First, some context for my problem:

The game LinQuest is a 2D platformer webgame, with 27 short levels. The levels start easy, but become a bit more complex as you progress in the game, as you need to handle cycles of enemies and moving platforms.

The way this game is built, some cycles are not on global cycle, or don't start when the character reaches a certain location - they start as soon as the relevant object is shown on the screen. However, this mechanic can be abused by changing the game resolution. If you do fancy stuff like making the game tall and thin, or short and wide, the game will try to accommodate for this by stretching the window and fill the space with all the objects it can.

For example, level 10 on "normal" resolution looks like this:

But on short+wide resolution, the entire level is shown:

In the example of this level above, the two platforms are supposed to move when the character gets close to them, but when the entire level is shown - the platforms move as soon as the level loads. This changes the cycle completely, and allow you to save ~1.3 second over "regular" gameplay.

The problem: Now, the main problem here is that the game resolution can NOT be standardized for different runners. The main "culprit" here is a modded version of the game that adds a level timer, but also stretches the game to the browser window size. But, even if you only look at "official" releases of the game, resolutions of the game are different in several websites - for example, the game size is different in Armor Games and in Coolmathgames. On mobile the game automatically works on fullscreen, but then it stretches according to the phone/tablet resolution.

All of this makes for strats/routes that are possible on certain resolutions, but don't work on other resolutions; which means those strats/routes can work on some platforms/devices, but not work on other platforms or devices.

The solution: Right now, because a constant resolution can't be enforced, the inclined solution is to just allow all runners to play the game on whatever resolution they please, as long as the game and speedrun timer are visible well enough. It might not be fair to some runners who can't play the game on custom resolutions for some reason.

This is the first time that me and other moderators in the series encounter an issue like that, and I'm curious if other runners or moderators had that issue in other games. If so, how did the community handle it? What would you propose to do, if you were a runner or a moderator of such game?

I can't say that I have seen a game so strongly affected by screen resolution before, but I think the closest analogue I am familiar with is FPS affecting the run.

In Hitman Blood Money, the FPS affects how far you can throw items, among other things. Thus, there are some records that can only be beaten with very high uncapped FPS, which to an extent would make the record pay to win (whoever has the best PC and highest FPS can throw grenades the farthest, so they win).

Consequently, the main category on this game is 60 FPS cap.

If you care about reducing hardware advantages in your game, I also advise you to set a standard resolution category if possible, a reasonable resolution the average PC monitor would be capable of.

If certain websites have different resolutions, then maybe just only allow a specific website?

Ultimately you and your community need to make some tough calls regarding competitiveness vs accessibility.

I'd recommend saying using 'insert site here' is preferred, but others are allowed and will result in slower strats or something. Basically just warn people that some sites are worse.