What size should my viewport and sprites be for a 2D SNES style game?

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:bust_in_silhouette: Asked By Sallywag

Hello,

So I’m trying to work on a 2D game with a SNES aesthetic. What really confuses me is choosing a viewport and sprite size. I know this is primarily opinion based, but I really don’t know much about this topic. What works well given you can resize your screen and all that? Should the viewport always be a multiple of your standard sprite size so everything fits in well?

:bust_in_silhouette: Reply From: Mario

Opinion based? Not really, because it’s been actual hardware, not some fantasy console.

If you want the experience authentic, there’s only one valid viewport size: 256x224 pixels.

As for sprites, pretty much anything is allowed. The original games mostly focused on 8x8, 16x16, or 32x32 sprites, but a few games also created bigger combinations.

There were also hardware limits on how much could be shown/combined on screen at a time, but I’d say most probably wouldn’t notice any violations there.

Sorry I meant for a general 2D game with pixel art, not trying to mimic the SNES exactly. But like which viewports and sprite sizes are commonly used for 2D games, and what’s the reason for the given sizes? Like do certain multiples look better when in full screen?

Sallywag | 2021-04-20 02:27