I know this subject has been talked about alot in the past however im interested in some opinions. Im making a game and im estimating that the end file size will be 1.5GB to 2GB in size, possibly more.
This is mainly due to high resolution graphics, Original MP3 soundtrack and the fact that the game is massive (at least 10 hours)
Im not really concerned for anyone with 56k modem anymore as that should now be a thing of the past (even if its not, and nothing personal against 56k'ers)
- If its good would people be interested even with the large file size?
- Where could i host it?
- Would i still be able to post it to here?
- Have you ever seen a turkey egg?
I will be uploading a project page soon with pics, vids etc so hopefully you will see what i mean.
helpful advice and any opinion greatly appreciated.
Thanks (possibly wrong forum for this question, soz admins if thats the case)
Even if I saw screen shots of your game, I doubt I would be interested in it enough to download it, to be honest. There are many, many quality games out there already that offer more play time, an original soundtrack, and have a considerably smaller file size. And I think the only way you could transfer a 2GB file is like, through a gmail account or something.
I recommend you find a way to drastically compress the game into a smaller file size. Unless your game is of 'professional quality,' which is a challenging metric to measure by these days, then you'll scare people away from even considering it. Couple that with a dearth of file-hosting sites that wouldn't consider something that large, and it's a recipe for zero exposure.
Ahh scratch that, ive figured out whats going on, i should be able to keep it under 1GB now. Hopefully that will make a difference.
Still id like to think in this day and age that not all click and indie games need to be under 100MB to get any interest, Ive downloaded countless free MMO's and other games some in excess of 5GB and i do it with a smile on my face.
I would imagine that the real issue would be the hosting side of things rather than people wanting to play it.
Chris - Ill be starting a project page real soon, just need to clean up a few images and stuff and then ill show the world. (I really dont want to over hype this but im very happy with it)
Thanks S-M-R for the honest and very useful opinion?
For hosting, you could try using a torrent, if you're willing to seed it over a long time that is. Dunno how many additional seeders you would get though. Also torrents provide some safety against download interruptions, which might be a problem with regular file hosting.
I'd download it that way.
Hi Antworx, breifly spoke to you on Gwerdy about this.
I have a similar problem, our iso racing game is already pushing a 160 MB MFA and that is one level with one type of car and lots of missing objects - it is also using over 1 GB of RAM.
If you find creating the game fun - go for it . I find making this game fun - I will try to optimise RAM usage but I will never scrimp on quality of the graphics. If people do not want to download it, that's their decision.
The klik world sometimes seems to forget that if one of our games does make it big, gamers (the intended audience) usually have decent PC's - so why not push MMF a bit harder? We do not have to get our games to run on a Pentium III .
I also had people telling me that if I went over about 400 MB of RAM usage, that MMF would self combust. There seems to be some inherest resistance to pushing what MMF can do, 400 MB was a long time ago in development .
In terms of hosting, a lot providers will do cheap unlimited bandwidth and space deals. Could be a possibility if you do not mind spending a couple of pounds a month .
If the game is GOOD then filesize shouldn't matter. Then again, you shouldn't make the game huge just because you can. I do recommend putting up a preview video on YouTube if you go over 50 megabytes or so, so players have an idea what kinda game it is before they download.
Mediafire allows for files up to 200 mb in size, and they don't have any captcha or waiting time before you download. You could split the file in multiple archives with 7zip or WinRAR.
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
Originally Posted by -eviscerator- For hosting a 2GB you could try a host such as www.one.com - they have plenty of space and you won't need to split up the file.
If you're willing to pay for hosting that is. Mediafire (and various other filehosts) are free.
Then again, if you're expecting people to download a 2gb game you better be serious about it
- Ok, you must admit that was the most creative cussing this site have ever seen -
I have never finished a game in 8 years of trying so this may be a pointless concern however it feels good to really push mmf rather than try and work in the past. I'm sure hagar wil agree.
I agree with Phred. Although I don't think you're trying to specifically make the game huge.
So long as someone wants to download the game filesize isn't really an issue nowadays.
So make sure you have a good trailer or screenshots or even a demo to get some interest!
Personally i'm an old timer like Hayo. But that only affects how I make games. I refuse to use MP3 for music when I can use Mods instead. My games usually end up under 5mb lol.
I wouldn't download a 1GB game - not even if it's commercial quality.
There's really no need for a klik game to be anywhere near that size anyway - you just need to keep as much as possible of the graphics and sound external, so they can be compressed more efficiently (certainly stuff like large background images).
