[casual_games] Procedural rendering - again

[Ron]

 > So on one hand I could spend my time developing the tech and tools to
 > make procedural graphics and SVG and whatnot and have a download size of
 > 2 MB. OR I could actually make a game, use the standard "brute force"
 > approach and have a 10 MB download. Of course it's the second one that
 > pays the bills :)

2MB...10MB...does it really matter?  My guess is the the vast majority 
of casual game buyers have broadband connections (am I wrong), so the 
download difference is going to be measured in seconds.

I agree with Gabriel, it's just not worth the time.

While there are some interesting (artist?) reasons for using procedure 
effects, I don't think saving space needs to be one of them.

Ron

Gabriel wrote:
>         I thought downloadable/browser game developers would be extremely interested
>         in procedural graphics (be it vector-based such as Flash or pattern/texture
>         generators) because of the significant decrease in download size it can
>         mean.
>         [...]
>         If I was a downloadable game developer, this would be one of my top
>         priorities. Is it not for you?
> 
> As a developer, engineer and geek, yes it is. If I had infinite time I'd
> explore procedural content generation (textures, cities, entire virtual
> worlds), directly rendering SVG or SWF, and many other cool things.
> 
> However, I don't have infinite time, so I have to choose what do I do
> with my limited time. Designing and making a game is a *huge* amount of
> work, and I'm not even counting the also huge amount of work done by the
> artists! 
> 
> So on one hand I could spend my time developing the tech and tools to
> make procedural graphics and SVG and whatnot and have a download size of
> 2 MB. OR I could actually make a game, use the standard "brute force"
> approach and have a 10 MB download. Of course it's the second one that
> pays the bills :)
> 
> Bottom line : yes, it would be cool to do. No, it's not a priority. Of
> course, if you make games as a hobby, your priorities equation may be
> different.
> 
>         --Gabriel
>