Topics

I am stuck in All the Way Down:

Spoiler

I am in the mine, lit the candle, have the steel bar...now what?

[close]

[a choice]

Peter Molyneux is making a new game for iOS and Andriod devices, the game shows a cube that the player can hit (by tapping the screen) with a chisel. There is a single cube for all players who play this game. The players can buy different chisels that would do different amount of damage. The cube has a pre-set amount of points, the player who hits the last point will be shown a secret that is (in Peter Molyneux own words) "is so valuable, and so life-changingly important," the game is called: Curiosity: What's Inside the Cube.

Now I am going to save you time and money by telling you what is inside the cube: a choice. How do I know? Easy, there is limited things that one can put inside a cube on a phone's screen: picture, video, text or as I suspect a hyperlink. No picture, video nor text will be "life-changingly" important to a random person, but a choice would, represented in the hyperlink.

The last player will make a choice and his own choice will affect him more than anything that Peter Molyneux can dream up or show on the screen of a mobile device.

What is the choice? Whether it is a choice, I am 100% sure, but I can only guess on the nature of this choice. My guess is that the last player will be presented with two options: take the money that has been paid by other players to buy chisels or return this money to them.

for more information on the game:

• Posts Tagged ‘22 Cans’ on Rock, Paper, Shotgun
• Posts tagged 22 Cans on Joystiq

Films with similar plot:

• The Box (2009)
• Sophie's Choice (1982)

The game list on adventuregamestudio.co.uk is a directory of games made with AGS, none of the files is actually hosted on the server. This means that game makers have to find suitable host, largely that means a free web-hosting service with an annoying bloated homepage and no guarantee to keep your files.

Many companies are using BitTorrent to distribute their free software, this helps cut on bandwidth requirement and helps in peak times (initial release), it also provides a backup in case of server issues.

Distributing AGS games on Bittorrent gives an added benefit over the archive file approach, by putting individual files in the torrent file we give the choice to leave music and voice files off; this can cut a 100Mb game to 20Mb for example making it easier for those who don't want the music or voice.

So I started looking into this (I have basic knowledge about servers and bittorrent mechanics), my idea was to find someone with his own server and set up a tracking server (so only the torrent files would be hosted). This would only take a small amount of bandwidth.

Well it turned out things are much easier than I thought:

First: there is an open bittorrent tracking server (openbittorrent.com), all you need to do is include it as a tracker in your torrent file and then just seed. There is no need to register or upload anything.

Second: torrent files now have an option called 'web hosting' that let you add a link to the file on the internet.

To make a torrent is also very easy. I use uTorrent and here is how you make a torrent:

1) Go to "File->Create New Torrent..." or press Ctrl-N.

2) Press 'Add Directory' and add the directory that contains the game. The name of the torrent file will be the name of the directory.

3) uTorrent ads two trackers by default, including openbittorrent.com. You can add more trackers if you like.

4) Copy the link to your file on the web server and paste in the 'Web Seeds' area.

5) Put a comment (e.g. name of game maker and the fact that it is free).

6) Press 'Create and save as..' button.

it should look something like this (click for larger view):


The last step is of course is hosting the torrent file itself, it might seem a big trip around just to go back to square one (i.e. hosting a file), but a torrent file is about 7kb while a game is minimum about 2Mb. Once offering a torrent becomes as normal as offering a mirror (maybe even include a special field in the upload forum) we can then try to arrange to host the torrent files; anyone with an FTP server can reserve a few megabytes for torrent files.

When I made my game I put it on filedropper.com, it seemed a great way to host files, unfortunately I didn't read the fine-print: for free files the file is deleted if it isn't downloaded after a certain time. I use it now to host the torrent file (this is a 7kb torrent file that you can open with a bittorrent client, it contains the AgentZeroEp0 game as individual files): http://www.filedropper.com/agenttrinityep0

Would do you think, would you seed AGS games? Are you willing to help in setting up a torrent server? Are game makers willing to provide a torrent file? Please feel free to add you opinion or views on the subject.

Here is some useful links:

• BitTorrent From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Use Dropbox as a Free Webseed for your Torrents
• uTorrent: How to Create a Torrent File

I need help in

Spoiler

the area after the gate

[close]

I have:

Spoiler

screwdriver, screw, note, apple and broken clipper

[close]

I am trying to:

Spoiler

get over the hedge

[close]

I am stuck after talking to the voice, please help!