File size more a graphical concern. high res graphics dramatically increases file size. Im a graphics man hence the size.
Im very surprised that it's an issue in a day of tb hard drives and broadband.
I think it's a little sad that a community for indie games will dismiss anything over a certain file size with no interest in the game.
I honestly never consider size when down loading. Im more interested in the game and work someone has put in.
I agree that I could probably decrease file size with better coding but im not the best coder.
Dont take any of this as rant, I'm only expressing opinio.
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There's really no need for a klik game to be anywhere near that size anyway
Why not?
Did you not read the rest of that sentence?
MMF2 doesn't store graphics efficiently - that's why the filesize gets so huge. If you load the graphics from external files, you can use other compression methods and save a lot of space. There's no way any klik game is going to contain 1GB of graphics if they're properly compressed (.png or .jpg - whichever is appropriate).
Im not up to speed with external graphics. Tried once with terrible outcome. Perhaps it could be lowered. How do I load graphics
externally?
Thanks for the honest opinions and perhaps there is a very important clicking lesson for me here.
Depends.
For animated sprites you can use the active object's "load frame" action. It might not be worth it for sprites though, as they're probably going to be fairly small anyway - unless they have a huge number of animation frames.
For large background images it's definitely going to save a lot of space if you load them using picture objects. Using tile-based graphics would obviously help too, but might not be suitable.
And then there's the surface extension, etc...
I don't actually know what MMF2 does about music files. I would like to think that if you import compressed ogg/mp3 files, it will keep them in the original format and bitrate, in which case it wouldn't help to keep them external.
I think there is a valid reason for a klik game to be 1GB, and in this day and age 1 GB is really nothing much at all - if memory serves me correct one episode of Dr Who in HD is approximately 1 GB. Nobody complains about that for 40 minutes of (alleged) entertainment...
I think people are making the assumption of a classic klik game scale, trouble is with HWA you are not limited to such scales anymore. Just as people have a reason for working with small sprites (to emulate classic consoles) some people may also have the desire to use large sprites (such as myself hehe) to try and get a certain look - or to emulate certain isometric games.
TGF may have choked up with large sprites, but MMF HWA does not - why not use them if it suits the game
There's also Dropbox which is totally awesome. It's free and you start off with 2GB of space, and they let you share your file. They will shut you down temporarily if yo have too much traffic though. I don't know what the limit is.
Not sure if I am going to download a game that's that huge, I even try to stick with linux live cd's instead of dvd's because of their file size.
Just make sure that people know they are downloading a big file, so they are prepared and will wait for the download to finish. There probably will be an issue about download speed too, although that depends largely on the way your hosting your file. Compressing (or just storing) your file in a splitted archive is a good way, but make sure that the files are interchangeable and hosted on multiple filehosters like: rapidshare, megaupload, etc Because of the speedcap those hosters imply after a certain amount of downloaded megabytes.
And on a personal note: I like the small games, but that's because I live in the pre psx period of time. I just love it when games are like 8 mb in file size and features ton of fun.
O perhaps, when you've played with external files, you could built a low res and a high res pack of your graphics. The same could be done for the mp3 music and sounds, but that's probably not going to be the biggest part of the game.
Have fun programming and in the meantime I'll wait for a vid on screenshots.
I totally agree about 8bit and 16bit games. I have a huge love for them. Thought i would see what else can be done. Ill be uploading a vid soon. Ive worked around with it abit and should be able to keep it under the 1GB line.
Originally Posted by Hayo Personally I never download a game when its over 10mb, but that is because I am oldtimey.
I'm with you man. There is no reason for a click game to be any bigger
I guess using MMF for other things than 8/16 bit platformers is a bad thing then? HWA can do some pretty impressive things (in terms of 2d graphics ability) - we are not stuck to using tiny sprites as we was in the TGF era. That said I do love good pixel artwork - but there is other options with HWA...
There is no way Midget Machines could ever be 10 MB. It's currently about 38 MB compressed, for one level and one car type.
I agree hagar. 8 bit and 16 bit is awesome however MMF is going no where if thats all it can do. Ricky 10MB is pathetically small! why wouldnt you down load anything over that? strange for a guy who states "loves left for dead 2" if that was made with MMF (which i know if impossible but) would you disregard it due to file size if it was free?
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. I find making this game fun - I will try to optimise RAM usage but I will never scrimp on quality of the graphics. If people do not want to download it, that's their decision.
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Edited by GamesterXIII
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