What are the minimum requirements that you are setting on games you are currently developing? Our customers tend to hold on to their computers for awhile so we try to go pretty far back (DirectX 7, 650 Mhz, 64 MB RAM).

Just curious to what everyone else is doing.

The game that I’m making right now should run on a 300 MHz computer with DirectX3. I haven’t done much testing or optimization yet but I’m confident that it will meet this goal. Might even work on Windows NT!

>DirectX 7, 650 Mhz, 64 MB RAM

The combination is odd.

350mhz + 64mb or 500mhz + 128mb are more common.

Btw I would be unable to play your game then. Quake3 runs with stread 85fps @ 85hz (500mhz,128mb,gf2mx) so you've to show a lot for eating that much performance :>

I officially design for a minimum spec of: Direct X 7, PIII 500, 64MB RAM, 32MB video card - with a theoretical minimum that goes lower but that's the lowest system I am able to personally test on.

It really depends on your games. I'm moving into 3D gaming so I think the above minimum is pretty reasonable and can be easily purchased used for under $300 so there's not really any excuse for something lower than that if you are interested in 3D gaming.

On the other hand if you are producing 2D games then your minimum system spec should be lower, probably in the 300Mhz range - depending on the graphical complexity of your game. Popcap games are about as simplistic as it gets and they recommend a PII 300 - 500, 64MB ram minimum and Direct X 7. Obviously that standard has done well for them without alienating too many customers.

We want to design for the widest number of customers possible and yet I have to wonder how long can we let the "dinosaur" user with his Pentium 90, 4 MB RAM, 1MB on-board video hold us back?

Originally posted by oNyx
>DirectX 7, 650 Mhz, 64 MB RAM

The combination is odd.

350mhz + 64mb or 500mhz + 128mb are more common.

Yes, you're right. That is an odd combo. I made a mistake. I meant 600 Mhz, 128 MB, DirectX 7.

The two slowest computers I have to test on are a 350 and a 600. I was having trouble getting it to perform the way I wanted to on the 350, but with the assistance I have been receiving from this message board, I think I'm going to be able to get it to run on the 350.

I wonder, do you guys think that setting the minimum requirements to be REALLY low might stop someone from playing your game? Its sounds daft, but I know people (I used to a long time ago) who would pick up a box in a shop and if the minimum requirements were FAR below their machine, they would assume that the graphics aren't great. Maybe it applies more to new retail products than it does to shareware? I know I wouldn't be put off trying a shareware puzzle game just because the min spec was a p90 or whatever.

I wonder, do you guys think that setting the minimum requirements to be REALLY low might stop someone from playing your game? Its sounds daft, but I know people (I used to a long time ago) who would pick up a box in a shop and if the minimum requirements were FAR below their machine, they would assume that the graphics aren't great. Maybe it applies more to new retail products than it does to shareware? I know I wouldn't be put off trying a shareware puzzle game just because the min spec was a p90 or whatever.

Probably what you say is true: while people who buy commercial games may be suspicious about low requirements, the shareware market is oriented also towards casual users who don't update often their pc to play the latest games.

Believe me, I know people that still use a P2 300mhz, 128mb and TNT with 16mb... :p

Originally posted by Duncan
I wonder, do you guys think that setting the minimum requirements to be REALLY low might stop someone from playing your game?

Actually, I think that is a good point. I remember thinking that in the past, but had forgotten, that low system requirements could deter sales. Another thing that is similar to this is size of download file. Even though small files are fast for people to download, some people don't think they are going to get much of a game if the file is small. I've read comments on some of our games where people have said that they didn't expect much because of the small download size but were surprised to find that it was a fun game.

But it would be misleading to pump the system requirements to make the game look like more than it is. So I guess system requirements and program size will really take care of themselves depending on what type of game you are making.