Thanks.

Regarding the panels being smaller at higher res. in pro games: The only reason this is is because they aren't scaling or using a unique set of panels for each resolution. This could be happening for a number of reasons including time/money, smaller harddrive requirement, memory considerations, etc. It's most likely not done for aesthetic reasons. They have to do it for a HUD, but a mainmenu system ingame inventory menus are of a lower priority(in the big picture view), so they go with a single size and don't bother with additional art. If we all had high end PCs, 3d cards, and lots of memory you'd probably see more art asset resizing/scaling in games.

However, I like for everything to look the same for each resolution, so I'll be including either one set and scaling down or a unique set for each resolution. I'm also trying to use as many entity based UI elements as possible to avoid the problem all together. My current minimalist, WIP mainmenu look like a bitmap, but it's all map entities with actions in an empty level with a black sky texture. It'll evolve, but it works for now(and is consistent with my current teaser website). It's resolution independent given they are rescaled/repositioned automatically by the engine.