Not to be a jerk or anything, but I'm genuinely curious about that general aversion to files above 1 or 2 GB. Why is that? Disk space? Internet connection? I mean, it takes me just a few minutes to download 1 GB from Mega, and with 1 TB HDDs for 40 bucks nowadays, I don't even bother to delete old games anymore.
Acceptable size for a game?
- Thread starter Winterfire
- Start date
- Sep 13, 2017
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- May 31, 2018
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There's significant interest in compressed or "skunked" (is that the world? I'm old and my memory is bad) versions of popular games--enough so that there's at least one person on this site who does or did make them routinely.
Apparently there are a lot of folks out there who have metered internet. Either they're paying by the gig (bad contracts, or nothing else being available, or whatever) or they've got hard caps on how much data they can move in a month (college students, asshole ISPs, or whatever).
I'd still guess that the majority of porn game players would consider "game size 1 Gb or less" as a nice bonus, rather than a primary driver of whether or not they'll play it.
Apparently there are a lot of folks out there who have metered internet. Either they're paying by the gig (bad contracts, or nothing else being available, or whatever) or they've got hard caps on how much data they can move in a month (college students, asshole ISPs, or whatever).
I'd still guess that the majority of porn game players would consider "game size 1 Gb or less" as a nice bonus, rather than a primary driver of whether or not they'll play it.
- Jun 12, 2018
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I'm curious about this also, since my game will be quite big regardless of how I do things. Image compression will often have a serious effect on the image sharpness, lower color bit rate can work. For me personally, I dont mind big downloads since I have good internet speed and plenty of free disk space. But I have had complaints about the size of my game.
For a deep game with quality graphics and hours of gameplay, 1-5 GB is fine imo. I think I've only seen 2-3 games here exceeding 5 GB compressed. For a first release, somewhere between 50 MB and 500 MB is probably ideal.
- Aug 10, 2018
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I don't really care about the file size but I tend to be more picky about the games I download if they are larger, I'm more likely to scrutinize the previews, tags, overview and even scroll through the comments to make sure it's a game I'll probably enjoy so I don't just waste my time downloading something I'm going to trash after 2mins playtime
- Jun 21, 2017
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It really depends on the game, there are a couple of games here that are over 15GB!
One point you might want to take into consideration is the free download limitations of your chosen hosting sites. For example MEGA either has significant technical limitations or tries to scam you into using its app once file sizes approach 2GB (exact number might have changed, double-check starting at 1GB). Older wood modem "pay for UNLIMITED speed" websites like rapidshare may straight up cap uploads (or free downloads!) to 1GB or so. Obviously not much of an issue for pirates but if you openly present yourself as the developer any roadblocks in accessing your content will draw ire.
Personally I have learned not to judge by filesize except for a few obvious red flags, whether or not people include source code, separate MacOS copies or dependencies such as the RPGM RTPs massively affects the size of the actual game content in the download. If you go above 1GB I definitely expect animations or a massive sprawling sandbox though.
Personally I have learned not to judge by filesize except for a few obvious red flags, whether or not people include source code, separate MacOS copies or dependencies such as the RPGM RTPs massively affects the size of the actual game content in the download. If you go above 1GB I definitely expect animations or a massive sprawling sandbox though.
I agree with most here that size isn't important - it's quality content that matters.
But I have to point out for those few who mentioned guessing amount of content by file size - that's a no-no! My second release was over 800MB. You'd probably say that's got a lot of content, right? Well, yes it does. But here's the thing - I then optimised it to less than 400MB. And my third release had less than 800MB in total. So, you see, optimisation can trick you as it can more than half the file size.
But I have to point out for those few who mentioned guessing amount of content by file size - that's a no-no! My second release was over 800MB. You'd probably say that's got a lot of content, right? Well, yes it does. But here's the thing - I then optimised it to less than 400MB. And my third release had less than 800MB in total. So, you see, optimisation can trick you as it can more than half the file size.
