Is size everything?

allaboutiweballaboutiweb Member Posts: 42
edited November -1 in Working with GS (Mac)
I downloaded the demo of GTA: Chinatown the other night and at 450+ MB I thought that was rather large, but didn't mind so much as I did it on my iMac and it was for the iPad.

Reading through some of the guidelines here many users recommend having a much smaller size for a game and I would be interested to know if people thought the same still applied to the iPad.

Obviously the iPhone is designed as a Phone first and entertainment/browser/e-mail device second where as the iPad is not, it's purely entertainment (and with the right apps) work too. With that in mind do you think that GS game designers can go a bit mad with their iPad games and expect to upload several hundred MBs each time?

Comments

  • juzcookjuzcook Member Posts: 259
    The difference with those high end titles is that they are 3D, have huge soundtracks, and some even have lots of voice acting, so the that really adds to the size. In GS land, and because we're small developers really, we aren't making high tech 3D games, and most of the games made through GS that I have seen don't have much of a soundtrack.

    The other thing that a huge file size can do is deter people form downloading. Again, for us, if people can't download our games over 3G (because of the 20mb size limit) we can be losing customers who either forget about the game or don't have access to a wireless network (probably a rare option but still possible). I for one absolutely hate downloading updates for those huge games
  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    According to my girlfriend yes :)

    Yes i agree with juzcook keep it under 20mb when possible.

    Darren.
  • allaboutiweballaboutiweb Member Posts: 42
    I see what you are saying juzcook, but GTA is a top down racer style game on the iPad. Perhaps we should all aim a little higher...or am I just getting ahead of myself because I can finally see my first game coming together...
  • LAdrianLAdrian Member Posts: 237
    I wouldn't let the graphics or sound suffer just to have a small file size.
    I don't even take into consideration how big the game will be. What matter is to look and play good and not the size :)
  • juzcookjuzcook Member Posts: 259
    Oh yeah it depends on the style of game you're making too of course, don't get me wrong. It's just that majority of GS games that make it to the App store are quite small in size. Lately it's good to see some quality games are finally coming out of GS. My next game I don't expect to have a very small file size as I'll be aiming even higher and putting a bit of money into some really nice art. But there's pro's and con's to small and big file sizes.
  • ChunkypixelsChunkypixels Member Posts: 1,114
    Personally I wouldnt even worry about file size.... make your game how you want it to be, as good as it can be... thats the biggest thing you should worry about.

    If your game requires lots of levels, art assets, or audio to make it good, then that has to be the priority. If that makes it larger than 20mb then its just how the game was meant to be. Dont make a lesser game, just to squeeze below 20mb.

    Below 20mb gives you access to more buyers...but to be honest, you gain the most buyers by simply having a better game. Look at a lot of the games in the top20 and you'll see that app file size really isnt a decider in how succesful an app is...

    If the game is good, and it gets good feedback and reviews, thats going to do far more for your sales than if the app is under 20mb.

    So make your game, put in whatever you really feel is needed, and then consider the filesize only when youve finished. If you can optimize it and get it below 20mb then its a bonus, but if you cant, its not something you really need to worry too much about.
  • QbAnYtOQbAnYtO Member Posts: 523
    same thing with my game. it has an awesome soundtrack and voice acting. soi said f*** it, if iit plays good and looks good, ppl wouldn't mind. don't. i downloaded LARGE games (black pegasus, assassins creed, street fighter 4, etc etc.) its understandable. infinity sword was another big ass game and rage hd ws like 700mb i think. either make sure you SHOW on your screenshots why the game is so large. and explain it in the description.
  • JohnPapiomitisJohnPapiomitis Member Posts: 6,256
    QbAnYtO said:
    same thing with my game. it has an awesome soundtrack and voice acting. soi said f*** it, if iit plays good and looks good, ppl wouldn't mind. don't. i downloaded LARGE games (black pegasus, assassins creed, street fighter 4, etc etc.) its understandable. infinity sword was another big ass game and rage hd ws like 700mb i think. either make sure you SHOW on your screenshots why the game is so large. and explain it in the description.

    Have you tested on a device? Just cause it plays good on gs or the viewer, it can still play like crap om tje device. And what your saying about size is irelevant. It has nothing to do with the iphone, its gamesalad the pretends you from making something that big run right. If you make it in xcode it can be 100 of mbs no problem. But thats not possible with gs
  • FranzKellerFranzKeller Member Posts: 517
    dont have it too big, or the loading time will be FOREVER...!

    with GS it's important to maximze your assets
  • AsymptoteellAsymptoteell Member Posts: 1,362
    I agree with Chunkypixels. Make your game GOOD!

    Also, on the subject of size, my game is VERY big so far, and I don't know why. When I put it into the viewer, the breeakdown said that almost all of it was in the "Other" category. What does that mean?
  • AsymptoteellAsymptoteell Member Posts: 1,362
  • akiraraptorakiraraptor Member Posts: 3
    I'm having the same concerns.

    My game is of the graphic adventure nature. I've just completed the first scene, so all my art assets are in for that first scene. No sound or music yet. And everything is built for retina display as well.

    It's 30MB.

    I've story boarded out over 80 scenes. I'll be reusing the hero animations, but most of the rest will be new art per scene. The viewer is telling me 18MB for the art. So if I go by that, my games gonna be upward toward 1.4 GB or more.

    Yikes! I don't think that's gonna fly.

    Am I doing something wrong here? Should I drop retina art and use lower resolution? What are you opinions. Don't want to go much further and have to do a lot of art over again.
  • akiraraptorakiraraptor Member Posts: 3
    Ok, been read up a little, now I'm not sure.

    When running the viewer, and you get the stats on the left, when it displays memory usage, is that ram in use, not drive space used up? (file size).

    So, if thats true, does that mean that when I jump to new scene, and destroy all the current actors on screen, that that count will theoretically drop back to 0 and then go back up as I build the new scene?

    Please fill me in how this works.

    I added up all my images and they don't total more than a tad over 3MB. Even if I use multiple unique actors with duplicate images, I can't seem to get anywhere near 18MB of images in use. So is this just memory use while displaying that particular scene?

    Thanks...
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