Distributing a game

Hi Guys

I've completed a blitzmax project I've been working on, and would like some advice on how I could distribute it. For example, Is it worth using somekind of installer? Are there any decent, free ones?

Cheers

It depends on how you have structured your game.
For most cases an installer is nice!

Always compress your exe file with UPX.
http://upx.sourceforge.net/

Good free installer: Inno-setup
http://www.jordanr.dhs.org/isinfo.php

For beta versions a plain zip file will do fine though.
Most people here hate installers for such stuff (me included).

Also I advise you not to "incbin" all media into the exe.
That way you always have to redistibute the whole media again and again if you have made later changes.

An example of how you can distribute a game is "Cardwar" (link in my sig).

You really don't need this, an installer will do the compression for you, if you need to protect your resources then use something like PECompact - it's so much better and has anti-debugging built in.

We use Inno for downloadable installs and igLoader for web installs.

Why distribute an exe that is wasting HDD space, when you can compress it?!?

Sorry, I'm not like: "We don't care for HDD usage, we have thousands of MB to waste here."

A good app / game should only use as few resources as needed (in every field).

If you have budget, you can use MoleBox to package your resource into single executable, MB is a nice packer I used for long while.

As to igLoader, it's also nice, if you want get into commercial stuff. If you want to distribute your game as freeware, simply Zip it.

Better free installer: NSIS.

NSIS is free, and created by Nullsoft, the same people who brought you WinAMP.

Hey thanks! This discussion pointed me to a bunch of packer software I had no idea existed! Thanks guys! Good to know what packer programs are out there.

I do use UPX for my poor friend on dialup. When I try and send him programs, every little bit of compression helps.

Yeah I try to get him to join us here in the 21st century with broadband, but hey what can you do? :)