Anyway to autoupdate or require update?

[Teppy]

I plan to release a game in "alpha" or "limited" fashion for some testing stuff here in the upcoming weeks, and was wondering what the best way to approach the constant addition of tilesets / items / resources / graphics etc.

 

Is there a way to require the user to somehow update their game files before they can connect to the server, or at least tell them they have to go download the new version to continue playing?

 

Just don't want to risk a lot of players being confused when they see nothing

[jcsnider]

We have nothing built into the engine. We don't see the need to recreate the wheel. There are many updaters/patching projects available to use free of charge.

 

I recommend using GoPatchit by our own @Chronos. (Offline now)

 

I recommend using the updater I designed that uses Google Drive for the update storage.. learn more here:

https://www.ascensiongamedev.com/topic/2297-jcs-game-launcher-updater-easiest-youll-find/?page=1

[Teppy]

I just wanted to piggyback off this with a follow-up question  Using an autoupdate (like @Chronos one) will definitely work perfectly, but is there currently a way to "send the signal" that the player would have to update? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think even using GoPatchit, unless the player clicks on the actual GoPatchItUpdater, they wouldn't even know they have an update. Most players / users would just click to load up the Client.exe to start the game and not bother to run the updater!

[jcsnider]

@Teppy once the source is out you could make it so the client won't launch unless it has a startup parameter the updater would send or something like that.

 

Alternatively you could rename your client to something people wouldn't recoginize (like engine.dll). People would think it is a .dll file but the updater could run it like a .exe.  The former solution is much better than the latter.. but both would work.

[panda]

7 hours ago, Teppy said:

I just wanted to piggyback off this with a follow-up question  Using an autoupdate (like @Chronos one) will definitely work perfectly, but is there currently a way to "send the signal" that the player would have to update? Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think even using GoPatchit, unless the player clicks on the actual GoPatchItUpdater, they wouldn't even know they have an update. Most players / users would just click to load up the Client.exe to start the game and not bother to run the updater!

What you're talking about is a push notification, and no we don't have any system like that (nor will we be implementing it). The most we might do is integrate an update system into the engine, or when the source is released someone else could.