Game size limitations

jonmulcahy

I was always under the impression that the 10MB limit only applied to games uploaded for playing on the website. This morning I attempted to upload version 1.2 of Z is for Zombie using GameSalad to get the xcode project, and got a message saying that my game was 10.2MB, only games 10MB or under can be published.

I was able to do it through the website itself, but then you loose the iPhone optimization that the application does. I was able to duplicate some of this by removing the screenshots direction in the package manually, but it left me wondering if I missed something else.

So, my question is, did I run into a bug, or is that 10MB limit for any kind of publising?

superNES

Sorry for the inconvenience. We're undergoing some maintenance to the site and squashing these bugs as they come in. We'll roll out a fix as soon as we can.

Patronus

I'm new to GameSalad and I can see that it really has potential. I used to be a programmer in my younger days but about 15 years of not coding a line means that I'm pretty much lost with the tools of today. I am pleasantly surprised with GameSalad and have been playing with it for a while now. I think a lot can be done with it, probably more than we think.

What concerns me a bit is that "Z is for Zombie" exceeds the 10MB limit. Is it graphics that take up so much space? "Z" is indeed bitmap rich but I can't think where 10MB could have gone. Are apps developed with GameSalad that much fatter than ones developed with Objective C? I know that the higher you go in the programming foodchain, the heavier your apps get, but I'm just wondering how much it will limit the scope and complexity of projects undertaken with GameSalad.

Regards
Patronus

jonmulcahy

Z is for Zombie is mine, and it's mostly the graphics and audio that put it over the 10MB limit (althought thanks to some work last night, I got it back under 10MB

Here's a rundown of my app:
Actors: 854kb (122 actors)
Images: 6.8MB (171 images)
Scenes: 245kb (24 scenes)
Sounds: 2.1MB (17 audio files)

Just adding up the images and sounds put it at 8.9MB, so that's where everything is coming from.

Patronus

Thanks, that explains it clearly. How much does size matter to potential customers? I'm used to unlimited bandwidth but perhaps other people aren't. Has anyone done a study - for example is there a "magic" size that one should rather not exceed? I see apps of 50MB and more on the App Store and nobody seems to mind. Just wondering.

Good luck with Z by the way.

jonmulcahy

In my opinion that's the only real reason to keep it under 10mb, so anyone can download it to their iPhone anywhere. I know I've missed downloading a few things because I've forgotten about it by the time I get home.

I guess that's why it's also potentially good to have a lite version if you have a huge game. If you can keep that under 10MB, anyone can download it, and then you can funnel them to your full game at 50mb or 100mb or whatever.