A Screenshot is easy right?

Every game needs screen shots. In fact Apple and Google and all game portals require them. they want them to conform to certain ideals, namely resolution and factual depictions of the gameplay etc.

Every time I need to create these screen sots I have to decide what I am going to show in them, as I BELIEVE that the screenshot is the single most important marketing item, it has to be right. Though what makes a screenshot right? well there are many opinions about this, but for me I try to make them honest and as exciting as I can. Screenshots full of action etc, though sometimes too much action can make a screenshot too complicated for a prospective buyer to know what the game is doing. Still I rather like action over boring....

This brings me to Heroic Patterns and grabbing screenshots for the iTunes store. It wasn't as easy as one expects.. haha.. Here is my story.

I wanted to grab my iPad screenshots, and they are 768 x 1024 resolution, only my desktop on my laptop is only 960 high. Gah.. how can I do a screenshot grab when part of the screen is off the bottom of my desktop. Well I cannot obviously. Traditionally I have simply used a scaled down image and grabbed that, then scaled it back up to size. This produces a blurry image and does not do real graphics justice to any degree at all.

To solve this I figured I would create a windows version of my game and put it onto my network at home so I could use my desktop to do the screen grabs. This idea was upended in a rather startling fashion to me. It seems Marmalade altered their license at some point in the recent past and now I am not allowed to create a windows version. This makes me so sad as it has always been great for me to get people to test the game for me. Of course I can still use the PC simulation, but that is not the same as being able to create a stand alone PC version. This new turn for the Marmalade License has made me very sad, and I cannot say I understand their move at all. Now I would have to spend 1500 bucks to be able to create a PC version, WTF!!!! is all I can say....They say the PC license is for established companies.. I have no understanding of what they are thinking at www.Marmalade.com.

Anyway, back to my screenshots... what am I to do? Well I came up with what I think was a really clever idea :)

My idea was to change my desktop to sideways. This was easy enough to rotate the display 90 degrees in the settings. Then I turned my laptop 90 degrees on my lap. I have to say it is really hard to use a keyboard from the side like that. In fact it feels completely alien to have the keyboard at the angle. Still I run the simulation in this mode and grab my full scale screenshots. To work on them I rotate my desktop back to normal, and eventually after doing this over like 3 times I end up with my screenshots. Phew.. what a pain eh!

But I got them through determination and ingenuity, both words I love, and here is an example...

 

 

Laters
Da Voodoochief