NINJUIT'S PROFILE

The fated battle between RMer and his content. Filesize.

What can be said about filesize? That it affects everything from the demographic you are targeting to how many downloads you will get from the average PC users of the internet? Indeed it is so, and that is where my story begins.

Generally, Indie games made in engines such as Game Maker, Torque, Games Factory 2, Multimedia Fusion 2, etc target people who are randomly roaming the internet and looking for something to do with their boring ass lives and thus are very low in filesize; ranging from less than 1mb to 40mb for your casual games and 50 for larger ones. But RPG Maker is a strange beast. We are usually confined to our small (or vast, depending on if you Community Hop like I do) demographic of RMers. DESPITE our smaller demographics, a perplexing inversion occurs with something else, and that gentlemen (and the one or two women) is one of the single defining factors between an RM game and a regular Indie game. The filesize of an RM game is equivalent to that of the largest prehistoric behemoths. :|

There is however a reason for this. RM games are usually RPGs, and as RPGs, RM games require many resources: "Custom Art", Custom (Stolen) Music, Custom (Ripped) Tilesets, and a shitload of sprites. Some of these resources never even get used, but as an RMer we say, "Why the hell not?" and throw that sucker into our game's filesize anyway. However, this "tactic" that us RMers have will almost always backfire, causing our games to get lower...and lower (if even possible) downloads than the general 20 pity downloads we get for our life's work (In my experience, it's 1 download to every 100 views for all those random RM projects floating around and significantly higher if your topic looks nice or if you are well known in the community (extra points for nice screenshots)).

BUT ANYWAY! Where am I going with this? Nowhere. That is absolutely correct. My real concern is fixing this problem for my game, and hopefully inspiring similar tactics for other games of a similar generation.

The way I plan to "reduce" filesize, is simply an illusion, one that the gamer probably shouldn't know about, but since we are all (to an extent) Game Designers here, "Why the hell not?” let me just throw my idea out there.

-Chapter Based Releases (Expansion Packs)

-What did he say? Did he say expansion packs? Yes sir (or the occasional ma'am), yes I did, but first... I believe that breaking RM games into chapter releases is a good idea, however, not in the traditional sense. Generally, chapter based games are standalone projects. This meaning that each individual chapter starts in a new place in the story and anything not pertaining to that chapter is gone. If you missed something in the last chapter, "Oh well, you're screwed. Get over it and play my game that's not even compatible with your last save so you'll have to start over anyway." It's almost like having 20 billion disks when playing a console RPG. Just you have to purchase (purchase here is equivalent to download) each disk, and none of the disks have backwards compatibility with the last games save so you pretty much start from scratch. OR. Something so "epic" has been added that the game developer says, "You may as well play it again, since I've changed the story to something ‘better'.” Only better means it involves less story and more scripts and lag.

-So my idea is pretty darn simple. Why not just use chapter based games in unison with expansion packs, expansion packs however, in the way that they are defined. To “expand” the game.

-Many people oppose installs of RM games, I know people will flat out NOT PLAY YOUR GAME (hint hint) if you are forced to install it. They ask, “Why am I installing a game when it's perfectly fine for me to just play it in the folder I downloaded it?” I agree, however, sometimes something similar to an install may be required. Regardless, I digress.

In my system, you download the base files. These files include the files required for the very first chapter (however, at the same time it includes all of the scripts, maps, switches, events, etc for the entire game) nothing more, nothing less. You download the game and then play it to completion. HELL, if you really want to, play it past completion, maybe even level your bad-ass up a little (though level caps are required to prevent a broken system) completing all those (lovely) sidequests that the developer left for you. Then, exactly one month later, BAM a brand new download, an expansion pack. Click the “install button” choose the place you want to “install” the new files (the main project folder), wait about 35 seconds and BOOM, you are playing Chapter Two. It couldn't get any easier. But how exactly do the deep intricacies of this system work? AND WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH FILESIZE?!

Firstly, it doesn't have much to do with filesize at all. It just gives the player an illusion of a smaller filesize, since he/she is downloading smaller files in a somewhat distant timeframe. For example, the main download is say, 40 MB. This download includes a lot of important files, including the physical content (music and art) for chapter one and all of the general content (Maps, scripts, events, switches, database, save file systems, dlls, etc). Then they finish chapter one, and then “wait” (the point here is to give enough content to keep them busy for their wait in the primary download/expansion). Finally, they download the expansion (20 â€" 40 mb again)and rinse and repeat until the game is complete (a maximum on 3 to 4 months is recommended for the main story arc, allowing one extra release 2 weeks after the final expansion for end game content for players who are yearning for more).

Simply put, the system works like this.

- Download base file that includes…

o All the system files required for the game as a whole (Map data, Script data, Event Data, Switch Data, etc)

o Art and Music (and whatever else) for Chapter One, or whatever you wish your first release to be.

- Then play the game, complete the game, wait for the next release (the expansion that includes…)

o ONLY the Art and Music required for the second chapter or portion of your game.

- “Drag and Drop” the required files into the main folder.

- Continue your game playing.

- Rinse, Repeat.

- End game expansion.

- Wreak the rewards of an epic system and an illusion of smaller filesize.

This is all just a concept put into article form and I would LOVE some feedback on the idea, and possibly some tips and pointers. It's probably been done before and I don't know, but I have never seen it done and here is my article about it.

Ninjuit~

NOTE - For this system to work and be successful, all pre-development work has to be done on the game prior to releasing the base version. This will allow the game to operate smoothly and so that save files do not become a problem.

NOTE+ - I recommend having the game completely finished before releasing the base demo. Then splitting the content into chapter releases, and choosing a timeframe in which to release the expansions.