Shrinking Rpgmaker Game from 528MB to Under 100MB (Google Play's) Limit

[_Z_]

Wasn't 100% sure the thread to post this on as I wouldn't really call it a tutorial, more of a dev log into what happened to me when I realized my game was about 5.5 times bigger then google play would except as an Apk. So general discussion it is lol

The full Blog post is available Here ​

OK, so you've finished building your game with Rpgmaker and with the brilliant work of Xilefian and the Community Surrounding Rpgmv, we can actually deploy a build to Android! As a ten year plus veteran (if that counts for anything Lol) of Rpgmaker I knew this would look and sound easier then it was, but I have to say between Xilefian's tutorial here and the Wiki here, the process was relatively painless.Until a PEBKAC error occurred, and if your not familiar, that is an acronym for “Problem exists between keyboard and chair...Me.”

My only real issue was I had named my image files with lower case characters at the start, breaking Java Naming rules. I will never make this mistake again though as I assure you all going through every image file you've created in the game with 20 hours of game play to test afterwards was not an enjoyable nor forgettable experience.

So now its all compiled with no errors, we've changed our Id's, web addresses and other customization's and are ready to build our first APK. (The App file extension your phone reads, as opposed to .exe) After its built and you navigate to the build from Android Studio, something sticks out.

As a google developer your app must be under 100MB
*excluding expansion files*
The size of the file....528MB (Mine before Optimizing)
&!%#& $&$!#^ %^@ (and other illicit phrases) Now What!​

I'll Tell You What I Did to Reduce My Game From 528MB to 92MB

First I didn't remove any of my content and I never excluded the resources through Rpgmakers build process as it often causes Plugins to fail later in development.
I DID manually go through and delete a whopping 200+MB of audio and images from the stock resources that I didn't use, making my next build 328MB.

Now for the files we needed to keep....well check out my devlog lol.

 

[VeryXInh]

Alright, so you removed unused files, well..

 

[_Z_]

Alright, so you removed unused files, well..

The rest of the dev log talks about audacity and tinypng for compression but admittedly created the post in hopes of both pointing out the 100MB cap and letting people know about my dev log in the process..hence the links. Hope it's ok to post that kinda thing here in general discussion..though I'm relatively new to posting on here lol

 

[dulsi]

What didn't you like about using GIMP to compress the files? Did you check to see what tinypng did in comparison? I'm loathe to rely on web services.

 

[_Z_]

I dont doubt the ability of gimp and truly use it tons myself but didn't have success getting them to compress without quality issues likely an issue based on my own working knowledge of gimp lol

 

[Kes]

@_Z_ This does not appear to be a discussion thread, rather an indication of what you did and a link to your devlog. As such I can't see why you have posted it here, other than to advertise that devlog.
Could you specify what the discussion point is?

 

[slimmmeiske2]

There's also a tutorial already with some tips on how to optimize. Just pointing that out.

 

[_Z_]

Sorry to any who find this post deplorable, truly just wanted to point out some of my experience with my first port to android, not meant as a tutorial, just a piece I typed up after going through a few panicked moments. I was more throwing out the info as a take as you will dialog to things I didn't know before I started.
If the mods would prefer it removed I have no issue with that, I never posted to offend.

 

[gstv87]

that's why I hate mobile as a platform.
I once submitted an application to Gameloft for a job as graphic designer, and they told me "we'll hire you if you can make (this) as a 3D model, animated, fully textured"
"Ok... that's what I do."
"Oh, but the limit is 300 polygons and the texture must be one file, 128x128 at 256 colors"

even a Playstation 1 can render higher quality!

granted, now I know better, and I bet I can make it with even a 64p, at 16 colors.... but still, why the whole gaming-on-mobile thing when there's hardware specifically built for gaming!? can't you go 10 minutes without having to game!?

 

[TheoAllen]

Contributing to that, it's also why I never really want RM games to be on mobile platform. There's a lot need to optimize, including size and performance, when there are pc and other platforms specifically to run RM games better.