[Jihgfed Pumpkinhead]

   Alright, I'm just going to come right out and say it: I'm a bad, bad, bad programmer. I suck. I really, really do. If I had my choice, I'd just sit back and write plot and dialogue all day; but, this is my RPG, so it seems like I have to be the one to actually get my hands dirty and write the damn thing. Oh, well. Control = coding.
   Now, that's an aside, but I just thought I'd get it out of the way. From now on, if I make some garish mistake, people will know why.
   So, here's my question: what do you think an independent RPG designer (such as myself, and, presumably, you) should choose as the minimum system on which an end-user could play his game? If you're one of those "I'm not going to tell you what you should do" people, then what is the general rule you apply? I've included a poll in the hopes of getting a broader sample, but detailed posts are always more welcome. Also, the poll has to be general, so I'll refer only to proccessor speeds; if you care about video-cards and whatnot, you'll have to post.

[Adam]

if you going to be working inde, you want as may people to get your game as possible. So i think having different detail levels, ect would allow you to cover a broder audience.

I think aiming high end is a bit risky with most of the people buying the big end systems want to play UT2003 instead of a indie RPG.

Depending on how much you care about how your game looks, with transparency and such, you may need to raise the system requirements.

My theory is that how the game looks will bring people to play it. The game play will then keep them there long enough to get into the story to keep playing.
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[entivore]

Interesting poll. My opinion is that a developer should just forget about hardware requirements and flesh out their game design first (unless they are just starting out and trying to learn skills by doing, or they don't have a design and want to build one as they go). Once they have that, they should try to shoot for as many platforms and as low platforms as possible without sacrificing the game idea. My vote will be based on the assumption that a person is building as they go.
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*Only in darkness can one truely shine*

[Mandrake]

minimum system, for me, used to be a 486DX4, since that was the lowest test machine I had. But now I realise how insanely ludicrous that is since no one has one anymore, and I write for a minimum of a P150, which quite an alarming number of people have as their high-end system. I use timers to keep everything good on higher-end sys's like p1ghz.

[Rainer Deyke]

I tend to start from the game design and target the lowest-end system that will support the design. This is usually a Pentium 200. If the game has higher system requirements, I try to optimize it further or add feature scaling so that it will run on a Pentium 200. If it runs on a Pentium 200, I usually don't optimize further.

Why Pentium 200? That's the high-end system of one of my sisters, and I want her to be able to play the game.

[Barok]

very interesting, very important. i'd use a setup guide, so if people have amazingly slow computers, they can set quality to low in order to get high speed or something like that. i've seen that in quite a few games. maybe you should use that in yours.
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Adosorken: I always liked slutty 10th graders...
Rhiannon: *Slap!*

[Nodtveidt]

I voted "Good Pentiums". This is the class of computer that is most prominent today, and this target has the most spread and will for at least a year to come.

-nek

[Mandrake]

really? cause I know a lot of people who bought computers in the late 90's , and have lower end machines (200, 3000 mhz), from my personaly experience these are the most common. Why aim for high end systems? Most good, solid 2d code can run on a 486...and if you want 3d your probably goig to support a 3d card, rather than a faster CPU. Why shoot yrself in the foot?

[Nodtveidt]

"modern-day" operating systems (like Windows XP) are requiring more powerful processors, and since a lot of people are being lured by the ad campaigns of Microsoft...well, you get the idea. Instead of trying to fight the tirade though, make use of it. If the majority is going to have a certain class of computer, aim for that market. That's just plain smart business sense.

-nek

[Mandrake]

[Adam]

Scaleing your game sounds like better buisness sense to me. Being able to have the prettyness for The Uber computer owners and the game content still there for the lower level systems.

Id think that all these people fooled my microsoft ads won't really be the people who search the web for indie games and such. They probably don't even know that the indie gaming community even exists. Instead they settle for the wild tangent games preinstalled with their store bought computer.

I don't think building for a 286 is your best bet though, but i think theres a trade off between covering the largest market and making the game what you want it to be.

It's probably a tad hard to have support for Uber computers when you dont have one your self.[/u]
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[Modanung]

I've got a AMD Athlon XP 2000+ and all I do for money is getting pocket money and delivering 12 newspapers 3 times a week.

If the graphics are good I think it can use some CPU power.

[Jihgfed Pumpkinhead]

     Might as well add my two-cents worth, since I started this thing.
     After some consideration, I voted for the lower-end pentiums. Firstly, I've only got a 350Mhz myself, so it would be sort of silly, or at least, very difficult, to aim for anything much higher than that.
     I'll also be making a Mac version, if at all possible, since some of my artsy-phartsy friends don't have anything but. I know, I know, I need new friends.
     While I think that the people who advocated starting with game design and building for the lowest-end platform that could support that design probably have the best idea, I, unfortunately, never ever start with a game design, it's always "build as you go" (did I mention that I was a bad programmer)?
     Oh, yes, and there have been practically as many posts on this topic as votes. Tsk. Some people aren't voting. Bad people.

[Adam]

their waiting to see how everyone else votes, so then they can go with the crowd =P
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[Rainer Deyke]

Actually there is something to be said for targetting the the 8086 (which is two generations behind the 286). Then the game will run on DOS-based personal organizers such as the HP200LX!