- Aug 10, 2018
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The limitation on downloads for free users isn't completely fixed it is dynamic and varies depending on server load, that's why sometimes a free user may hit the limit on 1.5GB one day then 2GB the next, why would they need to scam you into using a free app?
Data hoovering, brand familiarity and further "encouraging" premium deals. I did paraphrase their official explanation first but if, as you claim, the limit actually depends on server load that means they are outright lying to us: the message I am shown reads
"Unfortunately, Firefox has an insufficient buffer to decrypt data in the browser, and we recommend you to install the MEGA desktop app to download large files (or use Chrome)"
I do not have chrome to double-check but when seeking workarounds in the past I had encountered several reports of chrome users getting a similar message again advertising the app. If this is a quota they ought to say so, despite not actually being able to enforce it against third-party scripts such as "megatools".
(side note I am using 64-bit firefox which happily glomps over 2GB of RAM and did not manually add any buffer size restrictions either, if the claim is true it is a default setting or even a hardcoded technical limitation)
- Aug 10, 2018
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Sorry I wouldn't know anything about that message I've never encountered it, I do use Chrome but I have the Mega desktop app to keep my drive synced with Mega it just makes it easier to keep all my uploads up to date and organised, especially when uploading to multiple mirrors I can drop my files in the mega folder and leave the app to it whilst I upload to other sites.
I don't have a metered connection, but it takes ~15-20 minutes to download a 1GB file for me.
Under 100MB:
Only if it's text or flash, else I expect no content (but probably will download anyway).
300-500MB:
The Twilight Zone - either someone took care to make it small or the game has very little content.
Depends on reviews and degree of current boredom.
Around 1GB:
It's fine. If it 600MB -great, if it's 1.5GB - still good. Will download if it tickles my kinks.
Above 2GB:
You'd better have a good reason for that. That's worth 1 hour of 1080p video. If it's the first release I will probably skip expecting it to grow well over 10GB before it's ready.
7+GB:
That's about the size of vanilla Skyrim, and I'd except the game to keep me entertained for about as long as Skyrim did (that'd be ~8 years). Good luck with that.
15+GB:
Nope.
Under 100MB:
Only if it's text or flash, else I expect no content (but probably will download anyway).
300-500MB:
The Twilight Zone - either someone took care to make it small or the game has very little content.
Depends on reviews and degree of current boredom.
Around 1GB:
It's fine. If it 600MB -great, if it's 1.5GB - still good. Will download if it tickles my kinks.
Above 2GB:
You'd better have a good reason for that. That's worth 1 hour of 1080p video. If it's the first release I will probably skip expecting it to grow well over 10GB before it's ready.
7+GB:
That's about the size of vanilla Skyrim, and I'd except the game to keep me entertained for about as long as Skyrim did (that'd be ~8 years). Good luck with that.
15+GB:
Nope.
I don't think there is an absolute number for this question. I will say it's a question of value you bring to the player so a mix between what kind of game you're making, how much content your game has, its playing time and the people you're targeting.
For my part, my game (first release) in its vanilla optimized size is 1,06Go which is okay for computers but not really for smartphones/users (because free space here is still an issue and datas is not unlimited if you're not on a wifi network) so I crunched it with a 95% lossy compression (where the result is identical to the original if you don't zoom like a fool) so the release size is 273Mo (for 1h of playing time). There will be a moment when it will be again at 1Go, but at this moment I will be able to justify it by a huge game duration and amount of content.
For my part, my game (first release) in its vanilla optimized size is 1,06Go which is okay for computers but not really for smartphones/users (because free space here is still an issue and datas is not unlimited if you're not on a wifi network) so I crunched it with a 95% lossy compression (where the result is identical to the original if you don't zoom like a fool) so the release size is 273Mo (for 1h of playing time). There will be a moment when it will be again at 1Go, but at this moment I will be able to justify it by a huge game duration and amount of content.
