Final decision: 2x resolution will be supported (except in the unlikely event that a decision is made to up both physics and display to work off a base of 3x resolution). Whether or not to change gameplay physics' resolution can be discussed in this topic, although the decision is semi-finalized as that physics will remain at 1x and only display will operate at a higher resolution (if the user chooses to do so).Currently, all the internal rendering (except the menu screens) is done at 320x200, before being resized to fit the actual resolution in play. While I will most likely keep gameplay physics at this, I'm thinking of using something a bit higher for the actual rendering, so that the graphics can be a bit more detailed, and optionally, the skill panel can fit more stuff (I have some pretty bold plans for this in itself, too).
In regards to this, what should I aim for? In order to keep the gameplay area neatly lined up with the skill panel, the width would have to be a multiple of 320. The most obvious choice would be 640 - double the area, while still small enough that
any display will be able to fit it. Although it doesn't strictly
have to be so, the logical follow-on from this is that the overall screen area (before resizing to fit) would be 640x400. However, an issue that comes to mind here is that those on resolutions of 1024x768, 1366x768 or 1280x720, this can't be resized larger for the screen without distortion (due to non-integer resize factors) - the current 320x200 display can be resized to 960x600, exactly triple.
While the gameplay area would have to be an integer multiple of 320x160 (so, in this case, 640x320), the skill panel does not nessecerially have to keep its current proportions. If we use the lowest height here (1280x
720), then the gameplay area alone resized would be 1280x640; leaving 80 pixels at that size - or 40 pixels once it's downsized. Whether this would be enough or not is another matter... and there would also be width issues in the case of 1024x768. If we were to keep the current proportions, this would mean a very small screen size (although, it'd be the same as Lemmini without using zoom, so maybe not too bad?) for anyone playing on a screen resolution of less than 1280px wide and/or 800px tall. It's also possible (though it may not look great, and could especially be problematic in levels where pixel precision is needed) to not strictly require integer resizing factors.
So - what kind of resolutions are people using? Especially, how many people use the three that I mentioned may be problematic? Or, are there any other solutions people think could be workable?