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[DaveSilver]

So I am working on a game with a friend and plan on releasing a version to the public soon to get some feedback and basically I wanted to know how I would go about determining what the minimum requirements are for my game. Are there utilities I would use, do I just have to test it on multiple different systems and setups and determine it based on that? What is the best method that you guys and or gals know of?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[deemen]

I'd say whatever configuration runs your game at 30 FPS average with settings at minimum.

[DaveSilver]

Thanks. Not exactly the answer I was looking for but that definitely works.

[koliver66]

You can see the most common setups from Steam's hardware survey:
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
(If you are targeting a casual audience, I would expect the average spec to be lower than this.)
You would probably be better off just testing on the most common specs.  You'll just have to try to find some friends/family with different setups & see how it runs. 

[Rob Lach]

Just set your minimum specs really high so when people complain just tell them they're not meeting the minimum specs. Not like anyone pays attention to those anyway.

Edit: But seriously, figure out your target audience and then think about what would be the slowest machine you think someone like that would have that you are capable of supporting.

[Jonathan Whiting]

Computers are such complicated things there's no real way of determining things like that without substantial testing and/or guesswork.

If you're planning on opening it up to the public soon though, why not just ask at the time what specs there machines are and how well it runs for them?  You don't generally even need to display minimum specs nowadays unless your game requires absolutely top-end hardware.

[muku]

You don't generally even need to display minimum specs nowadays unless your game requires absolutely top-end hardware.

Yeah. Either your game is free and it's a moot point anyway since people can just download it and try if it works on their machine, or you charge for it, in which case you'll need a demo anyway for publicity, so again people can just try it out. I think the whole minimum specs thing just isn't as relevant today as back when people bought games in boxes from a shelf.

[DaveSilver]

Okay, thanks for all the help, all your responses gave me some good ideas so I think I have a pretty good basis now for what I will do.