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I'm working on a Flash game after many, many years. I'm trying to figure out size to make my application run (eg. 600x800). Because it's a tall (not wide) game, I'm confused.

I know about (and love) the Steam hardware stats. However, for Flash gaming, I have two nit-picks with their survey sample:

1) Caters to more hardcore gamers with better hardware (overall) 2) Captures only a subset of Flash gamers. Doesn't capture people who play at school, work, etc. or not netbooks and lighter machines.

Are there any sort of statistics I can use to determine which size to use? Ideally, I would like to know something like:

  • 800x600 will fit 94% of users screens
  • 1024x768 will fit 74% of users screens
  • 1200x960 will fit 53% of users screens
  • etc.
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    \$\begingroup\$ Why not program your game in a way it's not size independent? You can always host your game with a smaller width/height than it was intended for. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sidar
    Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 14:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Sidar that's what I'm doing. I'm using all vector art. Still, when I release the Flash version, I need to specify a specific width/height, so I would like to test throughout my dev cycle using that width/height. At least that is guaranteed to look good. \$\endgroup\$
    – ashes999
    Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 14:36
  • \$\begingroup\$ browsersize.googlelabs.com \$\endgroup\$
    – John McDonald
    Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 14:36
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ashes999 Then honestly I don't see the problem. If it's going to be vector art then going smaller or bigger doesn't make a difference ( other than a performance hit if you were to make it too big ). Go to newgrounds and just look at the popular games and their sizes. You will notice that most screen sizes arent that big. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sidar
    Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 14:39
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ashes999 I didn't say blindly pick one. I said you can clearly see that the games still look good even-though their size is small. Besides you can always turn your own resolution down and test for yourself. It's in your desktop settings you know. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sidar
    Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 14:47

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Google has done some analysis on this: http://browsersize.googlelabs.com

This link has been deprecated, and instead, it will be available as a feature in Google Analytics. I have taken a screenshot of the front-page sample, just in case:

Browser Size

As stated in the about link:

Google Browser Size is a visualization of browser window sizes for people who visit Google. For example, the "90%" contour means that 90% of people visiting Google have their browser window open to at least this size or larger.

This is useful for ensuring that important parts of a page's user interface are visible by a wide audience. On the example page that you see when you first visit this site, there is a "donate now" button which falls within the 80% contour, meaning that 20% of users cannot see this button when they first visit the page. 20% is a significant number; knowing this fact would encourage the designer to move the button much higher in the page so it can be seen without scrolling.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ +1 very good link, and very good sample with representation. \$\endgroup\$
    – ashes999
    Commented Sep 18, 2012 at 16:15

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