Bug/disadvantage report and more

[InCreator]

1) I had a big problem because S3M didn't play with windows version of AGS. Now It's fixed by converting my songs into XM-format. But before I did that, all my
songs were in MP3 format. And there's the thing --
With MP3-s game size was 12 MB, now -- with XM instead, it should be much smaller after compiling and rebuilding VOX --  but It's not!  

I checked that and found out that music.vox-file is still there. I deleted it manually, everything seems to be fine now. It's not much of a bug, but useful to know.

2) I know It's not right place to ask it, but where is?
-- I REALLY want to put my game up there as soon It's ready. Problem is that it's going to be a big one. About 20-30 MB I think. What are the ways to make my game smaller? I'm using as small sprites as possible and background gfx in PCX-format. Is that right? Does this site have any maximum size for games show here?
I guess not, as far there's only links up there, but I ask that to be sure!   This site needs *complete* FAQ, I think.  

3) And final question - Game Announcements forum - are games listed there all also up on agsforums.com games download section, or is this just another way to show your game?

[scotch]

The file format you import with makes no difference, it's storred the same in ags.
Low res helps a lot, as does using 256 colour.

As long as the game is good and fairly long 20-30 isn't really so bad, Ratracer's Uncertainty Machine is 20, and KQ2vga is a lot too.

Game announcments is just for announcing your game to forum users, you have to add it yourself to the game downloads page (small link at the bottom of the page to do so)


What res/depth/room count is your game?

[Scorpiorus]

1) I had a big problem because S3M didn't play with windows version of AGS. Now It's fixed by converting my songs into XM-format. But before I did that, all my
songs were in MP3 format. And there's the thing --
With MP3-s game size was 12 MB, now -- with XM instead, it should be much smaller after compiling and rebuilding VOX --  but It's not!  

I checked that and found out that music.vox-file is still there. I deleted it manually, everything seems to be fine now. It's not much of a bug, but useful to know.

Of course it's there, because with AGS you can combine different types of music formats into one game. You could have music.vox to be a music-pack available for dowload separately. A note from AGS manual:

NOTE: MP3 and OGG music files are not included in the exe. They will instead be built into a file called MUSIC.VOX when you click the "Rebuild VOX files" option in the editor. Since OGGs and MP3s override all other music file types, this allows you to have an Digital Music Pack which you can distribute seperately to your game. If it is present in the game directory it will be used, otherwise any other music available (eg. MIDI) will be played instead.


-Cheers

[Pumaman]

Hmm, there is actually a bug there, in that if you delete all MP3/OGG files from your game folder, and rebuild the vox files, it doesn't remove the music.vox (which it should, since you no longer have any of that type of music). I'll get it fixed.

I REALLY want to put my game up there as soon It's ready. Problem is that it's going to be a big one.

Have you tried compressing it into a zip file? It may well shave off more than you'd expect.

[InCreator]

  Thank you guys. I promise I'll make my game worth your time!  

[InCreator]

Btw, It's going to be with 640x480 16-bit gfx.

[Ben]

Well, that's where the size comes from  

Instead of zipping the game, you might want to try the clickteam installer. I've never used it, but I hear it compresses a lot better than zip files. I think there's a free version at the clickteam website.