Best resolution?

[Dadalus]

The game I'm currently developing is 640x400. The graphics for backgrounds/characters/objects etc have all been created in Illustrator so are vector based and can easily be resized.

Since I'm at the early stages if I am going to change the resolution nows the time.

My question is this: What resolution do you think is the best for an AGS game, and would a bigger resolution exclude a significant number of players who wouldn't be able to run it?

I am posting this here as your answers would not just be applicable to my game.

[Gurok]

320x200 is the best resolution for me. It has tradition on its side. Both 640x400 and 320x200 have the best aspect ratio (8:5 or 16:10), which approximates the golden ratio.

Virtually nobody has a monitor nowadays that can't display the highest resolution that AGS 3.3.0 (standard version) supports. If anything, you should be worried about monitors struggling with lower resolutions, though the situation there has improved with the 3.3.0 hotfixes.

You're getting distracted from making your game. Make your game at 640x400! Nobody's going to care if the curves of your cartoony game have slightly less stepping. Also, the higher you go, resolution-wise, the more noticeably jarring things like switching from idle standing view to walking can be.

[Crimson Wizard]

My question is this: What resolution do you think is the best for an AGS game

IMHO, this is a very wrong question. There's no such thing as "AGS game" in terms of graphics. AGS games are no different from any other games.
Correct question is: what resolution is best for chosen game design and graphic style.

[Dadalus]

Gurok: Not distracted (Squirrel..), I have spent a great deal of time on the graphics and want to present them in the best light. It may be that the answers in this post will help me in the next game I design (If I ever finish my current one ). Just thought it would be nice to have opinions from players on what resolution they would like from a game thats not using retro graphics. I think others may find it useful.

(If anyone doesn't get the squirrel reference see the film UP, hell see it anyway its good)

Crimson Wizard: Good point. Though I wouldn't agree that its a wrong question, just perhaps phrased incorrectly. People on these forums have a great deal of experience of creating games using AGS and know its limitations and strengths better than I do. I would argue that I am looking for peoples experience and any problems they have come across when designing higher resolution games using AGS. I am also looking for what players want, do they want more higher resolution games created in AGS.

From the standpoint of game design your absolutely right. I am not just coming at this from that standpoint, and I think people will understand what I am getting at (even if I dont ).

Creating the game made me think of this topic, but its a topic that doesn't need to be discussed in relation to my game, just games in general (made with AGS).

So to rephrase my question : What are players preferences in resolutions? would they like more games that are made with AGS to be in higher resolutions? and what experiences/problems have designers had when making higher resolution games using AGS?

[Crimson Wizard]

Oh. Well, looking from the technical size, this might be mentioned that AGS does not handle high resolutions as well as newer engines, because it uses old-time processing techniques.
The problems and possible solutions have been mentioned several times on forums, for example, here's a recent question:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49014.msg636494649#msg636494649

You may also surf through that topic ("Custom Resolutions build") to see which forum members actually using it (Knox, Stacy Davidson, and others) and ask them about their experience; people use the CR experimental version primarily to get 1280x720 resolution working, but IIRC Knox was considering higher resolutions.

[Dadalus]

Crimson Wizard: Great advice. I did a preliminary search before posting this topic, and noticed that people were using a new build (good work by that way). I am using 3.3 and am focusing on that at the moment, but I will do a better search of the forums regarding the problems people have encountered (serves me right for skimming ).

[tzachs]

Advice #2 is relevant.

[ollj]

there is no best resolution, just the peak of most famous aspect ratios.

its time to face that a 4:3 aspect ratio for home entertainment is just outdated. the 16:9 compromise, an average of the most famous aspect ratios, is just way too dominant by now.