Reducing game size

[aussie]

Hi all, I have two basic questions:

1. I'm making an 800x600 res game. I'm using real pictures. After completing five rooms, the game is already up to 45mb. Since I'm planning quite a few more, I'm afraid the file size could really skyrocket.

How could I keep it down? Please note that lowering res won't do, and that I have already compressed sprite size and changed from 32 to 16 bit color (this doesn't seem to affect game size).

Just in case it turns out to be important: I started off with 1024x768 then switched to 800x600, then reduced all bgs and sprites.

2. What takes up the most space in a game? Am I on the right track changing sprites and resolutions?

[kyodai]

For your images - check their size. If you convert them to jpeg with a tool like GIMP you can chose the compression rate and thus dramatically reduce file size. For music try to use midi instead of wave or so. If you have to use wave sounds then try to reduce the quality. For my games the wave music and sounds took up most space. Just reducing the game colors from 32bit to 16 bit will not do anything - you need to reduce your images and sprites color to 16bit before you import them into AGS.

[aussie]

Thanks kyodai,

How do you change images to 16 bit outside ags?

Also, I've run a search in the forum and most people say that the image format (jpg, pcx, png) does not matter much because AGS uses its own packing algorithm.

There is no music in the game yet, but I'll keep in mind your advice.

[Khris]

Correct, ruining images by turning them into jpegs doesn't do anything to reduce the game's size.

Just for fun, compile the game and pack the exe using zip or rar. If the 45MB go down to 5 or so, keep doing what you're doing. If not, something's wrong.

[aussie]

Thanks Khris,

I have done the .rar thingy. Game size does drop significantly, from 45 to 20mb.

But I'm not sure if the proportion will be linear, and still, I could end up with a 75-100mb game...