Is 1024x768 worth it?

[SilverSpook]

I'm beginning my AGS project now and was wondering if 1024 resolution works well enough on most machines to be worth it.  I've got some pretty high-res art that could benefit from the extra pixels, I think.  I'm just worried it's going to cause headache if there are a lot of errors, or turn people off to the game when they can't get the thing to run, or run without a lot of lag.  Have there been any successful 1024 x 768 games?  Also, is it very difficult to put out another lower res version after production is complete or would it be a serious hassle?

[Ghost]

Any somewhat recent computer will run a "high res" game just fine. Few people here use it, but that is mostly a matter of preference- the classic adventure games of old were 320x200/240, and many people here mimic the style for nostalgia's sake. It's also easier to work in low resolutions because you have less screen to fill. Performance in a high-res game can hit the occasional bottleneck if there are very many objects on the screen, and your final game will be a larger download, but on the plus side you have a chance to show off good artwork in much more detail.

From the top of my head I can't name any completed AGS game that uses 1024x768. But again, that is mostly because of the nostalgia glasses you get after your first month on the forums. 640x480 games, however, are all around the database and they do tend to look just as nice as the amount of effort poured into them.

The important thing to remember is: When you change your resolution OR colour depth, you will have to reimport EVERY sprite you have imported into the game so far, and may need to tweak a LOT of code to match your new resolution (Like WalkTo commands). That's a rule and AGS can't do it any different. So you want to make the decision very early, and then stick to it

[Andail]

To be sure, going for proper hi-res would attract another type of audience than we're used to. There are very large groups of potential players who would never touch anything less than 1024x768.

That being said, painting in hi-res is much harder. Just take a look at the comments about The Journey Down 2 here in the chat forum, and how the backgrounds received criticism there for not being polished enough. And that's Theo's work, an extremely gifted digital artist. It's just that painting with so many pixels puts a wholly different kind of pressure on you. It's a bit like how being filmed in HD requires much better make-up on your face, because every little pore, every spot and wrinkle, everything becomes fully exposed.

I'm currently exploring ways to crank up the resolution for my next game project, but I know that I have to find methods to produce art consistently and efficiently, because by using the same techniques I used for TSP it would take ages.

If you took a random number of AGS backgrounds and sorted out the "worst" ones, you'd probably find that the majority were attempts at higher resolutions.

[SilverSpook]

To be sure, going for proper hi-res would attract another type of audience than we're used to. There are very large groups of potential players who would never touch anything less than 1024x768.

From the top of my head I can't name any completed AGS game that uses 1024x768. But again, that is mostly because of the nostalgia glasses you get after your first month on the forums. 640x480 games, however, are all around the database and they do tend to look just as nice as the amount of effort poured into them.

Interesting, thanks.  That's kind of what I was thinking, that you could reach a wider audience with the higher res, but it would be much more challenging.

I have several portrait-type paintings that go pretty high res (some over 1024).  Haven't very many backgrounds at the moment.

I've been having one issue with 1024 res which is that I can't keep the game from reverting back to a "stretched" display.  If I build, then go to "Run Game Setup" and set "2x anti-aliasing" then "save and run", I get the sidebars and the non-stretched display.  But if I try to rebuild and run again, it goes back to no sidebar and stretched display.  I use the "run without debug" option since I can't run windowed in 1024.

[Snarky]

That's probably just a problem with the IDE (the config settings are lost whenever you... do something, I forget the exact conditions, but I guess rebuild is one of them). It's not something players will experience.

Going for a wider audience sounds good in theory, but if your art isn't on the level of theo's or The Whispered World or something like that, I'm not sure how many high-res players you're going to attract. But if you can do it, it'd sure be nice to have some more high-res AGS games!

[SilverSpook]

Ah, I see, thanks for the feedback and answer.  Perhaps I'll ask the more technical question of if there's some workaround that allows you to have the builder maintain the sidebar in the advanced thread.

[Bavolis]

For me, upgrading to 1024 allowed me to put a *lot* more detail into the art, which is a blessing if you're somebody who enjoys cluttered artwork. It takes longer, yes, but if you're not trying to create something in the classic style, I do think it's worth it. Just my 2 cents.

[Adeel]

Does 1280 x 720 work for you?

Barely Floating is the first AGS game to be made in this resolution and boy, it is handsome! This game is a beautiful gem of AGS Community and on top of that, it's completely free. I suggest you to play this game to get a good idea of developing an AGS game in higher resolution.

I played this game when I only had AMD Athlon x64 (that's equivalent to Intel's Pentium IV), On-board graphics memory, PATA HD and 512 MB of RAM. The game's performance wasn't affected too much. It used to take some time loading the rooms but that was it.

To put it simple: higher resolutions won't affect today's computers (at least not that much to make it feel noticeable).

[SilverSpook]

I'm giving it a shot in 1024x768, but before I start bringing anything into the game I'm going to get some background work done, to get a vertical slice of the workflow, and to see if my inner Monet can cut it aesthetics-wise in that res (wager is 50-50 at this point).  If not, I guess it's time to hit the artist labor market or fire up the retro gun and pixelate.

How is 768 on mobile devices like Android etc?  Any game industry cool-hunter types know what is the current adventure gaming zeitgeist with regards to pads and such?  Are most people in this genre still on PCs or do you think there is crossover to the tablet / pad market?