At the moment I have "nothing" selected for "loader style" as all else don't seem to work well for me. But it's not good because it means there's no loading feedback.
For my game, clicking the .exe then having it finish loading takes about:
- 3 seconds for goodish computer
- 5 seconds for Steam Deck
- 8 seconds for average to low computers
Which means it's just showing a black window for a while. And may be confusing as to whether it's frozen or not.
"Loader layout" does not seem to work with NWjs, unless I'm doing something wrong.
If I selected "percentage" or "progress bar": it shows black window for only a third of the time, then for the remaining time it shows the percentage/bar. BUT they're frozen, it just stays at "0%" or an empty rectangle bar. So while this feedback is useful to know that something has loaded, it's also not ideal, because the user may think something is broken for it to stay stuck at 0%.
Maybe I'll keep the setting on rectangle ("progress bar") as that's at least showing some form of change during loading, and might be the least intrusive and confusing option.
The "progress bar and logo" option doesn't seem great either, since the progress bar doesn't move, and the logo is just using an icon files — which feels out of place.
And "construct splash" is too intrusive/advertising feeling.
I'd be content if I could just have a simple line of text that says "Loading". So that people know that something is happening.
(I don't use the "package assets" option, as that slows the startup time.)