Screen resolution

[clyde]

As I'm trying to get into the habit of making many screen-size variants optional for my games, I've begun to realize that I don't even know what people expect/want.

Do you prefer to have things stretch and shrink (resizing all elements) when you change resolution?

Do you want to be able to see more or less of the game based on screen-size?

I'm currently leaning towards having everything keep its porportions (including UI elements), but positioning UI elements based on screen-size. Yes? This is the expectation?

[Joewintergreen]

Ideally I would like both the cake and the eating, i.e. a menu option controlling which behaviour to use.

 

I dig it when I play (patched) Deus Ex 1 at 1920x1200 and the text is "small" (the same size text tends to be in my OS) but that would also make it impossible to play from my couch.

[elmuerte]

Yes, being able to scale the UI would be an important feature.

[Winnipeg Fats]

I'd agree with the above posts, but if I had to pick one I'd say that an increase in screen resolution should mean that I see more game and less UI.

[itsamoose]

Borderlands 2 on the PC had a pretty great implementation of this, essentially they allowed you to adjust the size of elements

 as well as dictate their relative positions.  Depending on what type of game your making you might also need to consider various aspect ratios (depending on which ones you want to support).  This isn't a big deal with floating elements usually, but can be with games like Starcraft or DOTA that section off a portion of the game window for UI.

 

Personally with this kind of stuff I think the more options the better.
 

[bakelite]

Resolution-independent UI is essential. I have a 2560x1440 monitor, but I'm occasionally forced to play at 1920x1080 to make text readable. This will be an even bigger problem in the not so distant future when resolutions will range from 1080 to 4K.