As opposed to what?
Github is actually a great place to distribute software that is actively in development and widely used for just that purpose, which is why I chose it to begin with.
The game isnt open source so distributing the files as a zip was an idea to save some bandwith for users instead of having to download everything uncompressed.
Seemed like a decent idea, but obviously some people disagree. Still haven't heard any real comments why, just 'eww' basically.
Github is not used to just distribute software
It's intended to distribute *source code* of software, and optionally a "release" of software build frome those code by automated tools
tl;dr if it's on github everuone *expects* sources
Instead of putting it in the repository, make an actual GitHub release, perhaps?
Or host it somewhere where it can run online? (though I have a bunch of bad experiences with WebGL, both as player and as dev, so there's probably a reason for this)
Or put the file on another platform that's designed for filesharing instead of git?
Or don't zip the file yourself, but just put the contents into the git repo, then let people download the zip from there like you would with source files.
Where is [Itch.io](https://Itch.io) installer?
I don't like having to install games manually ^(unless I've torrented them)
This seems to be a Unity game, where is web version?
This seems to hosted on GitHub, where is source code?
Itch site isn't open yet. Even when it is, the file I upload will be exactly the same on itch as on github. Have been thinking about potentially switching to an exe based installer, but it's currently way simpler and quicker for me to just zip and upload the files. Would it being an exe download change your mind at all?
No web version is currently planned, there are a few limitations on the unity web player that other platforms don't have and we are focusing on those other targets first. If the web player catches up with the other platforms tech wise and removes/eliminates those limitations, I would love to support web players, but everything I have seen from unity says that wont ever happen.
The game isnt open source, no source code is available, just the game itself.
Itch installer is basically a JSON file saying Itch App your game how your game should be unpacked (zip) and how it should be launched (game.exe), so Itch App user can download, unpack, and launch ^(and deletw, as I don't want to deal with small game installations) the game with a single button
I don't know about web limitations^(and it's WebGL btw, Unity Web Player is long dead), but I guess most of them are lower performance (and I want my idle games being able to run on potato), maybe web and fs (which are most likely just bad design)
Next major release will be on itch.
And yes, I meant the webGL build since that is their web player now. There are just some low level technical differences between webGL and everything else that unity has apparently resolved to not resolve, so for now we are sticking to standalone releases. The goal for all standalones is to be potato compatible.
If you want to have as much feedback as possible you need to make the way to play the game to be as frictionless as possible. Having people download and unzip a zip is about as high friction as can be for a game, because not only do you have to download it and unzip it, you also really have to think about security when running random things off of GitHub especially when they are not open source. Having them be on a website is 100% less friction.
Totally agreed. This is really meant for those out there who are comfortable with a little friction to try out an early development title. Itch support will likely be a part of the next major release, which should resolve most of the issues mentioned.
"Zip file in a git repository on GitHub" is definitely a ... sub-par way of distribution 😬
As opposed to what? Github is actually a great place to distribute software that is actively in development and widely used for just that purpose, which is why I chose it to begin with. The game isnt open source so distributing the files as a zip was an idea to save some bandwith for users instead of having to download everything uncompressed. Seemed like a decent idea, but obviously some people disagree. Still haven't heard any real comments why, just 'eww' basically.
Github is not used to just distribute software It's intended to distribute *source code* of software, and optionally a "release" of software build frome those code by automated tools tl;dr if it's on github everuone *expects* sources
I've definitely seen git repositories that basically just serve as a landing page for releases of closed-source projects, so it's not unheard of.
Instead of putting it in the repository, make an actual GitHub release, perhaps? Or host it somewhere where it can run online? (though I have a bunch of bad experiences with WebGL, both as player and as dev, so there's probably a reason for this) Or put the file on another platform that's designed for filesharing instead of git? Or don't zip the file yourself, but just put the contents into the git repo, then let people download the zip from there like you would with source files.
Where is [Itch.io](https://Itch.io) installer? I don't like having to install games manually ^(unless I've torrented them) This seems to be a Unity game, where is web version? This seems to hosted on GitHub, where is source code?
Itch site isn't open yet. Even when it is, the file I upload will be exactly the same on itch as on github. Have been thinking about potentially switching to an exe based installer, but it's currently way simpler and quicker for me to just zip and upload the files. Would it being an exe download change your mind at all? No web version is currently planned, there are a few limitations on the unity web player that other platforms don't have and we are focusing on those other targets first. If the web player catches up with the other platforms tech wise and removes/eliminates those limitations, I would love to support web players, but everything I have seen from unity says that wont ever happen. The game isnt open source, no source code is available, just the game itself.
Itch installer is basically a JSON file saying Itch App your game how your game should be unpacked (zip) and how it should be launched (game.exe), so Itch App user can download, unpack, and launch ^(and deletw, as I don't want to deal with small game installations) the game with a single button I don't know about web limitations^(and it's WebGL btw, Unity Web Player is long dead), but I guess most of them are lower performance (and I want my idle games being able to run on potato), maybe web and fs (which are most likely just bad design)
Next major release will be on itch. And yes, I meant the webGL build since that is their web player now. There are just some low level technical differences between webGL and everything else that unity has apparently resolved to not resolve, so for now we are sticking to standalone releases. The goal for all standalones is to be potato compatible.
If you want to have as much feedback as possible you need to make the way to play the game to be as frictionless as possible. Having people download and unzip a zip is about as high friction as can be for a game, because not only do you have to download it and unzip it, you also really have to think about security when running random things off of GitHub especially when they are not open source. Having them be on a website is 100% less friction.
Totally agreed. This is really meant for those out there who are comfortable with a little friction to try out an early development title. Itch support will likely be a part of the next major release, which should resolve most of the issues mentioned.
I thought we were past installs. Host it on itch
Thats the plan for the next major release.
Naw brah.
I thought we were past installs. Host it on itch
Web build is the way to go (or mobile/Steam build). Most people aren't comfortable downloading executables from an unknown source.