So after roughly 3 days of back and forth with learning how to customize and redesign the developer to my needs, I have completed the launcher.

I have also compiled an installer for the launcher to install it into your programs directory automatically. This means that all you have to do is download the launcher setup file and the installation will handle the rest. Once installation is complete, you will be able to run the launcher from the end of the setup or via the shortcut created on your desktop if you ticked the create shortcut option.

The launcher is a beautiful thing in itself. When the launcher first runs, it will check your directory for game files, if there are none, it will automatically install the game. When new builds are released by me, the next time you run the launcher, it will automatically check for patches and immediately install them.

The beautiful thing about this launcher is that when I create new builds, the launcher software analyzes the build and compares it to the previous version, it then automatically creates a patch with ONLY the files that need to be updated. This means that rather than having to redownload the whole game for every new update, you will only download small and fast patches getting you ingame faster.

The launcher also comes equipped with a repair feature in the options. If you have tampered with files in the game’s folder, or files have somehow become corrupted by an external act of god, the repair feature can be activated to assess your game file and make repairs to the damaged/missing files.

Another brilliant feature is the news/patchnotes feature. I am actually able to update this information without making changes to the launcher itself. So I can update the patchnotes and news remotely on the webserver and the patcher will automatically load the latest information and images into it.

The last feature I have implemented into the installation process is the uninstall system. I have included an uninstall file in the games folder upon initial installation. You can activate this file and it will entirely erase the Blue Aurora game directory from your program files. I felt this to be a very important feature as users want to be able to add and remove programs with ease as necessary. You can also get the same result now from going into your control panel and using the windows uninstall program feature. It will recognize the uninstall file within the Blue Aurora directory and initiate it.

All in all I feel this was well worth the work involved to get it implemented. It makes the player experience almost seamless from download to playtime and virtually fully automated.