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[Pishtaco]

This may have been asked before, but the closest I found was this: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=7257.0 which doesn't really answer the question.

After looking at a couple of flash portals, it seems like most games run in a smallish window. I can see that the portals would like this, since it lets them show ads and things; probably many players like it too, since they see the games as a light diversion and don't want them taking over the full screen.

I know that it's possible to go fullscreen in Flash 10, with some restrictions. Are there any portals which allow this? If not, what kind of resolutions are allowed? Or is that a question that doesn't even make sense in the world of flash, because of the emphasis on vector stuff?

(I've never submitted a game to a portal)

[Kunal]

Seeing that some of the top-tier flash games like fancy pants 2, or steambirds all run at a relatively low resolution, then I'd say that no one's likely to allow full-screen games.

Auditorium does run in full screen mode, but thats not a portal, just a standalone website that is under the developer's control

[Sam]

FGL probably has the most experience with the millions of portals:

Don't make the game window too big. To be accessible to the largest range of sponsors, use a screen resolution no larger than 640x480. If your game is larger than that, some websites won't be able to host your game. (The larger you get, the more sites will be affected.) In almost no circumstances should you go above 800x600 -- using a size larger than that will dramatically cut down on the number of potential sponsors.

They go on to say that you should keep above about 400x300 so you can fit a sponsor's logo/animation comfortably, or any 3rd party ads you want to use.

I just looked at a couple of site's embed code and they don't allow fullscreen.  As they're making their money from the adverts that'd be hidden by fullscreen, I doubt any would deliberately allow it.

[moi]

640x480

You can go to 800x600 if your game is really good.

[mirosurabu]

Most portals don't support widths above 700 pixels I think.

Even some of the large portals are affected by this mainly because they want to distribute their games as much as possible. So if you want to get sponsored be aware of the resolution.

I think Kongregate limits the width to 700px.

Newgrounds, I think they are more open to support fullscreen games and they do not have size-restriction as far as I know, but I am not sure.

[Pishtaco]

Thanks very much for the replies so far.

Does anyone have a link to a portal actually stating their policy on this, or is it all case-by-case? The FGL link is useful but a bit vague; it makes it sound like you choose a resolution and then hope that the portals like it.

I looked around Newgrounds but couldn't find a statement about resolutions (on their FAQ). I notice that they have a button that lets you zoom games up to the full size of their webpage (but not fullscreen), but at least on my browser and computer this feels kind of clunky.

Are there licenses that allow you to link in the game to a fullscreen version you host yourself?

[weasello]

Since portals want their ads to be seen (and hopefully, clicked on) you'd have to get a very very special contract to allow a FullScreen app. Most will just think along the lines of "If we get no ad revenue from this, why don't you just host it yourself?"

There are thousands of portals (steambirds is on 1600 of them right now) and each have different limitations in size. Sometimes it depends on the category/genre of the title, so many sites don't have a "blanket policy." Some just casually mention max dimensions on their upload forms; others will not tell you and just resize the SWF in the HTML.

640x480 is the only "safe everywhere" one. 800x600 is a bit too wide for most. Most sponsors will work to make you an exception if you have a very good game that breaks the rules, but most would rather just resize yours to fit their needs.

FWIW, I developed steambirds in fullscreen mode. Some of the subtlety and detail is lost in the small form version...

[gambrinous]

Most portals don't support widths above 700 pixels I think.

Even some of the large portals are affected by this mainly because they want to distribute their games as much as possible. So if you want to get sponsored be aware of the resolution.

I think Kongregate limits the width to 700px.

Newgrounds, I think they are more open to support fullscreen games and they do not have size-restriction as far as I know, but I am not sure.

Kongregate specifies a max width of 800px in their FAQ. I've seen quite a few 800x600 games