PC version of a mobile app

[Ellie]

I want to make a game that is a PC version of a mobile app, rather than the other way around. It's an app that you can play on a PC.

Question is, since the app has a vertical resolution (to allow space to be taken up by a chat box), what resolution should a PC version have?

Here's how the app would look:

How best could this be turned into a PC version?

First thought is to split it into two vertical screens and put them side by side. One would be the game, while the other would be other interfaces.

I don't want PC users to have specific advantages over mobile users however, so I don't want them to have more game window space, or better interfaces. Anything that appears on that extra space should be available to mobile users...

 

[Ellie]

Of course removing chat from the game screen would put PC users at an advantage because they'd have more map space. So perhaps the game should stay identical just be alongside some other menus:

 

[Ellie]

Just sortof throwing stuff at the screen right now.

 

[coyotecraft]

Mobile could swipe left maybe? Still see everything at once. Idk. Health Bar is kinda important, though. You could combine a vertical health bar with a side tab. So the player has a general idea of health. But they can pull it, tap it, whatever, to see more information on the right.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I think Granblue Fantasy and other mobile-games-you-can-also-play-on-PC just waste the PC monitor's horizontal space. They force a particular aspect ratio on you, and you can't resize the window. Or they force full-screen and fill up the sides with background art.

Maybe that's not such a bad idea. Just have some kind of background art for the area you're in, and fill in the sides with that.

 

[Ellie]

Sorry I got distracted.

Unforseen issue (that I should have forseen): what happens when the on-screen keyboard opens?

Options:

1. Game window gets smaller; chat covers the game screen rendering the player blind for a bit potentially (this puts mobile users at a disadvantage)
2. Game window stays the same; keyboard overlays the chat meaning the player can't read and type at the same time (but the player can still see the important bit of the gameplay)

The player needs to now be centred further up the screen.

Option 2:

 

[Xilef]

You should be able to make just the chat move up with the keyboard and keep everything else underneath with chat and keyboard overlaying it