Screen Adaptivity Research

[GlitchyPSI]

hey folks! this is somewhat related to games but not a specific game itself—
see, i'm doing some research of my own because I want to make a decision on what to choose for my own game in regards to how to react to strange window sizes and so I made the following form:
https://forms.gle/DmhtBP1qCKyK5rna8
it'd be very appreciated if you helped me out with this one! share it around too if you can, i'd like to get varied opinions

 

[Andrew]

Finished! Hope you get all the replies you need.

 

[Niche]

Done and done! This honestly had me re-evaluate how some games work, lol.

 

[kevin supermarket]

i have answered. i'm sure the opinion of "game designer who plays no games" matters greatly here /j

 

[GlitchyPSI]

thank you all for the answers! I got about 46 answers which reflect what according to the steam survey match with the most common screen type and I have made my choice!

if anybody's interested in my conclusions i can post them

 

[Andrew]

I’d love to hear it!

 

[GlitchyPSI]

ight here goes a nonformal conclusion set of mine based on my goals for this survey:

Steam's hardware survey lists a 16:9 AR resolution (1080p, 1440p) as the majority of users, but I was originally worried about ultrawide screens and lower ARs being not considered because of this, and different approaches to AR responsiveness in games affect each segment differently

My final thoughts are as follows:
- Most people prefer either flexible with anchored elements or fixed AR, interestingly not many preferred centered GUI because of screen real estate concerns (which are valid, but are mostly a problem for certain GUI elements in specific configurations and UW users)
- People do have a tendency to respect the original intent of the UI and this was the driving force behind some choosing fixed, which is a very good point because UI designers do some real work making sure everything fits as they expect for the medium, UI and UX design is sacred
- People DON'T like letterboxing, but some know of the potential to add fun stuff inside the letterbox rather than being just black bars. A particular game that does something similar is Power Bomberman, in which if the game isn't in Wide stage mode, the screen either has blurry letterboxing or at some point it adds extra info about your player's current state (like firepower or powerups)
- There are different contexts in which UI elements respond to changes, so in flexible configurations it is not a black and white issue whether to choose if elements are center-oriented (especially when coming to gameplay) vs. anchored to edges (like menus), you can absolutely have a hybrid and many won't complain
- Somebody mentioned they designed fighting games. 👁 that's so cool, but they also brought a great point about in some games the expanded size potentially affecting game balance which is a real threat in a lot of genres actually! my own game is actually screen-size balanced because it uses absolute mouse position (but I am planning to make some "sensitivity" setting)
- Streaming was mentioned in which overlays ARE 16:9 fixed mostly, so it makes absolute sense that flexible layouts in general would win here, although anchored elements could intersect with things like a vtuber avatar depending in the layout.

My conclusion is as follows:
- It's fine to design with 16:9 in mind and have some working room for 21:9 and 4:3 as ARs are unlikely to get wider than that and 4:3s are not as seen nowadays. big menu elements in both 21:9 and 4:3 could take a good chunk of the screen with little overlap and there should be no issue with flexibility and if your gameplay has you focus on the center of the screen it's a good idea to design the elements to prevent going wider than 16:9 but be appropiately sized so they can be shrunk to 4:3 without affecting readability of the elements themselves and the game's active area

 

[GlitchyPSI]

Addendum: I have made my own game's HUD responsive to my conclusions and my menus will be anchored