Deploying in BOTH PC and Mac (Especially for this Forum's Games)

[MinisterJay]

You have a demo, mini-game, or completed game that you are excited to let the forum play and critique? Deploying in just one format will not do yourself justice nor the community. Not everybody has a PC, and not everybody has a Mac. To get and give full benefits, deploy in BOTH. This is highly recommended if you want constructive critiquing. It is even higher recommended if you desire to to be competitive in forum game making contests.

UPDATE: Please put in two separate threads, and label one PC and the other Mac. That will help a lot.

 

[Amysaurus]

I appreciate when both Mac and PC options are submitted, but ultimately the decision rests with the creator. I'd prefer having links to both Mac and Windows versions available in a single submission, though (included in the description, since there is only one download button). That seems more convenient, imo.

Either way.... *does the "I run Windows via Parallels so I can play either version of games" dance*

I will say that a game certainly has to impress me to get me willing to run it on Parallels, though. Not that it's difficult, but sometimes my browser is more sluggish while running it.

 

[Jazeeri]

I know what you mean Amysaurus.

 

[Xilefian]

Either way.... *does the "I run Windows via Parallels so I can play either version of games" dance*

I will say that a game certainly has to impress me to get me willing to run it on Parallels, though. Not that it's difficult, but sometimes my browser is more sluggish while running it.

You are aware that you can simply convert the game to Mac by moving the assets into another already exported RPG Maker MV .app package? You're adding more effort for yourself in using Parallels; takes a few seconds to convert an MV game to Mac (And similarly from Mac to Windows).

I disagree with having two separate threads for each binary deployment, it's simple to have two links with one labelled 'Mac' and the other 'Windows' and with two separate threads you'll be needlessly duplicating content.

 

[Amysaurus]

Yup, it's more out of habit than necessity. I've been used to running RM games this way since VX, so it's what comes to mind first lol. I tend to have Parallels up for when I'm using Steam, so sometimes it's just more convenient to have all of the games I plan on playing on the one desktop.

I disagree with having two separate threads for each binary deployment, it's simple to have two links with one labelled 'Mac' and the other 'Windows' and with two separate threads you'll be needlessly duplicating content.

My thoughts exactly - the two threads aren't guaranteed to stay next to each other in the resource section, so having to sift through the entries would be a pain. It just seems like unnecessary clutter.

 

[MinisterJay]

If both games ares stored here, which is described in a pinned/stickied tutorial thread, they have to currently be on two different threads. Having more games stored here provides less headaches to some members that have challenges downloading from external links, and is a service we can provide.

UPDATE: There is a viable option though. Both versions of the zipped game files can be stored in a single folder, at that folder be uploaded here. The downfall of this is that the downloader would have around twice the file size amount to download. For those on restricted bandwidth, that could cause a strain. On the up side, both version could be in same thread (for those saving the resource assets here).

 

[LTN Games]

I plan on deploying my game for both windows & mac from a single installation file, I'm still not 100% sure how I will accomplish this but I could make a simple autorun with a flash file that allows the user to choose to either install mac or windows version, then it can continue to run the installer according to what the user selected. In theory it sounds simple, if and when I figure it out I will be sure to post a tutorial on how to do such a thing.

 

[MinisterJay]

@LTN Games That would be awesome. That would take less uploading and downloading bandwidth usage.

 

[Xilefian]

I plan on deploying my game for both windows & mac from a single installation file, I'm still not 100% sure how I will accomplish this but I could make a simple autorun with a flash file that allows the user to choose to either install mac or windows version, then it can continue to run the installer according to what the user selected. In theory it sounds simple, if and when I figure it out I will be sure to post a tutorial on how to do such a thing.

This is not a good solution (it's not practised in the software industry). You're going to have many problems setting this up and will end up adding an extra dependency (Flash in your case, which requires a Flash player which is going out of fashion as of late).

The closest equivalent to this that's done in industry is having both binaries on a single CD ROM with the Mac version being a standard Finder-drag installer and the Windows version starting an executable with the autorun.

There is a good reason why we use separate download links for Mac and Windows (Upload/download bandwidth is not a good argument - chances are a user will only down the Mac or Windows version so there's going to be no extra bandwidth usage beyond the initial upload, which is 1-off).

A valid concern would be server storage, but if that's such a big problem then it can be resolved with server-side packaging, so you only have 1 copy of the assets and they are bundled into the download when the user clicks the download button. Or you could make your game download the assets from the binary when you run it, so the user only downloads a light binary and then when running it all the files needed are pulled.

Doing what everyone else does should be the obvious solution here; [ Download for Mac | Download for Windows ]

As for packaging; .dmg for OSX and an installation binary for Windows (.msi/.exe) is the normal practise. If that's too much, then upload a .zip (not ideal, but still an acceptable solution).

 

[MinisterJay]

Doing what everyone else does should be the obvious solution here; [ Download for Mac | Download for Windows ]

How would that work for those directly uploading their games here, which is a growing trend? There is currently only one button to download the resource. Images can be included, as part of the discussion, but not zipped files nor game folders.

 

[Xilefian]

This seems more like a goal of this forum software to solve. If the board can't support uploading files without creating threads or only having a single file per post then the board should change.

If this works then we're fine:
Download Mac: [file]test_mac|none[/file]
Download Windows: [file]test_windows|none[/file]

EDIT: Looks like that just lazily uploads to the Wiki.
It's probably better to avoid uploading to this forum until support for file hosting is improved. The board software certainly isn't designed for file hosting as a primary feature.

EDIT2: After reviewing the way resources are handled, I'm confident that the problem should be solved at that level. The ability to add additional downloads for resources is how it should be solved, rather than duplicating the entire entry for separate distributions.

 

[MinisterJay]

I would love multiple buttons or linkages to within our own site, like what you just demonstrated. @Xilefian thanks for sharing that very viable option. Will bring it up for @Xyphien to look at.

 

[LTN Games]

Unfortunately right now the option for having two download links in one resource is not available, when I say not available I mean there is no plugin available for this feature, but that does not mean we can't look into getting this feature scripted by a freelancer or a XenForo plugin developer. This is something that will have to be discussed publicly and by the staff members, and if there is enough interest we may be able to make this happen, until then having an external link is the best solution, that or create an ISO with both packages inside available for download..

 

[Xyphien]

You can have both Mac and Windows as a Zip file. So, the user when downloading the game will get the zip file, and inside the zip file will have Windows, Mac. When you click on one or the other, it will have the files for each one in the corresponding sections. Like @LTN Games stated, there isn't currently anything to allow this at this time.

 

[Seriel]

I would make a web version which works on all, set the main link to that and put downloads for mac and pc in the description.