2D Background Asset: Illustrator or Photoshop?

Hi community. I'm planning on creating a tower defense 2d game for mobile devices / tablets.

I'm now trying to design the map. Of course, it needs to be a background design that looks good whatever the screen size and resolution.

Let's take a look at this image (from the game "Bloons TD5") as an example:


My concern is on the background only (for the moment). So my question is pretty simple: should I create the background using a vector graphics editor (e.g. Illustrator or Inkscape), or should I design it using a raster graphics editor (e.g. Photoshop or Gimp)?

If I did it in Gimp (for example), and needed it to look almost pixel-perfect, I would have to do it in a very high resolution and let Unity scale it down based on the device's screen size/resolution. But then the background image would have a lot of weight, not desirable for a mobile app.

So, in a nutshell: All Illustrator (Inkscape), all Photoshop (Gimp), or a mix?

Thanks!

 

I've just discovered that Unity does *not* support vector graphics so I think my question does not apply. Can anybody confirm this? Anyway, when designing *whatever* asset for a game, should I use Illustrator/Inkscape or Photoshop/Gimp? And the next question is: what size should I make it so as to cover the widest range of screen sizes possible? The biggest the better? Thanks.

 

If you are looking for an SVG Importer check out this asset.

To cover the widest screen sizes you need to have a sweet spot so the main elements of the game do not get cut off, briefly check out this article.

Use photoshop to get an authentic painting feel via the brush tool. Use illustrator if you want a more cartoony look. If you can't fork out the $$ for Illustrator or PS , check out Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo.

 

Thanks sdviosx, very useful links

 

SVG output through a graphics card basically means pieces of geometry made of triangles in the shape of whatever you want, like an approximation of a circle or a curved blob or whatever. There ARE tools to draw such shapes in Unity, such as RageSpline and other geometry-editing/building tools/assets. You could even say if you add a built-in mesh within the Unity editor, it really could be considered a vector-graphics object to some extent.