Our feedback please: Technical (only?) suggestions for Japanese authors publishing on DLSITE

[CobraPL]

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(this is sister version)

I'll forward the suggestions to DLSITE admins, but I want to prepare the list first. Any contributors?

Ladies and gentlemen, let's prepare good practices pointing most common mistakes. My first proposals are below, but I ask you to contribute as much as you can:

1. Avoid using WAV files for sound and music. Encode it to Opus (best solution for RPG Maker MV/MZ) or at least Ogg Vorbis (commonly supported by multiple game engines). If you bought files already encoded to mp3/ogg or other lossy format, do not re-encode unless ~128kbps files are far smaller.
2. Avoid using BMP files for any graphics (unless game engine you use is outdated and enforces such format). Use WebP (best solution for RPG Maker MV/MZ) or at least PNG.
3. For RPG MAKER VX ACE or newer you can make PNGs and JPGs smaller with tools like PINGa (lossless/pixel-identical option available). For other/older engines try playing game with optimized assets.
4. Avoid putting Japanese text on pictures (hard-coded text) since (auto)translators can't translate such text easily. Use normal text positioned over the pictures and/or use English (hard-coded) text even in Japanese games.
5. Do not use ZIP for distribution, since non-Japanese customers/players may have problems with extracting Japanese characters in file/folder-names. Use RAR (paid) or 7z (free 7-zip program) format instead.
6. Ask all devs and/or check yourself to declare what game engine and which engine's version each game uses. Maintain up to date list of engines supported by auto translators like mtool. So English customer could know if (auto)translation is possible. Some engines are not supported!
7. In case of KiriKiri engine, for completed games (development and patching cycle ended) ask DEVs to merge all patches (all *.xp3 files) into one file.
8. Use different colored text when indicating important person, places, materials, steps, etc.
9. Use symbols instead of Japanese text for places description. Like a castle to indicate the royal palace, a fortress to indicate a kingdom, a small gathered hut to indicate a village, a full house to indicate a home, etc.
10. No more 4:3 resolution, everything must be 16:9.
11. Allow changing text speed, especially enabling instant text.
12. Make quest related item sparky, save time on interacting with everything.
13. DLSITE - allow creating and sharing lists and blacklists, Allow hiding/blacklisting any game or studio from search feed. So if any dev is known from low-quality games, I could filter them completely. Or I tested the game in e.g. 2017 and now I see that is was poor game and no need to check again. Allow leaving own comments for any game. Such comment or blacklist/ignore will be for specific account only, for own usage.

EDIT: For now I collect loose ideas. I'll completely re-write this post, dividing into two parts - suggestions for game authors and suggestion for dl-site.

 

[F4C430]

I really don't care about any of these things except the file encoding as Shift-JIS, but that's just an annoyance.

Also, i disagree with #12. I hate when games just tell you where everything is.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Support for WASD movement, for fucks sake.