Hiya everybody!
(Hiya Dr. Nick)
Anyway, my current compiled folder, which contains about 5 GUIs, a single room about 30 sprites, a custom font, and a music file is about 8.6 MBs.
My project will entail a great deal of FMV. I've created a 5 minute WMV file as a test with decent quality at 640x480 and the file size is about 26MB. Now, most FMV files will be less than a minute, but there will be a fairly large amount of them.
The game is fairly large as well. Now, I'm shooting for a maximum final size of 800MB, but I'm afraid I may even find myself at the 1GB mark.
Questions:
What is the maximum file size YOU are willing to download to play a game?
What are the possibilities when it comes to distributing the game, and will the internet be viable?
Does anyone have any tips for reducing overall size, whether it be through video compression or otherwise? (sorry, but I refuse to budge on the resolution :))
It's the music and video that eat up a lot of space. Your graphics will compress pretty well when you zip or rar the thing up. Remember, if your compiled folder is 1 GB, it's going to compress down significantly from that. My in-development game's compiled folder is 305 MB, but after using rar, it's less than 40 MB.
If your game is planned to be so big and you're currently only at one room and 8 MBs, I'd worry more about making the game than about the final file size. It's a little bit early to be worrying about that. If your game is good, it will be downloaded regardless of the size.
Though it is quite common for people to download half-gig or gig size demos now. So, I wouldn't worry. If it's an obscene size in the end, you can distribute it over bittorrent.
But if the most space-eating component are the FMVs I'm afraid the drop in size won't be that significant when compressed, my concern is that are all of the FMV necessary?
You may be able to save more space if you cut away FMV that're not really useful and serve merely as eye-candy, and focus on the gameplay, story, etc. espect of teh hame.
You could try dropping the FMV resolution to 320x200, or lowering its framerate. It's quite feasible to shrink them to 15%-20% of their size that way. Also, I would recommend putting (most) of the movies in an optional add-on pack.
To answer your question, what's the maximum size I'd download - I'm sure that depends on everyone's opinion and connectivity, but as for myself, unless I have great expectations for a game via word-of-mouth, I'm highly unlikely to download anything over 20 megs.
A resolution of 640x480 is kindof excessive for a game. As long as it's not super-compressed, 320x240 should be fine. That's what most web video is sized to. Everything on YouTube is that size. If you bumped down, you would certainly save some space.
But yes, I agree, worry about making the game, then worry about reducing size. It's better to make more and then cut it, then to not make enough.
I do not pay attention to file size when I'm working on a freeware project. If people want to whine about the size then they shouldn't download it. Commercial projects are almost expected to be large these days, but you can be sure that whiny losers will complain anyway.
not everyone can find a good host for a very large file, however.
Quote from: [lgm] on Wed 01/11/2006 15:54:38
A resolution of 640x480 is kindof excessive for a game. As long as it's not super-compressed, 320x240 should be fine. That's what most web video is sized to. Everything on YouTube is that size. If you bumped down, you would certainly save some space.
Depending on the game's resolution I'd have to dispute this. 320x240 is adequate, but far from desirable.
Quote from: CMK2901 on Wed 01/11/2006 04:20:40
Does anyone have any tips for reducing overall size, whether it be through video compression or otherwise? (sorry, but I refuse to budge on the resolution :))
One way you could shrink your filesize is to use a widescreen aspect ratio, that way the image would be smaller AND would look more cinematic. I'd try 640x360. If you're using Windows Movie Maker however, I'm not sure this is possible.
The other thing I'd suggest is uploading two versions of your game, one with full-size wmvs and one with half-size wmvs.
Quote from: ProgZmax on Thu 02/11/2006 02:25:15
I do not pay attention to file size when I'm working on a freeware project. If people want to whine about the size then they shouldn't download it. Commercial projects are almost expected to be large these days, but you can be sure that whiny losers will complain anyway.
That's kind of a poor attitude to have. Isn't the point of making a game so that people will play it? And if it ends up being like 150 MB, how many people do you tihnk will play it, compared to a 20MB or even a 5MB game? It's something that needs to be considered.
QuoteAnd if it ends up being like 150 MB, how many people do you tihnk will play it, compared to a 20MB or even a 5MB game? It's something that needs to be considered.
