Game Deployment Woes (Just Make It Flash!)

In one of my previous posts I released a Pong clone game that, albeit not polished, was a fully working game and I was quite proud of it. Of course, as sometimes happens with the deployment of Windows-based games, I was dismayed when I learned nobody who actually took an interest (thanks to you faithful few!) was able to run the game :(

That's when the fun began. I asked one friend to make sure he had the DirectX runtime installed and even to reinstall it - no luck. I then learned the C++ runtime was required and had the same friend perform that install - no luck. I tried two different machines with the same installations - no luck. Finally I learned it was not just requirements on the target systems; it turns out I had included a debug version of a DirectX library in my project, which allowed the program to be created and executed, just not in a way that it would work!

You see, as a developer, I have all of the tools required to run any program I create. But other machines don't necessarily have these tools/environments. So I think I'll use the following plan for deploying my next game.

1. Create a game, coding and testing in DEBUG mode
2. Change the project from DEBUG to RELEASE mode
3. Replace DEBUG libraries with RELEASE libraries
4. Build the project in RELEASE mode
5. Create an installer project to install the game, the C++ runtime, and the DirectX runtime

1. Create a Flash game that can be played from a web page in any browser!

Now all I need to do is learn to program a game in Flash...

Triangle IGDA Chapter Meeting

Just a quick update, I'm excited to attend my first IGDA chapter meeting and extend a big thank you to my buddy Wes for making me aware of it! Event details can be found here and I've posted the basics below.

Date:  December 3rd, 2009
Time:  7-9pm
Place: Buckhead Saloon
       411 W. Morgan Street
       Raleigh, NC 27603

More info can be found on the Triangle IGDA chapter page, which dubs this event a "holiday mixer" and encourages attendees to bring non-perishable food items to support the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.

Hope to meet you there!