Publishing and Distributing Your Game with Kaneva

This topic describes the requirements, procedures, and guidelines for creating Kaneva game distributions and for publishing your Kaneva game from the Kaneva Game Studio to the Kaneva web site.

Overview

You've designed and tested your game so that it operates according to your designs. Now you want to share your game with other players. Congratulations! That means you're ready to distribute and publish your game on Kaneva:

• Log on to the Kaneva web site and add a new game listing.
• Use the Kaneva Game Studio to create a game distribution. A game distribution is the set of collected files that allow for execution of the game, i.e. the game package.
• Use the Kaneva Game Studio to Publish your game (commercial license only) or manually distribute your developer or pilot game.

This article provides you with all the information you need to make your game available to your players.

Limitations in Kaneva Game Publishing

Because this is Kaneva's first release of the Kaneva game publishing process, there's lots of room for improvement. We are very interested in your ideas on how to improve this process, and which features you think are most important to improve and fix now. Here's some of the limitations in this version:

• There may be a delay the first time you set up your commercial game. At present, Kaneva technicians manually set up and configure the game server for your use. While billing occurs when you purchase your commerical license, your monthly charge is not started until the game server is available for your use.
• Kaneva does not perform any validity checking on the functioning of your game. While Kaneva does check the integrity of your game files during and after publishing, it is the game publisher's responsibility to verify that the entire game works as expected.
• Publishing for commercial games is not an automated process and may involve delays as Kaneva technicians configure your game servers. Make certain that you've alloted ample time to resolve issues that may emerge during publishing.
• In the near future, Kaneva technicians will provide automation tools to owners of pilot and developer games. Currently, these games must be manually self-hosted and distributed.

Please let us know what features you consider important to add or improve, and what's not working as expected by sending us your comments.

Creating a New Game Listing

The first step for making your game public is to add a game on the Kaneva web site. To create a new game listing:

1. Do you have a Kaneva account?
   Yes: Skip to the next step.
   No: Create a Kaneva account, then come back here.
2. Go to http://www.kaneva.com and login using your Kaneva user name and password.
3. Select the Publish tab at the top of the web page, and then select the My Published Games tab below it. Kaneva displays the My Published Items page.
   
   
   
   
4. Click Add Game. Kaneva displays the Edit This Asset page.
5. Provide the following required information:
   • Item Name: The title of your game. This is the name that'll appear in the listings your users see from your Kaneva channel.
   • Tags: Provide at least one word or a series of single-word keywords that players can use to identify or describe your game. Separate multiple words by spaces, not commas or semicolons. Tags provide an alternate method for users to find your game. For example, if your game's title is 'Gorilla Paintball', your tags could be 'gorilla paintball gorilla-paintball fps'.
   • Genre: Select the style for your game from the list.
   • Teaser: Provide a short description about your game. Ideally, the teaser displays a brief introduction that would interest a potential player and get them to try out your game.
6. Click Submit at the bottom of the page when you have finished providing the required and optional information. Kaneva returns you to My Published Games page.
   
   
   
   
7. What is your game's status?
   
   
   • Active: The game is available in your channel. In addition, the game displays in the main Play tab for commercial and pilot licenses. If necessary, you can choose Edit to verify the settings for your game.
   • Deleted: This game has been deleted.
   • Requires editing to broadcast: You will first need to edit the item and provide required information. If channel is set to 'None', then this game is not available to users. Click the Edit link under the game icon and continue to the next step.
   • Scheduled for deletion: The item is currently scheduled for deletion and will be deleted within the next few days by Kaneva. Users are unable to purchase this item.
8. Before your game is available to your players, you must provide the following information about your game. However, this information isn't required until you are ready to make the game public. This page provides descriptions of every field on this page.
   • Channel: The Kaneva channel you are using to make your game available to users. Create a Kaneva Channel if you don't have one.
   • Server type: Choose from a Developer's License (5 users), Pilot License (30 users), or Commercial License (1000 users). The default is a developer's license. This page describes the types of licenses available.
   • Patch URL: The location where your game files are available to players. Enter the URL if you're using a developer or pilot license. Kaneva supplies this value for commercial games.
   • Copyright protection: Select the terms under which users can play your game.

Creating a Game Distribution

Your first step for sharing your finished game is to create a game distribution from the Kaneva Game Studio. A game distribution consists of all the files a player needs to have to play your game using the Kaneva Game Client.

