My game is completed and out on the Swedish app store (coming to the U.S. shortly).
I’d like to release the game on PC as well, but how should I package it? Will a zip-file be enough?
And exactly which files should I distribute? Is there a way to package the art, sounds, json-files, fonts, shaders etc. into the exe? Is there something that I should NOT distribute or put into the executable? Would love a chapter on this in the tutorial, btw!
As slackmoehrle suggested, use an installer. A great installer that I’ve personally used in the past is Inno Setup, which you can find here: http://jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php
Inno Setup has a scripting language that isn’t hard to learn, and very quick to create setup files.
An installer will package everything into a single EXE/MSI file if you want that, depending on what you require, and you can then distribute that file to users.
The exact files you need to include in the package would be all relevant files in the output build folder for your application, and you should already know what they are.
As for the Visual Studio 2015 or 2017 run-times etc (which ever your app requires), you should include the installers with your package, and you can write the script in Inno Setup to check for them and install them if required. Here’s some info on how to do that:
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/20868/NET-Framework-Installer-for-InnoSetup
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Thanks for the replies.
How do I know which VS run-time is needed for my project? I’m working in VS Community 2013 right now, does that mean I should include VS 2013 run-times? Will newer VS run-times work too?
Yes, you need the VS 2013 run-times. Note that there is one for x86 (32 Bit), and another for x64 (64 Bit), depending on which architecture you built for. If I recall correctly, newer run-times won’t work (like VS2015/VS2017), since you need to use the same as the VS version you used (don’t quote me on this, but I’m sure there is plenty of info on the internet about it).
This tool may also help if you get stuck:
http://www.dependencywalker.com/
It will check your executable and show you a list of all dependencies.
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Alright, thanks!
I’m sorry I missed this, my job has been intense, and will be through the rest of the year. R101 is right, and knows much more about this than I do. The specific ones you need depend on your project. I didn’t know about the dependency walker, that’s great!
In my case, I copied these files to my Release.win32 and Debug.win32 folders. I think I had to add an extra one because of a separate dependency I have.
msvcp120.dll
msvcr100.dll
msvcr110.dll
msvcr120.dll
Also, I’m selling my game on Steam, so other than building the executable and using their script to package it, I don’t really do much.
Good luck! Keep us posted!