by wayne » Jun 14, 2007 @ 4:58am
Dan,
Thanks, it is already being done, look at renderware, and some of the others there, they are being used to develop top tier games, of course the game wont look the same visual quality on lower systems. When these development systems are done right they should produce custom code for each system, and different hardware, through customised components. You might be able to get more out of making your own engine, but it depends on the quality of the development system, and level of performance you need to do the game, otherwise you probably won't really get stuffed otherwise, unless you use an virtual OS with preset graphic code. But Taos OS and their Intent engine have an good reputation for machine code translation, and custom drivers.
As it has sufficient graphics, it is OK. It does not worry me having to resort to lower quality graphics to get it to run, as long as they look alright. With the increasing level of power, and an efficient development system, it is game design and play (content) I would be more worried about. If the people with older machines get something between the quality of an GBA and DS game then that is OK. Have an look at MDK, as I said, that had, lousy, but flashy graphics on mediocre hardware.
If I go 3D, I am mainly interested in FPS and TPS (obviously most mobiles won't be able to do this, but you could even use vector graphics). Controls would not be an problem, you would have an custom profile for for each target system (even one profile for mobiles) and an unique distribution. In the end, if needed, you could just use different development systems, and port the data over to different development systems to cover different devices?
Again, for the moment I am looking at much simpler games, at the level of old 8 and 16-bit games, which an efficient development system should be able to deliver on most of the platforms with an excess of power. But if an sufficient 3D FPS development system fro mobiles is eventually available, I might consider differently.
Thanks
Wayne.