You're right in theory, but the reason so many people think like that to estimate the amount of content is because most of the time it works. Why? Because too many devs here don't know what "post treatment" and "optimization" mean. They take their renders freshly out of daz and put them into their game.
depend of the game for me.
i can go up to 30Gb if the game is full and nice. But i will NEVER go up to 10gb for a ren'py game for sure.
for me, its simple
Ren'py = up to 5-6Gb max if the game is cool and shit tons of content. i dont give a shit if the game is 5Gb of great renders, if it doesnt have content outside of visuals, i dont waste time downloading it.
Unity/Unreal = i can go up to 30Gb, i know theses games didnt have quite alots of options to be compressed or else, soo its acceptable. that didnt change the fact that its still the same for me as Ren'py Game... if the game doesnt have content, i dont take it.
games should be like this to me (approx)
Ren'py = 1Gb = minimum 1 and a half hour gameplay.
Unity/Unreal = 10gb = minimum an hour of gameplay (exception if the game is nice, such as Wildlife for exempl, wich doesnt have lots of content, but is pretty nice to try around all girls and poses, etc..)
we saw some game that are close to 10Gb and have like 10 minutes of gameplay on Unity/Unreal... that's a NOPE for me, a definitive one.
i can go up to 30Gb if the game is full and nice. But i will NEVER go up to 10gb for a ren'py game for sure.
for me, its simple
Ren'py = up to 5-6Gb max if the game is cool and shit tons of content. i dont give a shit if the game is 5Gb of great renders, if it doesnt have content outside of visuals, i dont waste time downloading it.
Unity/Unreal = i can go up to 30Gb, i know theses games didnt have quite alots of options to be compressed or else, soo its acceptable. that didnt change the fact that its still the same for me as Ren'py Game... if the game doesnt have content, i dont take it.
games should be like this to me (approx)
Ren'py = 1Gb = minimum 1 and a half hour gameplay.
Unity/Unreal = 10gb = minimum an hour of gameplay (exception if the game is nice, such as Wildlife for exempl, wich doesnt have lots of content, but is pretty nice to try around all girls and poses, etc..)
we saw some game that are close to 10Gb and have like 10 minutes of gameplay on Unity/Unreal... that's a NOPE for me, a definitive one.
- Aug 1, 2019
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By the way, do you guys know a service (more likely paid at this point) that lets you distribute large games (my project will be around 5-7 gigs once I add all required content) without making at a pain in the ass for users to download the files? Services with fast download speed, no captcha and no stupid ads. Even if the service is paid, I'd like to know what people would recommend.
Gdrive is not too bad... no ads or shit. if you plan to pay, you get way more than enougth.
Nopy is not bad either.
all the others (except Mega.nz) will give ads or shit from time to time, such as mediafire, zippy, dropbox etc...
Nopy is not bad either.
all the others (except Mega.nz) will give ads or shit from time to time, such as mediafire, zippy, dropbox etc...
As a consumer the most convenient tends to be chopping it up into smaller parts and uploading those to multiple hosts if MEGA doesn't allow the full download for free. Needless to say this increases hosting costs and tedium for the uploader so I understand why people don't do it but it's always nice to find some community-provided mirrors to skip those 1-2h lockouts on most free download sites.
This greatly depends on your target audience though, I'm used to fairly slow internet and thus have no issue waiting a night for the download to complete but young city dwellers might prefer to pay for a premium account on one site and use their 1000Jiggabite/microsecond connection to download the entire thing NOW!
If you don't care that much about access control an optional torrent is nice once you have the fanbase to support it. No idea how easy it is to provide updated versions though so you might want to hold off on that until the game is completed.
can also create a torrent.
but that depend if the creator will allow himself to seed enougth, at least at the beginning. if its good, many peoples wont have problem to seed and some may have seed box to help.
no limit of size, and no limit of speed other than what peoples internet allow to.
a good alternative too. and 100% free. ( only cost normal monthly internet bill, unless you have limited internet)