• Hello [name]! Thanks for joining the GMC. Before making any posts in the Tech Support forum, can we suggest you read the forum rules? These are simple guidelines that we ask you to follow so that you can get the best help possible for your issue.

Windows Is 800x700 a viable resolution? (GM:S)

zorms887

Member
I am currently working on the first project I intend to release publicly. The current native resolution is 700x800, I've never messed with resolution options in game maker and I'm wondering if this resolution will mess with the possibility of resolution options later in development or if scaling the game up and down will just work? This is all really new territory for me since I didn't really need to scale the resolution of anything I didn't intend anyone else to play.

Thanks in advance for the help.
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
Something weird like 800x700 is ever viable in a windowed game. If you attempt fullscreen with it, it will letterbox if you keep the aspect ratio, and be stretched out of whack if you go with full scale.

If you intend to develop for fullscreen, learn what the common screen resolutions are and design around it. Going for 16:9 at 1920x1080 will net you at least 75% compatibility.
 

zorms887

Member
That was my first reaction to the problem. Unfortunately the way the mechanics work, it makes widescreen displays feel claustrophobic and lopsided. It's a bullet hell boss rush where attacks are in sync with the music and will often come from all sides.

The mechanics are sorta like a mix between A Link to The Past, Nuclear Throne, and IWBTG fangame avoidance boss fights. Though the two that would be relevant to the resolution would be A Link to The Past and Nuclear Throne which both have pretty close to 1:1 aspect ratio, and in order to avoid this claustrophobic and lopsided feeling Nuclear Throne also opted to have their game be letterboxed.

I think I am willing to letterbox my game so long as scaling the game up and down at it's native aspect ratio works properly. The mechanics just don't work with a widescreen resolution.

Something weird like 800x700 is ever viable in a windowed game. If you attempt fullscreen with it, it will letterbox if you keep the aspect ratio, and be stretched out of whack if you go with full scale.

If you intend to develop for fullscreen, learn what the common screen resolutions are and design around it. Going for 16:9 at 1920x1080 will net you at least 75% compatibility.
 

rIKmAN

Member
If you are making a pixel art game then I would recommend a smaller resolution that will multiply into other more common 16:9 aspect ratios when scaled up - as Frosty said 1920x1080 is the most popular resolution with that aspect ratio.

However making a pixel art game at that resolution increases the amount of work massively, so what is commonly done is to work at a lower "native" resolution and then scale that up in whole integer factors to larger resolutions so that the pixel don't distort.

As an example 640x360 will scale perfectly into 1280x720 (720p), 1920x1080 (1080p), 2160x1440 (1440p) etc etc all the way up to 3840x2160 (4K) and will still look super sharp with zero pixel distortion, as 1px at your native resolution become a 2x2px / 4x4px etc block when scaled up in whole numbers.

There are other resolutions that work too along with the exampel above, there are a couple of threads on here which go into more detail on how to properly scale pixel art games which would be worth you reading, and Pixelated Pope has a few YT videos which go through things too.

If you aren't making a pixel art game then you can usually get away with using interpolation when scaling and it doesn't look too bad.
 
Last edited:

zorms887

Member
Thank you for the information!

So, my game is kind of a mixed bag. A lot of it is rotoscoped and most of it is un-detailed, with visual effects like boiling to add to a surrealist feel mixed with the clutter of a bullet hell. So a pixel art workload really isn't really a problem, and the artstyle kind of relies on being more zoomed out.

I guess now my question is what options do I have with a gameplay window around 700x800. I figure I could add UI elements to expand the overall size of the screen into whatever resolution I end up going with, and trim down the edges of the current play screen as fit, but I kind of can't sacrifice the current way the camera is zoomed out.

Edit: I added a picture example of rotoscoped art for the game (haven't added boiling yet), and an example of manual pixel art for the game. As you can see, pixels are visible, but they aren't really emphasized in game.

If you are making a pixel art game then I would recommend a smaller resolution that will multiply into other more common 16:9 aspect ratios when scaled up - as Frosty said 1920x1080 is the most popular resolution with that aspect ratio.

However making a pixel art game at that resolution increases the amount of work massively, so what is commonly done is to work at a lower "native" resolution and then scale that up in whole integer factors to larger resolutions so that the pixel don't distort.

As an example 640x360 will scale perfectly into 1280x720 (720p), 1920x1080 (1080p), 2160x1440 (1440p) etc etc all the way up to 3840x2160 (4K) and will still look super sharp with zero pixel distortion, as 1px at your native resolution become a 2x2px / 4x4px etc block when scaled up in whole numbers.

There are other resolutions that work too along with the exampel above, there are a couple of threads on here which go into more detail on how to properly scale pixel art games which would be worth you reading, and Pixelated Pope has a few YT videos which go through things too.

If you aren't making a pixel art game then you can usually get away with using interpolation when scaling and it doesn't look too bad.
headless_stomper_1.gifHansome.png
 
Last edited:
Top