I coded up an epic game of Breakout. Most of my effort was spent on my intro screen. I also spent a good deal of time on special effects for the high score screen. The thing rocks on my development machine. But I ran the same game on a laptop with limited hardware, and the results were disappointing.The intro screen draws a lot of random lines to produce a static effect. It also draws text in increasing font sizes that get really big. This screen works but is painfully slow on the laptop with limited hardware.
Luckily the main game mechanics adjust themselves according to the amount of time it takes to render the game screen. So it plays well whether there is high power hardware, or limited resources. I should have done that with the intro screen as well.
