i am about a month or so into working on the art for my first game. my brother is going to school for programming so i told him i would do the sprites and backgrounds for a 2d game. i am comfortable building characters and sprites, but i am trying to hand draw the backgrounds and i am unsure of the size they should be. i know i can resize them once they are in the computer, but what ratio should the length and width be? i am using photoshop elements and i have been starting with a blank canvas sized in pixels 1280 x 800 (i chose this because when i went to my system preferences under display it was the largest resolution i could pick) and then making pieces i scan in fit to that. i am quite unfamiliar with the computer end of art and i don't want to put a lot of work in and find that i need to redo it all because of something like this. thanks.

It depends on the game design and the dimensions of the visible area, as well as whether the viewport scrolls (meaning only a portion of the overall background may be visible at any one time, and the background may be tiled or loaded in segments) and zooms. My recommendation is to aim for a 1-pixel-to-1-game-screen-logical-unit at maximum supported resolution. If your brother's game supports, say, 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768, and four levels of zoom with the default being the third highest (ie, 400%, 200% 100%, 50%), create your art at 4096x3072 (1024x768 @ 400%) and leave issues of loading, scaling and magnification to the software developer(s).

This is only a rule of thumb, though. If you know that the 400% magnification will be used less than, say, 5% of the time, then you may want to create your default at 200% so it looks smooth at 100% but the pixelation at 400% is an acceptable compromise for reduced file size.

wow, thanks. i definitely have more questions now, or at least more information that might help clarify my questions. i should say that neither of us have made a game before and i would be getting involved with the developing (in addition to the writing and animating) of it as much as he would or anyone else for that matter.

i think the game design will be a story-based puzzle/riddle adventure game. i don't know all of the aspects of the gameplay yet, but i imagine the backbone will be along the lines of the old lucas arts titles (monkey island or sam and max for example) involving a click move system, tiled backgrounds loaded as individual segments (as opposed to a constant scrolling background right?), and no deaths or straight combat.

as far as visible area is concerned, i am assuming you are referring to whether the game has a toolbar (or other static portion that remains constant while the game occupies the rest of the screen) or full screen. i am leaning towards full screen with an intuitive means of interactive with objects and characters.

basically, i am developing this game as i make it. a bit like how i understand a writer deals with a novel. i have characters and settings i am making while i write the story along the way. i am looking to place the main character in the initial scenes i have made and walk him around while i brainstorm the direction and refine the gameplay. introducing characters and adding interactions with them and following it to an eventual conclusion. i am also not sure this is reasonable, but i am willing to try.

could you explain a bit about zoom, loading, scaling, and magnification in regards to what i have laid out above, or refer me to some reading material that would clarify these issues?

this seems like an incredible resource and i am excited about finding it. so thanks again.