VN Filesize for Download?

[Rosstin2]

What do y'all think is an appropriate filesize for a Visual Novel meant to be downloaded off of, say, BMT Micro or similar?

What do you think the breakpoints are? Do you lose certain people if you get above a certain size?

I've seen some really huge Japanese VNs. I suppose they're the kind not meant to be downloaded?

[LateWhiteRabbit]

What do y'all think is an appropriate filesize for a Visual Novel meant to be downloaded off of, say, BMT Micro or similar?

What do you think the breakpoints are? Do you lose certain people if you get above a certain size?

I've seen some really huge Japanese VNs. I suppose they're the kind not meant to be downloaded?

If it looks like it's worth it, I'll download it. Size doesn't matter. I download multiple GB Steam games all the time. But the larger the game file size, the better the game has to look.

[LVUER]

Generally, the smaller the better... but bigger file size (sometimes) means the game is better. Like you wouldn't believe if Titan Fall or BF4 is only 400MB. Japanese VN is huge because they don't compress anything and the picture resolution is big (like HD quality)

[MayPeX]

Size of a VN is not a concern, hard disk storage is so cheap these days, you can store VN's on portable hard-drives for as little as £80+

1TB internal drives are around £50, considering they were like £120+ two years ago.

[fleet]

To me file size is important. I have a slower internet connection. If something is free and takes an hour to download I usually won't mess with it (unless it is a patch to something already installed). Personally, if a free VN is 100 MB or more I'm not inclined to download.

[LVUER]

Size of a VN is not a concern, hard disk storage is so cheap these days, you can store VN's on portable hard-drives for as little as £80+

1TB internal drives are around £50, considering they were like £120+ two years ago.

It's not about storage but internet connection. For some people, it can take more than 2 hours to download 650MB game (a single CD) or more than 20 hours for 4GB games (a single DVD). And that if there's no problem during the downloading process or corrupt files that force us to re-download the whole thing again... So the smaller is usually the better for downloadable games.

[akemicchi]

^ What LVUER said.

I used to live in another country with an internet connection that was limited so I wouldn't be able to use more than 800MB a day. It was pretty bad in terms of connection so downloads failed often, which counted as part of my 800MB/day. It was also incredibly slow (100MB took two hours if I was lucky). Even up to now, I'm surprised when I see games that are 200MBs or more and tend to avoid them simply because I'm used to my internet not being able to handle that kind of size (even if it's fully capable now).

Smaller is better, if you ask me, or at least in increments. It means faster download time. I don't see how games (especially VNs) can get to sizes over 500MBs unless there are a lot of audio files and other extras like videos.

[LVUER]

Smaller is better, if you ask me, or at least in increments. It means faster download time. I don't see how games (especially VNs) can get to sizes over 500MBs unless there are a lot of audio files and other extras like videos.

Usually they didn't compress the picture files (leaving them at BMP) or at very high quality/resolution (High Definition).

[Crenshaw6]

Size is not a matter for me, but must be proportional to the length and my perceived quality of the game. So my cut off would be about 300MB.

Japanese VNs are mostly purchased as hard copies. They usually aren't distributed digitally, which means if I ever want to buy one I have to fork out a hefty sum for shipping. It's almost as expensive as the actual game!

[nyaatrap]

It's a matter of file hosting site more than game file size.
For example, many free uploader are limited at 200~500mb. Connection of some sites are painfully slow, and don't have resume function.
If you make a commercial game, then you can put it on a site which is fast, unlimited connection. (Downloading 4GB from DLsite is pretty fast)

[sarahwilliams25]

It's a matter of file hosting site more than game file size.
For example, many free uploader are limited at 200~500mb. Connection of some sites are painfully slow, and don't have resume function.
If you make a commercial game, then you can put it on a site which is fast, unlimited connection. (Downloading 4GB from DLsite is pretty fast)

Maybe you are right, but they could also compress the files to a loss-less format like PNG

[LVUER]

(Downloading 4GB from DLsite is pretty fast)

No matter how fast the hosting site is, the downloader speed is also very important. Since you want your game to be downloaded by as many people as possible, you'll want to make your game as small as possible without sacrificing the quality too much. You need to find the balance yourself.

[Tempus]

If you use a torrent you don't need to worry about downloads failing if the user's internet connection cuts out. I don't mind downloading +10GB game provided the download won't fail if my connection cuts out, which it often does.

Another metric I use for deciding whether to download something is the length to file size ratio. If a play through of a game is stated to be roughly 2 hours long and the game is 1GB, I'll just assume the developer is incompetent and not bother.

[Greeny]

Indeed, storage isn't so much a problem as that internet service isn't unlimited everywhere around the world. Things such as slow connection, data caps and even complete downtime are stuff that you really should be taking into consideration.

It's just like when you're betatesting - you can't just be satisfied when it runs fine on your own powerful supercomputer, but must test if it'll work on lesser computers. Like that, you may want to take into account more than your own internet connection. At least, if you care about your audience, I guess.

But we're not talking about full 3D games, it's all 2D, so there are plenty of ways to keep the filesize perfectly reasonable with just a little bit of thought and effort. Unless you have lots of music and video cutscenes. You can't do much to compress those parts. Without sacrificing on quality anyhow.

One bit of advice that can apply to almost anything: "Just because you can afford to be wasteful doesn't mean you should."