TODO: Deployment

How to relase your game

Preparation

Update version

Increment the build of the game (e.g. v1.0.1 to v1.0.2)
Update version build in MyGame.java (or whatever your Main class is called)
Update version build build.gradle
- Update .exe version in launch4j configuration group
Commit the change

Create new release draft on github

Go to your repository's releases page
List all the changes that have been made to the game here
- Closed issues
- Check all commits since last build
- This is crucial since the text will be reused for patch notes on different platforms

Build with Gradle

Build automation is a blessing! Let's have a look at how to build and deploy your game using Gradle.
To build Windows executables, we are going to use the launch4j plugin. We set up different Gradle tasks for each target platform as well.

Your project's build.gradle should look something like this:

plugins {
  id 'edu.sc.seis.launch4j' version '2.4.4'
}

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'eclipse'
apply plugin: 'maven'

archivesBaseName = "mygame"
version = "v1.0.2"
targetCompatibility = "1.8.0"

sourceSets {
  main.java.srcDir "src"
  main.java.srcDir "resources"
  main.java.srcDir "sounds"
  main.java.srcDir "maps"
  main.java.srcDir "localization"

  main.resources.includes = ["game.litidata"]
}

repositories {
   mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
 compile project(':litiengine')
}

compileJava.options.encoding = 'UTF-8'

jar {
  from {
    configurations.runtime.collect {
      it.isDirectory() ? it : zipTree(it)
    }
    configurations.compile.collect {
      it.isDirectory() ? it : zipTree(it)
    }
  }  {
     exclude 'META-INF/services/**'
  }

  // make sure to only include service providers from the litiengine when directly referencing the project
  from ("${project(':litiengine').projectDir}/resources/") {
    include 'META-INF/services/**'
  }

  from('resources') 
  { 
    include '**/*' 
    exclude 'sprites/*'
  }

  from('sounds') { include '**/*' }
  exclude '**/*.dll'
  exclude '**/*.jnilib'
  exclude '**/*.dylib'
  exclude '**/*.so'
  exclude 'junit**/**'

  from 'game.litidata'

  manifest {
    attributes 'Class-Path': ".",
               'Main-Class': "de.gurkenlabs.mygame.MyGame"
  }
}

launch4j {
  mainClassName = 'de.gurkenlabs.mygame.MyGame'
  icon = 'icon.ico'
  outputDir = 'libs'
  outfile = archivesBaseName +'.exe'
  companyName = 'gurkenlabs.de'
  version = '1.0.2'
  textVersion = '1.0.2'
  copyright = '2020 gurkenlabs.de'
  bundledJrePath = 'jre'
  jvmOptions = ['-Xms256m', '-Xmx1024m']
  cmdLine = '-release'
}

task copyNativeLibs(type: Copy) { 
  def litiengineLibs ='../litiengine/build/libs'
  def buildFolder = new File(buildDir, 'libs')

  from(litiengineLibs) { 
   include '**/*'
   exclude '**/*.jar'
   exclude '**/*.zip'
   exclude 'LICENSE'
   exclude 'lib/**'
  }

  from('/dist/'){
    include 'icon.ico'
    include 'config.properties'
    include 'steam_appid.txt'
    include 'jre/**'
  }

  into buildFolder
}

build.dependsOn copyNativeLibs

task distZipWindow(type: Zip) {
   group 'build'
   from 'build/libs/'
   include '*.exe'
   include '*.dll'
   include 'config.properties'
   include 'jre/**'

   archiveName archivesBaseName + '-' + version + '-win.zip'
   exclude archiveName
   exclude 'jinput-dx8_64.dll'
   exclude 'jinput-raw_64.dll'
   exclude 'steam_api64.dll'
   exclude 'steamworks4j64.dll'
   destinationDir(file('build/libs/'))
}

task distZipLinux(type: Zip) {
   group 'build'
   from 'build/libs/'
   include '*.jar'
   include '*.so'
   include 'config.properties'

   archiveName archivesBaseName + '-' + version + '-linux.zip'
   exclude archiveName
   destinationDir(file('build/libs/'))
}

task distZipOSX(type: Zip) {
   group 'build'
   from 'build/libs/'
   include '*.jar'
   include '*.jnilib'
   include '*.dylib'

   include 'config.properties'

   archiveName archivesBaseName + '-' + version + '-osx.zip'
   exclude archiveName
   destinationDir(file('build/libs/'))
}

tasks.withType(JavaCompile) {
    options.encoding = 'UTF-8'
}

Disable debug settings in the config.properties
Set Game.DEBUG = false in MyGame.java before building anything that is released
Execute the following Gradle tasks your game project (order matters)
- clear
- fullbuild
- build
- createAllExecutables
- distZipWindow, distZipLinux, distZipOSX
There should now be three archive files, one for each target platform: mygame\build\libs\mygame-v1.X.X-win.zip mygame\build\libs\mygame-v1.X.X-linux.zip mygame\build\libs\mygame-v1.X.X-osx.zip
- Make sure that they contain the jre folder, the jinput and steamworks x86 native assemblies, the config.properties file (and the mygame.exe executable in the Windows archive).
- These are the archives you are going to deploy to the players.

Test

Before deployment, we should quickly check if the game runs properly
Copy the archive somewhere (Desktop), extract it and run the executable
Ideally: Copy it to an empty VM instance (e.g. a freshly created Windows 7) and see if it runs

Deploy

GitHub

Upload created archive to the github release draft
Polish the release description
Publish the release

Steamworks

Login to https://partner.steamgames.com/?goto=%2Fhome
Select "MyGame" App and go to Edit Steamworks Settings/Steampipe/Builds
Since "MyGame" is probably < 256MB, we can usually directly upload it here.
Upload new build
- Describe it with something like "Update to version 1.X.X" so that we can later on identify what happend in that build by the patchnotes
Set the build live on the development and default branches
Update the game from Steam (might need to restart the client) and see if it runs properly

itch.io

Edit your Game page
Scroll down to Uploads
Click Upload files and select the archive
Select "Executable" for "Windows"
Disable the old build for download and set the new one as default

Post the patch notes

Possible headline: Patch 1.X.X is live now!
Create new patchnotes image
Post patchnotes as new announcement on Steam Community http://steamcommunity.com/games/{mygameid}/announcements/create/
- Make sure to check "Tag as Patch Notes"
- Link it in
- twitter
- fb
- reddit/r/IndieGames/
- instagram
- tumblr
Post patchnotes as new devlog on itch.io https://itch.io/dashboard/game/{mygameid}/devlog

Last updated 2 years ago

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