Good point! I'm pretty tight and rarely download games over 20 or 30mb, (unless I know the developer quite well) so size is often a factor for me as a player. Plus when I make games I
do worry about the filesizes because I know there will be others like me who won't want to download huge amounts of game. I also have to take into consideration the uploading factor. Sure, if it was a game purely for myself with no intention of putting it online - I would just go crazy on filesizes. But I consider carefully the kind and time of a session I would sit uploading a file. I've done some 100mb YouTube movies and that was crazy, took almost an hour even on broadband.
Not everyone has the resources for large game sizes, and not everyone has the patience to dabble with such sizes. Even though there is more to life than file-size, I still wouldn't call these kinds of people whiny losers :P They are still a valid audience.
It's true, people will always download a game when it gets good feedback and is mentioned on the boards.
Size itself CAN BE a positive factor, since size suggests length, higher resolution, more sound(track) and fmv, but I do not think of size as a main reason to get a game- people are more likely to watch the boards for comments, read your summary, and then decide if they may like what you offer.
If you're unsure and think that a huge file could put your audience off, I suggest putting up a demo, that usually gives you a good "first feel". It can also "persuade" someone with low net speed that your game is worth sitting out a long download.
By the way, movie files can be edited quite well with the Smacker(tm) tools, btw, and shrunken pretty much by resizing it to 256 colour palette. The file size of Diablo 1's intro, to name a popular example,Ã, is surprisingly small...
How about 2 versions of the game, one with smaller-res movies? Also, XviD compression can easily put 2 hours in < 700 MB. 2 hours of FMV seems like a whole lot, especially for an amateur game.
I would read a couple of reviews first, to see if it interests me at all. But for me, half a gig is not a problem if the download is reasonably fast. Yesterday I downloaded 520 megs in about 20 minutes (it was from Microsoft and they have fast servers :) )
I think that using a cinematic aspect ration might be a good idea...someone had mentioned it to me before. I figure then if I use 640x360, I'd save quite a few pixels per frame.
I've thought of bitTorrent as at least one form of distribution...hell, if anyone is willing to send me $1 (or a blank CD), I'll burn it to a CD and mail it to them. Just gotta get it out there any way you can, I guess.
Someone also brought a good question to mind: what are good video editing suits for Windows? Movie editing seems so Mac-centric that I haven't really been able to find a good Windows solution.
Sony Vegas is a great editor.
QuoteThat's kind of a poor attitude to have. Isn't the point of making a game so that people will play it? And if it ends up being like 150 MB, how many people do you tihnk will play it, compared to a 20MB or even a 5MB game? It's something that needs to be considered.
I don't think it's a poor attitude at all. I've grown rather sick of people complaining about the dumbest things known to man when it comes to something they've invested no money into. If a game is free, what does the size matter? Arguments that it takes a long time to download aren't the author's problem, despite what some of you may think. If someone was charging money for it then I would expect them to provide a fast download or to send it by mail, sure, but with free all bets are off. Why are they off? Because the author is making it for fun and not profit. Have patience and watch a movie while the game downloads or something.
Size isn't really an issue for me. I have a fast connection. I use Bittorrent. I may raise an eyebrow if it's over a gig and has graphics from MSPaint, but as long as the plot looks good, and it's not a stupid joke game (sorry stupid joke game makers), I'll download.
Quote from: ProgZmax on Tue 07/11/2006 08:10:27
I don't think it's a poor attitude at all. I've grown rather sick of people complaining about the dumbest things known to man when it comes to something they've invested no money into. If a game is free, what does the size matter? Arguments that it takes a long time to download aren't the author's problem, despite what some of you may think. If someone was charging money for it then I would expect them to provide a fast download or to send it by mail, sure, but with free all bets are off. Why are they off? Because the author is making it for fun and not profit. Have patience and watch a movie while the game downloads or something.
Bandwidth costs might become a problem though, 1000 people downloading a 1 gig game is pretty heavy traffic. Again, Bittorrent is a great answer for that
as long as the game is sufficiently popular. Bittorrent fails otherwise.
Split the file up.
QuoteI may raise an eyebrow if it's over a gig and has graphics from MSPaint, but as long as the plot looks good, and it's not a stupid joke game (sorry stupid joke game makers), I'll download.
I agree with this, and with splitting the file or using torrents.
I'm not downloading anything over a gig, I don't care if it's the greatest freeware game of all time.
Sure, it may not be your problem that it's a huge file, but what's so wrong with having some consideration for your potential players?