[casual_games] Full Screen or Windowed Mode?

[Ian Smith-Dahl]

I'm one of those graphic designers that works in the secondary market  
for games, and I concur *completely*.     Some games take me 2-3  
hours to work up the collateral for, and some take me 2-3 days.   And  
most of the difference is whether there's some high resolution art to  
work with, or whether all I have is in-game art work which I have to  
go in and recreate pixel-by-pixel.


On Jan 14, 2008, at 9:55 AM, Andrew Payne wrote:


> I suggest generating art resources at even higher resolutions. That  

> way if your game is a hit and you take it to retail the package  

> designer will have something to work with. You can always scale  

> down the rez on the files you actually put into the game, but by  

> keeping a 300+ dpi version in reserve you'll save yourself soooo  

> much trouble if you later need to do any printed promotional pieces.

>

>  -andrew payne

>   webmaster, graphic designer

>   drup at brightermindsmedia.com

>

> Stressed out?  Try your hand at some free games!

> Click on the "Games" tab on our new website:

> http://www.brightermindsmedia.com/

>

>

>

> On Jan 14, 2008, at 9:11 AM, Ricky Haggett wrote:

>

>> I'd suggest producing art resources at the highest resolution  

>> you're ever

>> likely to need. For example, if it's at all possible you might  

>> target xbla

>> at some point, you'd want to be able to display your game at a higher

>> resolution than 800x600 (or 1024x768).

>>

>> We have an in-house engine which currently handles everything at  

>> 1280x960

>> internally, but allows switching between fullscreen and windowed, and

>> scaling the resolution all the way down to 640x480. On startup it  

>> can choose

>> a suitable resolution for the machine its running on.

>>

>> We make all our artwork for a resolution of 1280x960 - if we hit a

>> memory/filesize limit before release we scale down the largest  

>> images -

>> usually the background ones (scaling the images down by a fixed  

>> amount is

>> trivial with a Photoshop action or similar; obviously the impact  

>> on your

>> game code depends on how it's been written).

>>

>> Ricky

>>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games- 

>> bounces at igda.org]

>> On Behalf Of James Terry

>> Sent: 14 January 2008 13:54

>> To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List

>> Subject: Re: [casual_games] Full Screen or Windowed Mode?

>>

>>> From what I have seen from the casual portals, games are required  

>>> to run

>> at a minimum of 800x600 and start by default in full-screen mode.  

>> There

>> are a good number that are 640x480, and that's the largest mode  

>> they go

>> to, but rather than force the resolution in full screen, they will

>> stretch to the current resolution of the monitor.

>>

>> A lot of laptops run at 800x600, especially if you are hooking  

>> them up

>> to a non-HD projector or S-Video cable, as higher than 800x600 will

>> require scrolling on a standard definition TV.

>>

>> When you start getting into the new monitors and such, like the 24  

>> inch

>> widescreens that run a native resolution of 1920x1200, a 640x480  

>> game is

>> very small, and for the multi-taskers, windowed mode is a priority.

>>

>>> From a filesize standpoint, it can be a good idea. If you take a

>> 1024x768 game and reduce the resolution to 800x600, you are  

>> cutting out

>> more than half of the filesize. The drop from 800x600 to 640x480  

>> is only

>> about a third of the filesize reduced.

>>

>> James R. Terry

>> Game Developer

>> Yatec Games

>> (225) 274-1550 Ext. 104

>> jterry at yatecgames.com

>> www.yatecgames.com

>>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org

>> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Lum

>> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2008 4:45 PM

>> To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List

>> Subject: Re: [casual_games] Full Screen or Windowed Mode?

>>

>> Hi Everyone,

>>

>> I think people are misunderstanding my question. I expect that 95% of

>> users are running at least in 1024x768.

>> However, 95% of casual games are developed in 800x600.

>>

>> The real question is how many casual gamers play in Full Screen  

>> Mode. I

>> expect that most casual gamers won't be able to tell a huge  

>> difference

>> between 640x480 and 800x600 while in Full Screen Mode. However, this

>> will very obvious in Windowed Mode especially if they are running at

>> resolutions higher than 1024x768.

>>

>> Additionally, I don't recommend any developer to developer their  

>> game in

>>

>> higher than 800x600 resolution for filesize reasons and for the  

>> lack of

>> windowed mode support on 1024x768 monitors.

>>

>> Andrew Lum

>>

>> Aaron Murray wrote:

>>> Andrew - hopefully someone will chime in with a link to support  

>>> their

>>> statements, but we just went through this decision and I was quite

>>> suprised by the results...something like 95% of users run 800x600 or

>>> higher, and 60%+ run 1024x768 or higher/wider.

>>>

>>> In addition, if someone is still running 640x480, what are the  

>>> chances

>>> that they are:

>>> A. using a PC with enough ram/disk to play your game

>>> B. going to purchase it

>>>

>>> Just my 2 cents. Like I said, hopefully someone can provide a  

>>> link to

>>> some recent portal stats.

>>>

>>> -Aaron

>>> Tandem Games

>>>

>>> On Jan 11, 2008 4:26 PM, Andrew Lum <andrew at fugazo.com> wrote:

>>>

>>>> Hi Everyone,

>>>>

>>>> Fugazo is working on a new game and we are considering making the

>> entire

>>>> game in 640x480 resolution to save on space. We've decided that the

>> art

>>>> style looks fine in Full Screen 640x480 but we're not sure how many

>>>> users play casual games in Window Mode. At 1024x768 a 640x480

>> windowed

>>>> game isn't too bad but we're concerned about users who have a

>> 1280x800,

>>>> or 1280x1024, or higher.

>>>>

>>>> Does anyone have any sort of data on what percentage of casual  

>>>> gamers

>>>> play games in Windowed Mode? Additionally, does anyone have any  

>>>> data

>> on

>>>> what percentage of customers have monitors set to higher than

>> 1024x768?

>>>>

>>>> Thanks!

>>>>

>>>> Andrew Lum

>>>>

>>>> --

>>>> ____________

>>>> Andrew Lum

>>>> andrew at fugazo.com

>>>> 206-349-7805

>>>> CEO, President

>>>> Fugazo, Inc.

>>>>

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>> -- 

>> ____________

>> Andrew Lum

>> andrew at fugazo.com

>> 206-349-7805

>> CEO, President

>> Fugazo, Inc.

>>

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