When releasing a game...

Hi there!

You may know that we've been making good progress with ASA: Remastered Edition. We're actually preparing a private release of the game for the Beta-Tests soon.

There are a few things that I was wondering:

- should we add redistribuable packages, or will the game run well without any specific needs? (I read somewhere "Visual Studio 2012 - 32 bit Runtime"). If yes, is it only for Windows? Are there other requirements for Mac and Linux?
- same question with video/audio codecs (VP8, OGG)
- can we change the game icon (main EXE file)?

Is there anything else we should be aware of, before the release (in private)?

Thanks a lot!

Yes you can change the main .exe file, you need a third party app though.

check out this app: http://www.resedit.net/ (it's freeware, I think I mentioned it in a forum thread ages ago. It allows you to update the ,exe information/details & replace the icons)

I think most of the required libs/codecs are bundled with the exported game no? VS comes with ffmpeg whatsit so it should play the media files fine on whichever machine/device the game is run on.

No idea about the visual studio runtime files.

* edit: please don't download the app I mentioned above. Download this one instead: http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

Thanks, exactly the kind of answer I was expecting

Hmm sorry I linked the wrong app earlier. The one I meant to link was: http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

The one I linked is full of shitty adware that it tries to trick you into installing during the installation process. Most of it can be declined but some of it still installs regardless.

Resource hacker however, is completely free & adware free & much easier to use!

haha great. Happily I didn't start installing the other one.

@ GianAndrin: The runtime files should come with Visionaire Studio. If you don't already have them installed, which a lot of people already do from other games or computer applications they might have installed, then you can find them inside of c:/program files (x86)/visionaire studio 4/vcredist/

Oh I had no idea of this either.
Is the vcredist package needed to play the games or only to run the editor?

For both, but I can also be enough if ship the msvcr100.dll with the game in the game folder.

Simon_ASA: I'm curious, where did you get your beta-test people? And do you pay them? Did they sign some kind of contract with you? I mean you can't trust strangers on the internet, can you? That's just what worries me - how and where can I get some reliable people (who are strangers to me) to beta test my game? I'm okay with paying them but the thing that worries me that I don't know them so I can't really trust them..

@Gusty: ASA Testers are people I met over internet on forums, or people who follow my work, or friends. They are usually people that I learned to know (even if I never met them).

I don't think you should worry about sharing your Beta with strangers:

1 - it's your game, they won't sell it in their name.

2 - there's no real risk that they share your Beta for free. This usually happens for AAA games that a LOT of players want to play.
Honestly even if it happend to me, if someone decided to share the Beta without my permission, I think it would not be a big problem: it's very difficult to make advertising for a game so it would be a good way to get more visibility...
Of course it's always frustrating but well, what can you do?
People who like your game will probably purchase it to support you. The others will just find a way to download it for free. So it's the same with the Beta!

3 - people that you meet on forums of adventure games (or the community of Visionaire here) are passionate people and I think there's probably no risk in trusting them.

In my opinion there is more risk with not sharing your game than sharing it!
Just try to be careful when you share the Beta. You can setup an FTP account password-protected. Or simply put your game in a protected archive (rar with password for example).
Maybe I should be more careful but I just try not to become paranoid.

Finally I don't pay people to play. Maybe they do it with AAA games, but I believe indie devs don't have the money for this. Most Testers will consider that they are lucky to play the game before the official release, and on top of that I will give them the final version for free. Nobody ever complained until now (luck?). Well I don't force anyone to join the Beta anyway

Does it help you?

Oh what a great post, Simon! Thank you very much for this! Yes, I'm little paranoid I guess. I would have two more additional questions, though.

1) How many betatesters do you actually have? And how much of them are "strangers"?

2) What are your instructions to beta testers? Like what exactly do you tell them that you want from them? "Look for technical bugs?".. "What do you think about the story?"... "Would you improve any puzzles in my game?".. something like that?

“

there is more risk with not sharing your game than sharing it!

„

At first, I had this idea, that only I would play the game. I would not have a single one betatester. Not even a family member, best friend, girlfriend.. not a single person would play it, except me! I would just take the full risk. Well it is not realtime strategy, it is an adventure game, so what can go wrong? How crazy is that idea? But still, there is something romantic about that, isn't it? Absolutely no influence from others, you would just make the whole game on yourself, not a single person would play it before the realising.. and what a thrill would it be when the first customer buys your game ... but it would probably turn out to be a huge disaster.. especially these little technical bugs, you can't catch all of them on yourself, can you? Even if you played the game hundred times I guess.. What a silly idea..

But still, the thing is that I'm 100% sure of what I want. I have very clear and strong vision of my game. So even if 10 of 10 beta testers would say to me "Dude, you shoud change this puzzle, it's really stupid" I would listen but I wouldn't change it. So I only need testers for finding the technical bugs, really. And in some way I would feel bad that I would make use of them because I would give them false opportunity that they can participate into game, to make some suggestion to the design, but the true would be that they can't because I only need them for catching the technical bugs. To be honest, I wouldn't even care of what they think about the story or art. And I'm not sure this is ethically the right thing to do, you know, just to make use of them..