windowed vs fullsreen

[giraffa]

What it should be by default for a casual game? I personally like windowed, but some people want it to be fullsreen from beginning. So, does anybody have an "educated opinion" regarding this? May be some kind of statistics/pols?
Other thing - how important is it to have many resolutions available, or just 640x480 is good?

[dburger]

Many of the portals including Real, require the game to launch full screen. They say thats what their customers prefer. It is probably safe to trust that they've done their homework on the issue and go with full screen launch.

[Fabio]

By the way, should the game anyway have a Windowed option, to be accepted by portals?

[Sharpfish]

By the way, should the game anyway have a Windowed option, to be accepted by portals?

I don't know of an actual requirement, but for casual games I think they all usually have a windowed mode. Even if the portal doesn't require it, it should pay off because many casual players (Including myself when I am in "casual" mode) prefer to play in windowed mode while multitasking or just to not feel so "locked in" to the game (i.e when you want to relax rather than be immersed).

So yeah - both modes are best, and I would always provide both methods. As for resolution selection, 640x480 is still acceptable as the only res (moreso in windowed mode thank pix-o-rama fullscreen) but 800x600 is becomming more a standard I feel. Certain games (most casual) can stick with a fixed res imo, where as more advanced (mainly 3D non casual) should provide all the modes the card supports depending on the genre and typical user and the developers wishes.

[James C. Smith]

By the way, should the game anyway have a Windowed option, to be accepted by portals?

I wouldn't be surprised if things have changed today, but back when Ricochet Lost Worlds and Ricochet Xtreme were launched, none of the portals complained that neither game has a windowed options. That was in April 2004 and October 2001. To this day, those games only run full screen. But the 3rd game, Ricochet Lost Worlds Recharged, does have an option to run in a Window. Not because we got any pressure from anyone to add it. It was not a common request of retailers or customers. But we though it would be nice to add the option and a few customers did ask for it.

[Fabio]

Thanks Paul, Thanks James for the inputs.. it's precious and I'll process it with my other thoughts to see what I finally decide. Normally I don't like Windowed mode, but I start to think it may be worth to add it after all.

[Sharkbait]

There was a very old thread on Dexterity exactly on this topic that grew into 4 pages worth of passionate posts with a lot of posters taking sides with the pro-Window and pro-Fullscreen factions. :) Eventually, there was a consensus to have the option to switch to either mode to please everyone.. then the debate moved on to wether the game should start in fullscreen or windowed mode first, and the thread got passionate again. I was surprised the thread caused such a stir!

[Fabio]

Thanks.. but Dexterity forums ain't online anymore, right? Just to Peek() at the thread. ;)

[mahlzeit]

Fabio, they are here (http://www.indiegamer.com/archives/).

[Sharkbait]

More specifically, I was referring to this one (http://www.indiegamer.com/archives/t-3175.html).

Back then, voting was supported, hence why the first post appears so terse.

[Ronkes]

FWIW, Trichromix (http://www.trichromix.com/) runs in windowed mode only, at a resolution of 800x600 and nobody has even mentioned to me that they thought it was odd there was no fullscreen mode or that the window was too big.

Note that:

1) I'm talking mainly about people I know personally. Trichromix is new and I haven't started marketing it yet. It's also likely that people I don't know who try it out and don't like it because of the window or resolution just move on instead of mailing me their feedback.

2) Trichromix is a puzzle game. I suspect people would request a full screen option if we'd be talking about, for example, a 3D first-person racing game.

[Savant]

Windowed mode is great for playing games at work.

Not that I would ever do that...

[SLotman]

First of all, I do prefer windowed mode too - specially for puzzle games; action games I still prefer fullscreen, to get a bit more of imersion.

But if the game is 3D, you should start on fullscreen no matter the game type, there are still some cards that cant render 3D in window mode :(

[Fabio]

Thanks mahlzeit (http://forums.indiegamer.com/member.php?u=515) and Sharkbait (http://forums.indiegamer.com/member.php?u=1336) for the links, interesting++ stuff.

[Evak]

I prefer windowed mode myself. However.... A lot of older laptops are quite picky about what they will run. Full screen seems to offer better stability, as does 16bit default. Particularly with notebooks with older 3D chipsets, some of which use shared memory with the system.

Anyway. I'd recommend Fullscreen 16bit with a windowed mode in the options.

[Grey Alien]

I added a "Boss Key" to Xmas Bonus so if you are running fullscreen you can hit B and it will go into windowed mode and minimise, pause and stop the music, neat imho.

[Fabio]

I'll also add the E key (Employee), so a boss who is working, if suddenly one of his employees enters the room, the boss presses E and the game automatically starts thus giving the impression the boss was playing (as is right and just), instead of working. :cool:

[impossible]

But if the game is 3D, you should start on fullscreen no matter the game type, there are still some cards that cant render 3D in window mode :(
Yes, and there are also still some computers that can't run Windows 95 :). What cards can't render 3D in window mode? The last time I checked only early 3D accelerators (Voodoo, etc.) couldn't do windowed mode. No one is seriously using one of these.