Hello good people. I have an interesting idea (at least in my mind) for an iPhone game and for the game to work, I would need to have the pinch-to-zoom (and pinch-to-zoom-out) functionality similar to the one you see in say the Google Maps app. The game "Angry Birds" for instance also has this functionality and you can zoom-in and zoom-out of the game by pinching... Since my game will take place in a city similar to this one and with identical view from on top (http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-12650327-town-plan.php), players will need to be able to zoom-in and zoom-out of it, and so my question is, how is this functionality achievable in an iPhone game and do I have to draw the game in a certain program (for instance Illustrator) to make it work?! Please let me know everything you know about this!! Your answers will be greatly appreciated!! Thanks.
Developing applications and games for the iPhone OS (iOS) requires alot of designing and coding, first off you need to be able to program in either Java or C++, secondly you need the iPhone iOS SDK (Self-Development Kit) so you could actually program in a way that the iPhone OS understands, and I will not lie to you, programming games for phones is pretty complicated. Go ahead and search google for tutorials for programming for the iPhone, you will find alot of tutorials and guides. Good luck.
Actaviosan got it right about the coding side; as far as the images go, no - but typically we tend to use .png format; the program doesn't matter, some of us use Photoshop while others prefer free alternatives like GIMP.
Yea, you're right. 95% of the iPhone (and other new mobiles) game developers use the .PNG format, and most of them work on photoshop to do these images.
I develop a BIT, but never succeeded 100% to program a game for mobile, my intention was a card game for Symbian^1 (Satio OS). I mean, I just dropped it a bit to work on other stuff, but I know that I can if I really want to. Currently focusing on game programming for the PC + 3D modeling.
Very cool I've been developing for the iPhone and iPad for awhile now and hope to move into Android as well next year. I'd love to get into 3D stuff but right now it's just a lil too complicated for me ^-^;
@Actaviosan & alexispetrov: Thanks for your reply guys!! I also have a follow up question - should I draw the graphics in layers (separate roads, houses, etc), or shall I just draw everything in one PNG file?! What would you prefer as developers?! Also how will I make my car drive on the roads, have other cars driving on the road, etc?! Basically how does the whole interactivity part works and how are you able to do this using a PNG file?! Please let me know as much info as possible about this!! Thanks in advance for your help!!
stansoft, For the drawing part, I would've preferred to draw each object seperately, for example: I'd draw let's say around 10 houses, and these houses are randomly set on the streets, and are repeated. Then I'd draw my character seperately, and then the road layer seperately too etc etc.. Regarding the interactivity part, you are asking a question that is way too difficult to answer, and contains alot of variables and complex procedures. For that, you'll have to learn mobile game programming. Search google for mobile game development tutorials and guides. And btw, for what mobile are you trying to develop and in what language?
What Acta said is more or less exactly how I'd have answered too. Also, he's doing it for the iPhone - see the title
Hehe sorry forgot! stansoft, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to get the iOS SDK (can be found in apple's website). Good luck.
OK, thanks guys! I don't have the time to learn programming right now and I will just hire somebody to do the app for me. That's why I was asking all these questions, I'm not a developer, I'm a designer...
Hehe, I kinda felt that you're not a programmer from the questions you asked! Anyhow, bare in mind that hiring someone to develop a game for the iPhone will not come cheap! Good luck.