Author Topic: Installer  (Read 4780 times)

sam

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Installer
« on: 2006-04-19, 05:35:39 PM »
Okay I got a website ( geocities.com/sam_2d_online ) and wanna put some of my games on it. I have an installer made and everything is ready to be put on my site. One question though : The installer is only 80KB and my game's tileset alone is 1.5MG. I know the installer compresses the files but do I need to only upload the installer or do I have to put all the game files with it?
EDIT: Incase you went and looked at my site you should know I just got it today so it's still WAY under construction and plus I'm starting from scratch 'cause I don't like the page wizard stuff.

cbass

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Re: Installer
« Reply #1 on: 2006-04-19, 06:34:24 PM »
generally .bmp files compress very very well (so do gamedev .map files), so getting 1.5 meg to 80k sounds about right for a gamdevgame.  (i think one of my projects was 8 or 9 megs installed but only 270 k zipped)

bluemonkmn

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Re: Installer
« Reply #2 on: 2006-04-19, 07:04:50 PM »
I think there's something wrong if the installer only ended up being 80 kb because the installer is supposed to include GDPlay.exe and some other DLLs, which generally don't compress to under 1 MB, I don't think.

BTW, I don't know about everyone else, but I much prefer games without installers because they are much smaller and don't install files in unknown and hard-to-clean-up places.  Why not just zip your project folder?

sam

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Re: Installer
« Reply #3 on: 2006-04-19, 07:07:51 PM »
Well, I edited the script quite a lot, maybe I forgot to inclue those files. I'll just get the Gamedev install packager to make the script. But after I make the installer and the size looks right, all I have to upload is the installer?

sam

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Re: Installer
« Reply #4 on: 2006-04-19, 07:10:05 PM »
I would, but I'm uploading it for some of my friends that don't have SGDK. I'll put the normal files on there too for you guys. I know you can play gamedev games without SGDK but don't you have to compile the gdp file or something? (My friends would not be intelligent enough to do something like this.)

bluemonkmn

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Re: Installer
« Reply #5 on: 2006-04-19, 07:17:17 PM »
Yeah, you might want to generate a script with the install packager and compare it to the one you wrote/edited.  The critical pieces that I can remember off the top of my head are GDPlay.exe, BMDXCtls.dll and ScrHost.dll.  Those are the pieces I wrote.  The rest are mostly project files and system files that might already be on some systems.

GDPlay.exe is like a stripped-down version of GameDev.exe.  It is like GameDev itself without any of the editing support.  The installer will install GDPlay.exe on the system, and will install a shortcut to run GDPlay with your particular project.  You could conceivably run GDPlay.exe directly and it will display a dialog to help you create a shortcut.  That way, once you have and GDPlay-based game installed, you can create shortcuts for and play any other GameDev game.  Not quite as complicated as "compiling the GDP file", but I can see why you'd want to create an installer, especially if your friends don't have any GDPlay-based games yet.

sam

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Re: Installer
« Reply #6 on: 2006-04-19, 07:20:13 PM »
I think I've finally convinced my friends to download SGDK. But you never know, I think they're kind of scared of downloading it (viruses and weird stuff) but I have assured them there is none of that.

bluemonkmn

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Re: Installer
« Reply #7 on: 2006-04-19, 07:25:28 PM »
If we're lucky you're friends will be captivated by the engine and driven to create some games of their own for the rest of us to enjoy :) ... the more the merrier... so far!

sam

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Re: Installer
« Reply #8 on: 2006-04-19, 07:59:00 PM »
Well, they're definately not the sharpest knives in the drawer...I have a feeling that if one of them actually downloads it I'm going to have to go over to there house and give them like a 2 hour tutorial...
They are obsessed with video games though...

durnurd

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Re: Installer
« Reply #9 on: 2006-04-19, 09:30:48 PM »
Well, that's what the tutorials that come with the game are for.  Though I wouldn't say that making more tutorials would be a bad thing if anybody wanted to do that.  If you think there are things that you didn't learn in the tutorial, but learned by fooling around or asking on the boards, in might not be a bad idea to make a tutorial of it.
Edward Dassmesser

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Re: Installer
« Reply #10 on: 2006-08-07, 11:26:17 AM »
more tutorials would be great! i downloaded a RPG maker called Sphere, and it had so many tutorials you never had to go on the net to figure out something!

All of my friends hate forums and gave up on sgdk after the one tutorial , too...
~bat