developing is all vectors, so fingers crossed, it will automatically be displayed in the higher resoltuion without me having to do any additional work.

“Just so long as the increased power of the new iPad enables it to render the vectors just as fast or faster than previous iPads.

“What I would have liked to see on the new iPad is quadraphonic sound – a little speaker on each edge. It’s the only way I think developers will be able to put proper stereo in games without using headphones.”(source:pocketgamer)