Does Size Matter... (overall game size)

[Freakwncy02]

What would you say is a good file size for a finish game in flash, and yes, i know it depends on the type of game and how much of it is scripting... can u give examples and size ranges.....

ie:" memory game - 1000Kb or less"
" Point/Shoot - 2000Kb or less"

Thanks for you help, I'm currently wrking on a game and i'm worried about the overall file size....

[mixedtrigeno]

dude dont limit yourself forget about file size other wise u will find yourself deleting and remaking stuff to make smaller in size and eventually u will be taking features in and out of your game cuse you worry about size so dude GO BANANAS lol lol lol dont worry about the 56k'ers

[SaphuA]

You should proberbly think about what you're aiming at and what kind of game it'll be.
Most people play flash games just to fill 10-20 minutes of time, so they expect the game to be loaded quickly.
But, if you're working on an huge adventure game that realy get's to be a hit, people will be more patient to load the game.
I personaly think that everything is alright as long as there's a preloader showing me the progress of the loading. This way I can guess how long it'll take to load and then see if I have the time to wait for it.

~Sph

[tomsamson]

there´s no general table for what´s a good filesize for a certain game type,and there also can´t be one as that would make no sense.
i think more important han the size is how you load the file(s) and what happens during the preloading phase.
if you split your file up into smaller chuncks and only load what´s needed for the current/next level,your total filesize could be as big as you want for example (as the player won´t have noticable preloading as upcoming needed files are silently streaming while he plays the current level).
you could for example also show something nice (but tiny in filesize) during preloading phases,like info texts,a short animation (you can reuse several times) or a tiny preloader game or tutorial blocks reusing already loaded assets.
what´s really painful is loading a huge file in one go with only a preloader bar and nothing else to see,that can scare people away.

on a sidenote: what is a good number in filesize also depends a lot on your current game and target audience,for example you could target broadband users right from the start then you have a totally different filesize tolerance compared to a slow modem user audience and even if you don´t decide for that audience group right from the start,for some game types you will probably automatically get mostly dsl/broadband users (like rpgs and other game types which you play for hours).
i also think the more your game is meant to be a coffee break game,the less big in filesize it should be. for a game which only takes 1 minute for one run,a download of 2 mb makes no sense (especially for modem users).
try to make media assets in reasonably small filesize and load small chunks.give your prteloader a nice touch so people don´t get bored while waiting for content, pick your target audience and decide what´s a reasonable download time for a game type you make (for em) and you´re on a good track i´d say.

[Freakwncy02]

Great Advise, from a bunch of Great Designers... Keep the comments coming... thanks to everyone would responded....

[strille]

anything over 1Kb is a waste of space :-)

[alillm]

Oh...how did you keep sylvaniah under 1Kb then?

Ali

[philippeIngels]

tomsamson makes some very valuable points. My rule of thumb is under 100kb makes me very happy, under 200Kb is acceptable, up to 500Kb if it's a game that's really worth the download. Go to my site http://www.grinlock.com. There is a EuroRoulette game there that's 460kb playing at up to 1024x768 all 3D looking, that was acceptable because the target audience don't mind that kind of download but like tomsamson said, if it's just a quicky it has to be small. I try to keep it under 200kb per download session (don't always succeed though )

I know where mixedtrigeno come from about the danger of limiting yourself. I usually do my concept design without any thought of file size then go through a lot of effort in the development process to optimise every element as much as possible so it is as close to the concept as possible. I never use automated tools such as the bitmap trace function and I don't use the pen/brush tools but construct everything by hand so the vectors have as few point as possible. It's not always just size but performance as well. It takes a lot of processing to shift detailed vector graphics around so the need to be optimised.

Hope this helps

Philippe

[tomsamson]

to allim:i guess strille was talking about the size of preloader content,not the game size =)

[tomsamson]

i fully agree with phil =) i´d also suggest using optimaze ( http://www.erain.com/products/optimaze/ ) after optimsing by hand. That little tool basically has the same concept as flash´s "optimize curves" feature,just that it works way better. you can easily reduce the amount of curves for your whole animation or just smaller parts of it and see the result in live preview. optimized vector animations weigh in at much smaller filesize and are also less performance intensive.
a nice little widget which is very useful when using vector graphics.

[token 3]

If the game was worth the download wait, the chances are they won't mind it.
However you should try to keep it as optimised as possible; keep your target audience as 56kb users; always test the the file with the bandwidth profiler.

If for some reason your .swf is huge, it's always a good idea to provide screenshots so users can view before downloading

[UnknownGuy]

It can also be a good idea to show the instructions of the game during the preloader, allowing them to play right off the get go(I never read instructions anyways, read them later ).

What does everyone mean by bitmap tracing? I've heard that term a few times and never really understood...

[philippeIngels]

What does everyone mean by bitmap tracing? I've heard that term a few times and never really understood...

You can import a bitmap into Flash and go Modify/Bitmap/Trace Bitmap. It kind of converts a bitmap to vector graphics

Philippe

[UnknownGuy]

Wow, I never knew that after almost two years of Flash...

[tomsamson]

trace bitmap is a feature of the flash authoring tool,in f7 you can find it under the tab modify>bitmap>trace bitmap. when you select a bitmap and use that feature,it converts the bitmap into a vector graphic.
Actually it converts them to lots of single shapes,you can set the precision but normally (when you convert a complex bitmap,meaning one featuring lots of areas with different colors) it ends up either not looking like the original image or beeing made up of way too many single shapes,therefore weighing huge filesize and beeing bad performancewise. Its a nice feature but as phil said it can´t replace converting things by hand.(its mostly useful for images with few colors/distinct hard transitions from one color to the other)

[tomsamson]

wups,phil was faster =)

[strille]

to allim:i guess strille was talking about the size of preloader content,not the game size =)

Actually, I was talking about the total file size of the game . But I was not totally serious of course.

I find that almost any file size (within reason) can be acceptable as long as the game indicates it will be worth the download. A professional and inventive preloader helps a lot.

[UnknownGuy]

strille's good 'ole 1kb games .

Classic Memories .

[Freakwncy02]

Philippe... u know I've played some of your games and didnt know they were made by you.... www.gprime.net has lot of Flash games in their Flash section... maybe some of u have games in there section..... Kool. thanks for the advice... keep em coming....

[philippeIngels]

Philippe... u know I've played some of your games and didnt know they were made by you.... www.gprime.net has lot of Flash games in their Flash section... maybe some of u have games in there section..... Kool. thanks for the advice... keep em coming....

I have those games on my website to demo some of them to prospective clients but I had to pay loads in additional bandwidth cost because of all the websites linking to my games (especially from China and Japan for some reason) so I had to place them behind a password because it was not leading to any new projects. Talk about trying to reduce traffic

Philippe