Heya all,

I've been using quest for some time now, probably about a year or so, so I'm mostly clued up about it. Recently, I've undertaken a project quite different to what I usually make, using lots of images and sound.

Now what I've ended up with is a game that can't be uploaded to the Quest website, and as game files seem to only work on a computer with Quest Game Maker installed, it means I'm not going to be able to really show it to anyone, unless I can convince them to install Quest and take the file.

What would be ideal for me, is a text game making engine, or whatever it is that you'd call Quest, that can create a file that doesn't need anything else installed. A standalone game. An engine that is both friendly to pictures and sound, and would run as close to Quest does as possible.

I don't think I'd ever replace Quest as my main go to for making these games, but for this project, could anyone recommend a suitable alternative for Quest?

Oh, something to note would be that this project was made in Gamebook mode, and doesn't require complex functionality. Only that an image, some text and sounds/music can be on screen simultaneously.

Many thanks,

Serban

How large is your file?

If the game is a gamebook, then try Twine. Those games save in straight html and can be played anywhere. No additional software required.

XanMag wrote:How large is your file?

81.6MB

OurJud wrote:If the game is a gamebook, then try Twine. Those games save in straight html and can be played anywhere. No additional software required.

Yeah, it's in gamebook format. A series of ambient images and sound with some description. More of an audio project than a game, but Quest was filling the need until it got too big, it seems.

If you haven't done so already, I would try first is to get an audio converter (free ones can be found online) and decrease the quality of your audio to bare minimum. I did that with my last game and dropped a TON data space and I couldn't tell the difference to the audio quality. If you've done that and it's still too large, you can tweak the images to lower quality and see if that helps. Too low quality results in really bad looking pics though.

Link to my similar problems if it is helpful: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5677

Serban wrote:

"XanMag"

How large is your file?

81.6MB

82 MB and it's too big to upload?? I'm no expert on what constitutes a 'big' file size - and I have no idea what the limit is for uploading - but that's a tiny file size.... isn't it??

20 MB is the limit, although I 'pushed' mine through at 26 or so, so maybe the limit has been upped?

This prompted me to check on the size of my game. It's not finished yet, but at 32.3 MB it's already too big. That's unfortunate.

Hopefully I can reduce the file size of the images sufficiently to make the game uploadable, but as a rough estimate there may be up to about 52 more images to put in. I've actually been thinking of this as a less ambitious starter project.

EDIT: Actually there was a .wav file in there I meant to take out anyway. My current game is actually 19.2 MB. Much more manageable. I'm confident I'll be able to upload my game when I'm done with it. My images are all 897 x 493, so when I've done everything else I'll go through and replace them with 660 x 363 versions (which is the size they look in-game anyway).

EDIT2: For posterity: I don't think I'll be doing that actually. It didn't occur to me until now that I could increase the width of the game to fit my images. I'll reduce the size in other ways if needed. By cutting down on unnecessarily long menu ambiance music I've reduced my current version to 12.5 MB.

If you have problem with uploading a game, write an email to Alex (but don't send the game with it ) He can help with such things

XanMag wrote:20 MB is the limit...

What?

Am I wrong in thinking this is almost nominal, in terms of file sizes?

I've got 2 rooms complete in x3 and am at 10MB. I do not intend to use pics or sounds this time so 10MB can hold LOTS of lines of code! And as Pertex says, contact Alex if you are over and see if he can help. The 20 MB size is probably in place to prevent picture/sound heavy games, which isn't really supposed to be what TAs are about.

Besides, those games have to get hosted on a server and a 20MB limit probably saves tons of space on that end, right?

Seems I don't really understand file sizes.

I just checked my game (not including any images or sounds presumably) which has over a dozen rooms/locations, and it's 67 KB.

1,000 KB = 1 MB, so I think I may just about manage

Xan, how in God's name have you used 10 MB with just two rooms??

My intro. Music takes up a ton of space. I'll probably convert that song to low quality and shrink it down a bit.