There's two options for distributing your game:

• Local distribution: Lets you test your game on one computer in a configuration that's identical to a published and distributed game. This type of distribution cannot be used on any other computer because there is no communication with the Kaneva network.
• Kaneva distribution: Gives you the ability to publish, list, and optionally host your game on the Kaneva network. Requires you to have a Kaneva account and already have a new game added (or an existing game you want to update) to the account.

Local Distribution

Create a local distribution when you just want to test your game on the same computer that runs the Kaneva Game Server. Local distributions cannot run the game on another computer, and the files will not be usable by players on another computer.

To create a local distribution:

1. Open Kaneva Game Studio and then load your game from Game > Open or your recent games list in the Games menu.
2. Select Game > Create Distribution. Kaneva displays the Game Distribution dialog.
3. Select Local only, and then click OK.
   
   
   
   
4. Specify a destination folder for this game distribution and click OK. Keep these things in mind:
   • For best results, we recommend that you use Make New Folder to select an empty folder for the distribution.
   • If you choose a folder that already contains a distribution, Kaneva Game Studio will delete and recreate the files in the ClientFiles, ServerFiles, and Patchfiles folders.
     
     
     
     You'll need to select Yes to verify that it's ok to replace these folders' contents.
5. Kaneva takes a few moments to create your game distribution.
   Because Kaneva Game Studio uses custom scripts to generate the game distribution, there is a possibility that your antivirus or security software may interrupt processing. If this occurs, authorize the script to run once for this event.
   
   
   
   Click OK when Kaneva has completed creating the distribution. Kaneva Game Studio returns to the main window.

The destination folder for your game distribution contains all the files you need to test and play your game on this computer.

At this time, you can run the game locally by double-clicking the KEPClient.exe file in the destination folder.

Kaneva Distribution

Create a Kaneva distribution when you intend on providing your game to players as a Kaneva developer game, pilot game, or commercial game.

Here's the information you'll need prior to creating a Kaneva distribution:

• Your Kaneva account information. You'll need the Kaneva user name and password you want to use to register this game.
• Your game's listing. This is the information you set up in the 'Creating a New Game Listing' section earlier in this article.

Here's an outline of the different game licenses you can select:

For more information:

• Check out the complete description of the licensing terms.
• See the FAQ on game licensing.

To create a Kaneva distribution:

1. Open Kaneva Game Studio and then load your game from Game > Open or your recent games list in the Games menu.
2. Select Game > Create Distribution. Kaneva displays the Game Distribution dialog.
3. Select Kaneva, and then click OK.
   
   
   
   Kaneva displays the Kaneva Sign In window.
4. Enter the user name and password for your Kaneva account, and then click OK.
   
   
   
   You will need to define a new game if you receive the following message:
   
   
   
   
5. Kaneva lists the games you have already created from the Kaneva web site. Select the game you want to associate with this distribution and click OK.
6. Specify a destination folder for this game distribution and click OK. Keep these things in mind:
   • For best results, we recommend that you use Make New Folder to select an empty folder for the distribution.
   • If you choose a folder that already contains a distribution, Kaneva Game Studio will delete and recreate the files in the ClientFiles, ServerFiles, and Patchfiles folders.
     
     
     
     You'll need to select Yes to verify that it's ok to replace these folders' contents.
7. Kaneva Game Studio takes a few moments to create your game distribution.
   Because Kaneva Game Studio uses custom scripts to generate the game distribution, there is a possibility that your antivirus or security software may interrupt processing. If this occurs, authorize the script to run once for this event.
8. Kaneva Game Studio offers you the option to skip encryption and patch creation of the game distribution.
   
   
   
   This is a timesaver if you're testing locally, but you must choose 'Yes' to distribute your game to others under a development, pilot, or commercial license.
9. Click OK when Kaneva has completed creating the distribution. Kaneva Game Studio returns to the main window.
   
   

To continue, select the option that meets your requirements:

• For developer and pilot games, you'll need to manually distribute your Kaneva game distribution folder. This page describes a few options you can use to distribute your game.
• For commercial games, you must publish your game. Go to the next section for details.

Publishing Your Kaneva Game

Publishing your Kaneva game means it's listed and hosted on the Kaneva game servers. Only commercially licensed games need to use Kaneva's publishing system. Pilot and developer games should use these steps to distribute games to players.