Re: [android-developers] Rules for restoring game state after the process is killed

On Friday, July 13, 2012 1:58:16 PM UTC+1, markusn82 wrote:

I understand that normally save point placement is subjective.

I'll rephrase my question. For some games on the market, you will be presented with the splash screen when you re-enter the game after process was killed (but not if the game was merely paused and resumed). Is this generally considered bad practice?

It depends, an OpenGL is probably going to have to re-load its assets (the context gets lost), which might time some time so a splash screen would be nice.

For any game well it depends:

1. how long is it going to take until your game becomes active, leaving users looking a a unresponsive screen while you restore the state is not a good end-user experience.  For some games (e.g. simple board games) the state can be restored very quickly so no splash screen is required.
   
2. does the user need a second or two to "get ready" e.g. long pressing home, choosing the game and diving straight into a action sequence might be a bit abrupt.
   
3. does the "marking department" want to cross sell on the enter game splash screen?

It really comes down to the developer (or entity funding the development) deciding:

1. is the end-user experience "good enough".
2. if not is it a good use of his time (development funds).

 

On Thursday, 12 July 2012 23:28:18 UTC-4, TreKing wrote:

On Thu, Jul 12, 2012 at 8:50 PM, markusn82 wrote:

Is it necessary to be this aggressive when saving game state when the process is killed off?

Depends on your game and your goals for it. Is this perfect restore a must-have feature of your game? Only you can answer that.
 

After the process is killed, would it be acceptable to merely return the player to a place in the game that is reasonably close to where they previously were (i.e. a checkpoint).

Depends on your game and your goals for it.
 

Would this be considered bad practice

I don't see why ...
 

and would it lower the chance of our games being featured?

The only people that can answer that with any authority are neither on this list nor would answer you if they were.
 

What is the correct answer?

IMO, there is no "correct answer". Do what makes sense for your game and what you believe your players' expectation of it will be.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TreKing - Chicago transit tracking app for Android-powered devices

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Android Developers" group.
To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
android-developers+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en