Re: [pygame] PyGame Runtime

["Brian Fisher" <brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Will, first off I think it's wonderful that you're thinking so much of
distribution. When it comes to the majorty of the downloadable game
audience (the less technical part) I think having reasonable end-user
distribution is a pre-requisite to the success of any game generation
tool chain. To put another way, if a good distribution option was not
there for tool x, distribution would have a signficantly increased
failure rate, and  the majority of game developers in the world would
take tool x off of their list.

However with your idea of a Pygame Runtime, I honestly think it would
be a large step backwards, at least for the Mac and Win markets. The
big reason why I say that is because the number one issue for
distribution to be successful to the mass downloadable market is that
when they find and run your link, it all just works. Basically most
people will not put any work at all into figuring out why they can't
run what they downloaded. They'll just go find and play one of the
thousands of games that do just work. Also no distribution channel for
downloadable games will take a game for inclusion if it doesn't just
work for the vast majority of users. If there is a dependency that is
required and not included - any at all - then it won't work for people
without the dependency. And a runtime (that is not included) is a
dependency.

Also, when mentioning py2exe you said it "will generate a large bundle
of files - and then you are left with the tedious task of making an
installer.". I can see how those might look like a negative at first
glance (having lots of files then writing an installer) - but in terms
of the final output of that process, it's very well suited to the
windows downloadable market. The market is well established with
end-users knowing how to: a) download and run something b) launch a
program from the start menu or desktop.  The installer gives you a
single file to run that installs start menu shortcuts. It's all set.
What the contents of the install directory look like is basically
irrelevant.
Also writing and building an installer is actually really easy (easier
than py2exe in my opinion), and is so short and simple it doesn't have
time to be tedious. It's usually just filling out a little script file
(like 10 or so lines)
Inno Setup is really awesome for windows installers:
http://www.jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php

... all that being said, the one way I can see the runtime idea really
working, is if the runtime was also a game browsing and downloading
client, and then the download link for a game in that system was
basically just the client. WildTangent and Steam are basically like
this. I still would perfer distributing installers myself (I like that
it would be more open) but I would be interested in submiting content
into a system like that, and I can see it being successful.


On 5/6/07, Will McGugan <will@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Just posted an entry about a suggested 'PyGame Runtime'. I'd love to
> hear the opinion of the PyGame community on this one!
>
> http://www.willmcgugan.com/2007/05/06/pygame-runtime/