Hi, I'm a newcomer here. I'm also getting ready to take the leap towards indie gamedev. I'm doing it properly: business and marketing plans, state filings, etc. which is good because it forces one to get the ducks in a row, so to speak. The question I have is two-fold: specifically for Windows, what install programs (InstallShield, Wise, etc.) are good choices? Is there a clear choice here? Also, any game cruched into production will need patching. I don't hope to issue a lot of patches, but I have to plan for it. What mechanism works best for this? Finally, with regard to serial #'s and copy protection, what's a reasonable strategy there? Sorry for the broad and litinous questions, but I need guidance. Thank you so much, -F
1) NSIS for me. Free and excellent. 2) Try to make the games as bug-free as possible since launch. Besides that, few customers ask for the new releases (and I've done a lot), so you can just send them a new installer. 3) Separate demo and full versions, or a wrapper such as Armadillo or ActiveMARK.
NSIS and Inno Setup are the two main setup solutions Indies seem to use. I prefer NSIS, but many are very happy with Inno. I've used Clickteams Patchmaker for patching on windows. It works well, and is only $50 or so... You can use it free, if you don't mind the add for clickteam they stick at the end. I use seperate demo and full version, and in my full version, I rolled my own reg key system. I'm not comfortable just using a wrapper like Armadillo, as often, unless you do a bunch of the same work you'd do when rolling your own, just wrapping it isn't enough.
Patching can be very impractical Patching can be very impractical if you plan to use multiple distribution partners such as Real Arcade, Pogo, MSN Gaming Zone, Shockwave, Yahoo Games, AOL Games, Big Fish Games, or Reflexive Arcade. Each one of those distributors will have their own version of the game, which may or may not be customized for them. Even if all the copies of your game were identical when you gave them to the distributors, each distributor adds their own digital rights management (DRM) and then makes their own installer. You will still need your own DRM and installer to use on your own site. My point is that you can’t release a single 1.1 patch that will upgrade any 1.0 version of the game because each distributor packed 1.0 in a different way. If you want to just require a full re-download to upgrade to 1.1 there is still a big problem because you will have to have each distributor repackage the 1.1 version of your game in their DRM for the new version of the game to recognize the purchased licenses for the old version. They aren’t going to want to repackage and retest your game every few months. Work out all the bugs and add all the post-release must have added features before you let other people distribute your game. Once you start getting copies out there using other DRMs it is nearly imposable to release a new version. Besides, those casual users usually don’t want to have to keep their game up to date. It should just work.
Except if the patch involves touching the datafiles only, and especially if your game is heavily data-driven, or even better, scripted. Maybe that's a point to consider when weighing the use of hardcoded stuff or just the engine in an EXE and a lot of scripts and datafiles making the actual game.
Yes, it is possible with enough effort. But getting an install maker that can do diffs isn’t the hard part. Structuring you games files is the real trick. In all the newer games I have worked on, including Big Kahuna Reef, I put everything in a “data†file for exactly this reason. The EXE is just a stub that loads the real game from a DLL that is stored in the data file. This way it is possible to patch not only the scripts and the data but the engine as well. I considered mentioning this is the first post but it seems to go beyond the basics. I didn’t say it was imposable. I was just pointing out that there may be issues many new developer’s don’t consider which can make it less practical.