Is this game only 4:3 screen ratio or also 16:9 ?

[Kapt.Kool]

The vids on the shop page show 4:3 ratio and I wanna know if I can change this to 16:9 ?
(I know old school games were only 4:3 back in the glory times of the arcade, but... !)
Thanx!

[XxSasukeLordxX]

Its probably only 4:3

[Quannix]

4:3 only, unless you force your graphics driver to stretch, but I don't recommend that.

the rooms in the game are actually designed around 4:3 as well, so don't expect a patch to change that

[Drybonz]

It's 4:3 only... I refunded on the game for this reason.

[Kapt.Kool]

Thats bad.
I think I will pass this game. Why do game devs make a game without 16:9 screen option?
This format is standard these days! The old school idea is great, but should be a option for those who like it, not something you are forced to.

[Duke Dyzzy]

It's a design choice. Like Quannix said, the rooms are designed around that resolution. so that's why the game runs like that.

[rdein]

Hello there,

Like many have said before, it's a design choice. Frankly, if it was something easy to change, I'd have done it by now. But because all the rooms in the game are designed with this resolution in mind, it means various adjustments would have to be made (for example, in the Fennel fight, the extra space would change the fight drastically in terms of spacing, mobility, etc.)

Unfortunately this was a mistake we, the dev team, have to deal with now. So I don't blame you for refunding the game for this kind of reason, or not buying it for this reason. I'm very sorry you feel that way, I really do.

As for why we didn't do it 16:9, it's simply because 4:3 is what we've been doing for so long. This is the fourth Momodora game, and the previous ones are all like this, as this was never brought up as an issue before. So it didn't feel like we had to change it to a different resolution.

[Quannix]

Originally posted by Capt.Cool:

Thats bad.
I think I will pass this game. Why do game devs make a game without 16:9 screen option?
This format is standard these days! The old school idea is great, but should be a option for those who like it, not something you are forced to.

when you look closely at the way rooms are designed in this game (and other platformers as well) it'd be very difficult to have multiple aspect ratio support. despite 16:9 being the standard, i understand why some developers still choose 4:3 for their platformers

[*Yuki*]

you can add stuff, just like unlockabled backgrounds, you can set up to fill these borders on both sides (like they are filled in touhou and various other games, but with a twist)

[rdein]

Originally posted by *Yuki*:

you can add stuff, just like unlockabled backgrounds, you can set up to fill these borders on both sides (like they are filled in touhou and various other games, but with a twist)

Well, there are no plans to add anything new to this game anymore, and it's been like that since the release day. All we've done is small adjustments to the content that exists in this game and bug fixes, since we are focusing our efforts on another new game.

[*Yuki*]

okay then

[PhoeHammer]

Originally posted by rdein:

Hello there,

Like many have said before, it's a design choice. Frankly, if it was something easy to change, I'd have done it by now. But because all the rooms in the game are designed with this resolution in mind, it means various adjustments would have to be made (for example, in the Fennel fight, the extra space would change the fight drastically in terms of spacing, mobility, etc.)

Unfortunately this was a mistake we, the dev team, have to deal with now. So I don't blame you for refunding the game for this kind of reason, or not buying it for this reason. I'm very sorry you feel that way, I really do.

As for why we didn't do it 16:9, it's simply because 4:3 is what we've been doing for so long. This is the fourth Momodora game, and the previous ones are all like this, as this was never brought up as an issue before. So it didn't feel like we had to change it to a different resolution.

As someone who has worked in the GM7, GM8, GM8.1 and GMS1 (the engine this game is built on) engines extensivly (haven't built anything for some time - due to other comitments, other projects and the masive amount of bugs that were present in GM8.1 and the launch version of GMS1) resizing the views in the rooms dynamicaly is posible and isn't hard. Alternativly you can just set up a standard 16/9 view as view1 (as indexing starts at 0) and disable view0 and enable view1. Write a global var and add a script to the create event of each room to dynamicaly switch views (which I imagine is how the screen resalution setting is done). From their you let the view run left and right and hault when you reach the boundaries of the rooms - whcih is the defoult behaviour. Year you might need to fill in some spaces that were not previously visable (particuarly in sections that go up and down) but its not like it's that complicated. Don't forget you can place forground and background sprites out side each room.

