Think this has been discussed before... but maybe now things have changed :)
After reading a recent post about file download size, I wonder if also game resolution can affect a lot the sales... I managed to keep file size low (my entire game now is about 1.8mb with installer!) and tech requirements low enough (the lowest pc I've tried is a P3 500mhz, and you don't really have to have a 3D card, 8mb standard card is enough).
But the only major mistake I made (I realize it now that game is 80% finished!!!) is that you can run it only at 1024x768 res, this because I designed the screen to be full of stats and buttons (it's a management game, you know :))
Since I've seen many shareware games that run even 640x480x16 colours, I am a bit worried...! but anyway, that was my first game... and my first mistake :)
However, I think that another thing that most people forgot, is to look at competition (yes, even the commercial ones), so you can see what players are going to expect to play a similar game. While Puzzle Bobble clones usually require low pc, a soccer management game DO require a powerful pc, like CM4 :) I'm not going to say that my game is in direct competition with CM4 because it would be folly (I have not a budget like them!), but maybe people that play this game will be the main target for mine...?

p.s. Next one for sure will be maximum 800x600 :)

Mrm. I don't think that I've recently had a setup that actually couldn't run 1024x768, but I *have* had one that was too small to run it comfortably. (Crap monitor)

Again, your target demographic may make a difference... if you're expecting to be more of a "boys toy" (yes, I'm stereotyping wildly) you may be less likely to get people with small monitors and/or bad eyesight necessitating low resolutions?

Still, just checking some of the traffic stats on some of my websites, the resolutions tend to be 40% 1024x768, 40% 800x600. So a *lot* of people (that's over 100,000 on the particular stats page I'm looking at, to justify my sample size :) ) are still most comfortable using that resolution.

Sigh... I suspect that.
But my audience should be definitely more than teenagers... the kind of game I am making will involve soccer (or football) fans, so range should be more around 18-40 years.
I really hope to get maybe less downloads, but an higher conversion rate...
To be honest I really don't know how my game can go. It surely isn't CM4, it is more oriented to the casual player (you have less decisions to make), but the question is "the casual player have a 1024x768 monitor capable"? :)

Your web stats are interesting: but not always the hardware of the one who visit a site is the same that play the game, a lot of visitors could visit the site at work (like me) then play it at home, with a more powerful pc.

Well that's what I hope :)

I stopped asking that and just added a resolution selection in my option screen.

run a check on all video modes(or at least the common ones), and then let the user select. :)

Hehe I wish it was so easy :)
The problem is that I made screens to fit only in 1024x768. Since is not a 3D game, and all graphics are bitmap, I cannot dynamically resize the screen res... :(
Well, I think I'll learn a lot of lessons from this game!! at least I managed to keep filesize low :)

I would say its safe these days to skip right past 640x480 and make 800x600 your minimum target resolution.

As far as 1024x768, I probably won't be targeting it when I start my next game (2D), but I think it probably would be safe to do from a compatability point of view. Thinking back, even the 14" monitor that came with my now 9 year old computer supported 1024x768. I would imagine very few users are unable to run at that these days.

The reason 800x600 is so prominent in polls/logs is probably just because higher resolutions are an uncomfortable size for the desktop for them. Which brings up an important point. Unless your text is going to be larger than the typical default font sizes for windows apps, and your icons and buttons are going to be larger than their typical sizes in other apps, then you are probably going to find that users will find 1024x768 to be too high res for they same reason they find it too high res for their desktops.

On the other hand, I know most computers ship with 800x600 as the default. I've run into a bunch of people that had no clue you could change the resolution, and a bunch that knew it could be changed but didn't know how. I wonder how many of the people that run 800x600 only do so because they can't change it.

Well since my games uses DX7, it changes resolution automatically :)
And to run 1024x768 in 16-bit you only need a 8mb video card (which I think everyone has nowadays!).
It is true that even old monitors can display 1024x768, but you get a poor quality and that may annoy some users...

Anyway, if I had to start it again from scratch I'd do it 800x600.

Originally posted by Jack_Norton
And to run 1024x768 in 16-bit you only need a 8mb video card

Actually, many games render everything to a system memory backbuffer and then just do a blit to framebuffer. In that case, you would only need about 1.5MB of memory on the video card. However, if you want to do everything in video memory, then I'd say 8MB is about right (1.5MB for front buffer, 1.5 MB for back buffer, 5 MB for other bitmaps). For simple games without a lot of different sprites (like tetris), you could probably even get away with a 4MB card.

Ehm thanks for the technical infos :) I use Blitz3d, but I really have no clue how it handles.
I guess that if the card has enough video memory it does everything in video ram, and uses system ram only if it does need it...

Yeh, just to clarify

it's
1024 * 768 * 2 (16bits = 2 bytes)

= 1536 Kbytes
= 1.5 mb


- My Thinkpad 600E only has a 2.5MB AGP card. It runs windows/apps fine in 24bit but in games, could probably only manage around 1024x768x8bit.

Of course if the game is menu based it might not be so much of a problem?

yes the game is mainly menu...!
really no much animation (since it's not needed for such games).
I am planning in FUTURE release (if game sells!) to add a 3D view of the match... but this is long way from here.
So it should run even on notebooks and such.
Anyway as long as I have a working demo I'll post a link here.

Blitz uses double buffering, so that's 1.5mb x2... but anyway...

I think it's not such a big issue hardware support-wise. My main reason to go with lower res would be to lower video memory requirements, and to get more sprite bang for your buck... as well as speed issues. If your game doesn't need much vid mem, and doesn't require too much speed, then I imagine it should be okay. But yes, make sure it's readable on pokey little monitors!

Oh, and yeah, blitz should use video memory until it runs out, then use system memory. But swapping between them will probably be S L O W

No my game is really not much dynamic, only menus, buttons, etc. I've tested it on some slow pc (at least I define that a P3 500mhz with Geforce 2 :P) and work nicely...
Hope to put a demo out soon.

p.s. hope that blitz forums get running again soon!! :(

If it's not a 3D game (which would mean resolution is far more impactful), my take on it is that if Microsoft is comfortable limiting people to a minimum of 800x600x256, then it's good enough for me. However, 1024x768 may be a bit ahead of its time. Since XP defaults to 800x600, alot of people won't even bother raising it, so when they run your game, they'll wonder why they can't see everything.

Perhaps prompt the user to that effect (like in the old days when a game would tell you that you must be in 256-color mode). And maybe even figure out some way to manipulate the system parameters to change it for them if they say 'yes' to a prompt. This way, you don't have to depend on them figuring out how to use Display Properties.

The game uses DX7 (it is written in Blitz3D) which, of course, change automatically the screen res to 1024x768 (the user don't need to make any res change by hand!).
The game uses some 3D effect for the buttons, but maybe I'm thinking of removing them and make the game full Directdraw only, so there shouldn't be any problem with oldier pc...

Originally posted by Jack_Norton
The game uses DX7 (it is written in Blitz3D) which, of course, change automatically the screen res to 1024x768 (the user don't need to make any res change by hand!).
Oh, sorry. For some reason I had this mental picture of a windowed game... The DirectDraw idea sounds like the best bet if you really need that kind of resolution.