Distributing your game

Distributing your game

When you choose the "Build EXE" option in the Editor, a "Compiled" sub-directory is created in your game's folder, with all the files that you need to distribute your game. At its simplest this will just be your game executable and the setup program, but you may also have the digital music and speech files (MUSIC.VOX and SPEECH.VOX); and if you have selected to split resources files, you will also have several files named "game.001", "game.002", and so forth.

So, when you want to upload your game to the internet, just zip up the files in the Compiled folder, and there you go!

NOTE: It is not possible to load the exe file back into the AGS Editor. This means two things when only the EXE file is available: (1) other people can't edit your game's data, and (2) you can't either. Always keep a backup of the other files produced (*.CRM, GAME.AGF, etc) as they are what the Editor needs to be able to load your game for editing.

TIP: You can make a "Loading..." style splash screen to be displayed while your game starts up. To do so, simply save the image as PRELOAD.PCX (must be the same resolution and colour depth as the game) in the game folder, and build the game. It should then display while the game is loading.

NOTE: Due to the licenses of code used by AGS, your documentation should acknowledge the following:

TrueType font display uses ALFont by Javier Gonzalez and the Freetype project. Distributed under the terms of the FreeType project license.

MP3 player is almp3, by Javier Gonzalez and the FreeAmp team. It uses the mpg123 MP3 decoder, and is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1.

You should also include all the license_* files from the DOCS directory with your game.

IMPORTANT: If you intend to make money for your game, be it shareware or commercial, it is imperative that you read the Legal Information page on the AGS website, currently at http://www.bigbluecup.com/aclegal.htm

NOTE: MP3, OGG and WAV music files are not included in the exe. They will instead be built into a file called MUSIC.VOX when you build the game EXE. Since OGGs, MP3s and WAVs override all other music file types, this allows you to have an Digital Music Pack which you can distribute separately to your game. If it is present in the game directory it will be used, otherwise any other music available (eg. MIDI) will be played instead.

Custom icon
Splitting resource files

Custom icon

If you wish, you can use your own custom icon when you build a Windows EXE file. To do this, simply place your icon in your game's folder, and name it USER.ICO. Then, load the editor and save the game.

AGS is only able to build your custom icon if you are running the editor on Windows 2000, XP or Vista. If you're using Windows 98 then your game will be built with the standard AGS icon.

NOTE: The icon must be a proper Windows .ICO file, not just a renamed BMP file. Icon editors, such as AX-Icons from http://www.axialis.com, will convert it for you.

You can also have a custom icon for the Setup program generated. To do so, create your icon as above but name it setup.ico in the game folder.

Splitting resource files

Some people found that once their game became large, the single EXE file was slow to load due to anti-virus checkers scanning the whole file. AGS includes an option to split up the resource files into smaller chunks to avoid this happening. On the General Settings pane you'll notice a setting "Split resource files into X Mb sized chunks".

If you tick this, then type in a number such as 1 or 2, then save the game, the game data will be split up into chunks that size, named GAME.001, GAME.002 and so on.

Some resources are still combined into the EXE file but all the rooms will be placed into the other files. If you use this option, you need to distribute your game's EXE file plus all the GAME.00? files.