seeking opinions re: game size, #levels, etc.
Leanne
Member Posts: 168
i'm designing a seek-and-find family game. I have designed 60 puzzles, divided into 6 levels. Currently, the game is 14.4 mb (without music) with the first 4 levels. if i add the next level, it bumps it to 19.4 (without music). realistically, this means going over the magical 20 mb limit.
Option A: Release the full game and not worry too much about size (will probably end up being between 25 and 30 mb
Option B: Release the first 4 levels for free and have subsequent levels available as in-app purchases
Option C: Release the first 4 levels as paid, and the the expansions available as free in-app purchases.
Options
Release the first 4 as paid, and the expansions as paid as well...
your opinion is very much appreciated!
Option A: Release the full game and not worry too much about size (will probably end up being between 25 and 30 mb
Option B: Release the first 4 levels for free and have subsequent levels available as in-app purchases
Option C: Release the first 4 levels as paid, and the the expansions available as free in-app purchases.
Options
Release the first 4 as paid, and the expansions as paid as well...your opinion is very much appreciated!
Comments
Obviously its best to give the full game, but I think that's an incredible alternative.
And what I mean by that is your images are probably much larger than they need to be. There are free programs for the mac called, "ImageOptim" that can really help reduce the file size of your images.
You can find more info from a great video TshirtBooth made...
Hope this helps!
Luckily, I did know to have all my dimensions divisible by two. They are all png8 exports. BTW, you CAN export as 8-bit pngs with transparency in Adobe's (previously Macromedia's) Fireworks program. Just set the optimization parameters to png 8 and alpha transparency in the top right corner of the window, rebuild, and export...
Resizing the images to come under the lowest possible factor of 8 would be impossible at this point. This game has been an artwork marathon, and would require more than just a little rejigging. I would have to completely reimagine many of the levels.
My next question: Can you offer an in-app purchase of additional actors, behaviours, etc. through gs? It seems that most in-apps are planned for with a boolean within the initial app, allowing the developer to add coins/enable weapons, or other things that are already programmed in the game. To make my idea work, the iap is a brand new chunk of info. is this possible?
its free... 1st you (make a Back-up 1st!) then just Rclick on your gameproject > ShowPackageContents >Images select all and drag to ImageOptim
process about 3 times... get rid of extraneous bytes/info...
really saves on byte-size of images
also while there...√ out
ImageAlpha
its free and to quote the site: and does 256 color... has quality selection especially for gradients.
===
don't worry about project size... till you have tweaked and tidied everything up...
and just before you submit to GS you are going to go Show Package Contents again and delete the images in the 'screenshots' folder...(they are only there for Preview and scene Icons...nothing to do with the app you are making.)
MH
So again, I thank you x 100