Game size: Question to developers

I'm gathering resources and building pipeline for an action-RPG.

Can I reasonably plan 100MB game size? Can it be supported somehow? I know file-access functions are missing from javascript. What can I do, if i want to make a 50-100MB game and also hope for accessing sound packs, graphics packs in the size of 10-20MB?

I am not sure if this could work, but maybe one could use the WebStorage Plug-In to localy "communicate" between different c2-Apps. If this works, you could "cut" your RPG in seperate smaller junks....

The biggest problem from what I know is that the user will have to download all of it at once, at the very start of the game. Games around 10MB already take a good 10-20 seconds to download, so 100MB would not be fun to wait for. I believe Ashley said you'll eventually be able to load per-layout, which makes bigger games a lot more feasible...

For free to play online games you want something ideally less than 5 mb 10 at the most. The reason is that people want to play the game now and load times will make your game less attractive.

For mobile you get 20 mb. The reason is that most carriers won't let you download games over 20mb.

Generally, it is good to have games less than 20mb.

100Mb is massive for a web game. Try to mix and match most sprites, play with alpha values to add variety and use a small scale.

Aha! 20MB for mobile. Good to know. I guess i have to build a playable game first, then see. Optimizing space via graphics and music compression is what i'm used to.

The reason i asked, because it would give assurance and i could develop with a calm determination that 100MB size is supported for PC. Mobile later.

Or, as always, small episodes for mobile first, gather enough money then maybe i go picking mushrooms in the forest and forget gaming if the earnings are enough to retire. ;)

Before producing graphics and musics/sounds, you should think about how to optimize and re-use assets, in order to make your game as small AND beautiful as possible.

You'll have to be smart :) (depending on what you want to display)

100MB is too big for a for a web app/game.

Even if you manage to put a 8-10MB demo, or a "first area", you'll still have to consider sharing the other 90% of the game to a number of user, and that'll cost ya bandwidth traffic.

But even if you can deal with that, it would be wiser to keep file sizes around the 30MB mark.

It all boils down to keeping the user interested - if you show them nice screenshots or a trailer demonstrating how cool your game is, it is more likely they'll be willing to download your game.

I just got an idea of what you could do (something like a workaround).

Split all the levels into separate projects and use AJAX for a background system (php) to move Characters from project to project. In this case, only the parts that are needed for the specific level are used and this could reduce file size.

100MB too big? Are you serious? What if one (like me) does not care for mobile? Is 100MB still too big?

100MB too big? Are you serious? What if one (like me) does not care for mobile? Is 100MB still too big?

It depends on the game. If it's a casual game that you want people to see it and think, "Oh, that looks fun", and then they click and start playing, 100MB is way out of the question. People want to jump in and play, they don't want to sit there for two minutes or so while it loads.

If you're making a larger game for a less casual audience, it could still work out, but even then people might lose their patience and leave if it takes too long and they weren't too interested to begin with.

I see. Well, yeah, my game isn't casual, and I will make this clear before anyone starts to play. Now if they stay or leave, is their own choice and not something I care about, since I know there's different audiences.

Thank you for the answer!

Yeah, at some point I'd agree with VampyricalCurse. There will be those people that has like "over the hills" internet speed which I guess we could call hardcore gamers. If they find the game interesting, 100MB would mean nothing to them. But of course, not everyone are hard core gamers.

Nor have "over the hills" internet speed.

Before you start making a game this big I'd definitely recommend waiting for the staged level loader which is on the todo list (no ETA). It'll load layout by layout so it could probably get going after ~10mb of the download, while still downloading the other 90mb in the background. As it is, any user on a slow connection will probably not even bother clicking a game so big. The offline cache helps since it only needs to download once ever, but that's still a big download for anyone out of range of broadband, which is still a lot of people.