What dose this all mean? the encounters stay the same but the screen is actualy visualy filled and their is no pixel streaching.

[rdein]

Originally posted by PhoeHammer:

Originally posted by rdein:

Hello there,

Like many have said before, it's a design choice. Frankly, if it was something easy to change, I'd have done it by now. But because all the rooms in the game are designed with this resolution in mind, it means various adjustments would have to be made (for example, in the Fennel fight, the extra space would change the fight drastically in terms of spacing, mobility, etc.)

Unfortunately this was a mistake we, the dev team, have to deal with now. So I don't blame you for refunding the game for this kind of reason, or not buying it for this reason. I'm very sorry you feel that way, I really do.

As for why we didn't do it 16:9, it's simply because 4:3 is what we've been doing for so long. This is the fourth Momodora game, and the previous ones are all like this, as this was never brought up as an issue before. So it didn't feel like we had to change it to a different resolution.

As someone who has worked in the GM7, GM8, GM8.1 and GMS1 (the engine this game is built on) engines extensivly (haven't built anything for some time - due to other comitments, other projects and the masive amount of bugs that were present in GM8.1 and the launch version of GMS1) resizing the views in the rooms dynamicaly is posible and isn't hard. Alternativly you can just set up a standard 16/9 view as view1 (as indexing starts at 0) and disable view0 and enable view1. Write a global var and add a script to the create event of each room to dynamicaly switch views (which I imagine is how the screen resalution setting is done). From their you let the view run left and right and hault when you reach the boundaries of the rooms - whcih is the defoult behaviour. Year you might need to fill in some spaces that were not previously visable (particuarly in sections that go up and down) but its not like it's that complicated. Don't forget you can place forground and background sprites out side each room.

What dose this all mean? the encounters stay the same but the screen is actualy visualy filled and their is no pixel streaching.

I've thought about this and concluded the closest resolution to what the game has right now, but in HD, would be 320x180 (then scaled up to 720, for example). That would be very close, and a bit shorter vertically. But there's one problem: Lubella. This would literally cut a massive portion of her sprite, and we'd need to draw a smaller, less detailed version of her and replace it completely. Just off the top of my head. There might be some other more drastic changes needed somewhere else that I haven't realized yet.
So it's not as simple as just changing a number, unfortunately. This is something that should have been planned before any work begun because of situations like Lubella. A lot of the level design also changes because of this (for example, the Fennel fight was basically designed around the 320x240 resolution, balanced for that, etc.).
It's a complicated matter, and unfortunately it will remain the way it is most likely. :(

[PhoeHammer]

Originally posted by rdein:

Originally posted by PhoeHammer:

As someone who has worked in the GM7, GM8, GM8.1 and GMS1 (the engine this game is built on) engines extensivly (haven't built anything for some time - due to other comitments, other projects and the masive amount of bugs that were present in GM8.1 and the launch version of GMS1) resizing the views in the rooms dynamicaly is posible and isn't hard. Alternativly you can just set up a standard 16/9 view as view1 (as indexing starts at 0) and disable view0 and enable view1. Write a global var and add a script to the create event of each room to dynamicaly switch views (which I imagine is how the screen resalution setting is done). From their you let the view run left and right and hault when you reach the boundaries of the rooms - whcih is the defoult behaviour. Year you might need to fill in some spaces that were not previously visable (particuarly in sections that go up and down) but its not like it's that complicated. Don't forget you can place forground and background sprites out side each room.

What dose this all mean? the encounters stay the same but the screen is actualy visualy filled and their is no pixel streaching.

