Downloads Are Disabled
Sorry, but downloads have been disabled temporarily on this website.
It looks like the new internet economy reached me. My file host Mediafire, is now charging me for download bandwidth, and I can’t afford how popular this website is. I need to find a way to host the game files that’s cheap and can support how popular my games are.
If I can’t find a cheap one, I may have to go back to Patreon, or go to Steam, but the games will no longer be free if I go that route.
Open to suggestions.
The End of Free Storage / Downloads
One of the most popular free download sites is Mega.NZ, because it provides a decent sized amount of shareable storage for free. They are also requiring payment of popular users, or suspending accounts.
I’ve also have gotten warnings from Google about cloud storage that I barely use.
Bottom line: The internet has changed this past year because of the new ways it is being used. A lot of things that used to be cheap or free aren’t anymore.
I might have to evolve as well.
Date Ariane Games 
Maybe share the games through Bittorrent?
good idea
Use github. You can upload the executables and then the users can download the zip. It will never be charged.
My games are open source. I’d be open to distributing the renpy folder that you can use by downloading renpy.
I’m thinking the same thing. There are three issues: I have too many versions of the games, I have no way to host the seed, Torrents are way harder than simple downloads.
Second thought: Use a sight like payloadz where you can buy the downloads. Put an inexpensive price on the game to pay for hosting.
Third thought: Why not both? Pay for a convenient download, or get an official torrent for free.
Do you want to try using vdategames?
I’ve just been using direct downloads for all my recent releases and the site seems fine. Tlaero and Mortze also have a bunch of games on here too.
Only main disadvantage would be that you’d have to ‘submit’ the games and any updates to me to upload rather than just doing it yourself, which isn’t very efficient. Unless there’s a way to grant you access to a single folder of the server maybe. Not my area of expertise.
In any case ; feel free to email me if you’re interested. 🙂
That’s a possibility. My analysis indicates the issue is popularity. Just as back in 2008, I had to shut down the online game and go with downloading, now the issue is the games are too popular for downloads. People downloaded 4 terabytes of games in 4 months, which is the kind of bandwidth that leads to shutdowns.
Looks like vdg downloads and online plays are currently 5.6TB per month, so I think we could accommodate another 1TB per month.
Officially, my package is for ‘unlimited’ bandwidth, but of course it all depends how much their server can hold.
More information on the github ideia:
You can distribute more than the source code, you can actually distribute the executables there as well.
Just attach to releases:https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/managing-large-files/distributing-large-binaries
… and that $3.95, is per year, not per month!
You might also consider BackBlaze B2 storage as a very low-cost option. Example: 20GB initial upload, then a monthly ‘pattern’ of… 5GB upload, 1GB deletions, and 10GB of downloads. That would cost you USD $3.95. There’s a pricing clculator to play with the numbers here: https://www.backblaze.com/b2/cloud-storage-pricing.html
You could sign up for a freebie 10GB plan to try it out, and may never need more than the free storage for quite a while, as long as you stay under the maximum of 10GB, and any downloads are under their 1GB per-day limit. There’s no adult content issues like Google Drive/One, and they offer the cheapest cload storage of all the Big 5 providers if you ever need a paid option.
BTW… I have no affiliation with them, just offering a possible solution. I use their free plan on a community forum for image gallery storage and have no need to consider an upgrade for years – if ever.
Hello Ariane!
Why don’t you try out the platform “itch.io”
https://itch.io/docs/general/about
it is the place where I get my visual novels from – it’s like Steam or GOG.
Best,
Rob