How do I....handle a game deployment properly?

[PoptartPresident]

I think as of a few hours ago, my game is officially "complete".

Now my only question is...how do I make sure I condensed the files as much as possible? (To reduce storage).
As of now, it's about 800 MB's worth of total data, (a little under), but I want to know if there are any "useless" files I could disregard and make sure the game still works.

I have some people I agreed to playtest my game to find errors/bugs, etc. But sending each individual person the game_file.zip is a bit wonky.
Is there an easier way I'm not aware of?

Any kind of Deployment aftermath feedback is useful!

 

[AphoticAmaranth]

Congratulations!

On the topic of disregarding files, I wouldn't recommend using the "exclude unused files" option if you use plugins, because the game might exclude files that are not used directly and only used via plugins.

An easier way to send people your game would be to upload it online and give everyone the link. I'd recommend itch.io for that. You could also set the privacy to restricted and put a password on your game's page during the testing phase, and change it to public later.

 

[Andar]

I wouldn't recommend using the "exclude unused files" option if you use plugins, because the game might exclude files that are not used directly and only used via plugins.

that only happens with plugins whose programmers didn't register their files with the engine, and there is a very simple workaround for that.

@PoptartPresident
if you use the deployment with "remove unused files", then (as said above) there is a chance it removes some files that are only used by plugins.
so after deployment you playtest your game and write down every missing file (you'll get error messages).

then you make an unused extra map in your game, a map that is nowhere linked and the player will never enter. On that map you use all those missing files through show picture or whatever event commands, as that is enough to tell the editor it needs to keep the files.

then deploy again, load last save of that playtest and continue to the next error.


Other than that, make sure to never deploy into your project directory as that would damage your project files

 

[PoptartPresident]

Thanks for the tips guys! I'll be certain to test it out.

I already found a few errors when cross-platform files wouldn't accept some file names with colon's in them. (For some reason, when I used a " / " character on my Mac, and deployed it through windows, it turned those slashes into colons, which it didn't like.)


Thank you all!

Also, uh, I couldn't help but notice there is a section here on the forums where we can post finished games. I'll be sure to post it there sometime once I feel I get more errors/bugs found.