I've thought about this and concluded the closest resolution to what the game has right now, but in HD, would be 320x180 (then scaled up to 720, for example). That would be very close, and a bit shorter vertically. But there's one problem: Lubella. This would literally cut a massive portion of her sprite, and we'd need to draw a smaller, less detailed version of her and replace it completely. Just off the top of my head. There might be some other more drastic changes needed somewhere else that I haven't realized yet.
So it's not as simple as just changing a number, unfortunately. This is something that should have been planned before any work begun because of situations like Lubella. A lot of the level design also changes because of this (for example, the Fennel fight was basically designed around the 320x240 resolution, balanced for that, etc.).
It's a complicated matter, and unfortunately it will remain the way it is most likely. :(

Year that sort of scaling isn't how you want to go about it. You want to increase the content visible on the screen horizontally instead of stretching or cropping the rendered image.
ie
calculation of x for the 16:9 ratio is like this:
16/9 = X Scale Factor.
X Scale Factor = 1.777777777777778.
:,
600 * X Scale Factor = 16:9 X
600 * 1.777777777777778 = 16:9 X
16:9 X = 1066.
:.
the 16:9 dimensions are 1066 by 600;


So after an hour of RND (admittedly RND done while I’m recovering from the flu) you can do aspect ratio changes by:

viewNum = 0; // view you want to set to
//view 0 is 800 by 600 = 4:3
//view1 is 1066 by 600 = 16:9
//view2 is 960 by 600 = 16:10

//make all views unvisable
for ( i = 0; i < 3 i++){
view_visible = false;
}
view_visible[viewNum] = true; //make view visable
//redraw the screen to suport new aspect ratio
surface_resize(application_surface, view_wport[viewNum],view_hport[viewNum]);


For rooms that don't scroll horizontally (ones that are 4:3 in dimension or only scroll vertically) you'll have a little bit of work to do. You'll need to increase to room width to 1066. Then move the existing object to the centre. Off set the x of the 16:10 view and 4:3 view to centre them on screen. Essentially that extra space is now out of bounds space - and you can either extend the background (not ideal because of usability) or place some clouds or fog in the out of bounds space.

Alternatively leave the resizing out of the rooms that don't scroll horizontally and it will look like a comic book or manga.

Or if you want to skip messing with views than this tutorial is designed around dynamically creating aspect ratios without stretching what is on screen.

Look I get it, it. It takes time and that takes time away from your latest project/s – which are time sensitive due to funding. Take too much time = run out of money = no more new games and no one wants that. Look if you Ok with sharing your source I’ll go through and add 16:9 & 16:10 support – it would be a nice change of pace from software engineering at University. I’ll even sign an NDA.

[rdein]

It's also not as easy as simply "adding more content to the side of each room" because there's a lot of code everywhere in the game to test, too. Considering the level design, just "adding more content to the side" to each room in the game is already a considerable amount of work and time spent. It would also mess with some of the level design in the game, I'm sure.

Just think of the Lubella fight, for example. A lot of it is based on boss patterns that attack various specific spots on the screen. If you had more room to move around, that means that boss will need some changes to it. Either I'll need to increase the amount of projectiles, or make her a bit more aggressive... Now this is something that affects most boss battles in the game. Same could be said about Frida, or Fennel. The extra space would also allow people to "camp in a corner shooting arrows" more easily, which is one of the design issues I realized after releasing this game.

All of this means QA time (unfortunately, something that takes forever with how slow Game Maker is to simply run the game) not only on PC but... on every port of the game we are working on right now.

As I said previously, this is an issue that, ideally, should have been brought up many months before the release of this game. Fixing it now, close to a year after the original release, doesn't make much sense. We are a very small team (currently 3 people, of which only I work "full time"). At the end of the day it's much more about game design changes than spending hours adding tiles to each map of the game.

If this wasn't so complicated we would have done something about it already. But it's a lesson we've learned and will apply to any future projects, rest assured of that.

[Vaughan Vic]

You have to be fairly frivolous to pass up a good game just because of the aspect ratio. People these days wanting a retro metroidvania without any willingness to sacrifice a little bit of screen space... it makes me feel old... stop making me feel old.