Hi all!
OK... I've learned something new and very important. If I want to greatly reduce the size of my zip w/ EXE posted here on itch.io, I need to not include the editor content in the "package". I already knew that part, but here's the kicker:
If I try to package DamNation as it is right now, I have to include the Unreal Engine editor content (this makes my current build big like you see it now). If I try to not package the editor content, the packaging sequence fails with errors showing that I still have editor tools in use. This is true, because I'm still developing the game! In order to remove the errors, I need to not try to package the editor tooling... and even with migrating the items to my game folder, they still wont package.
The way I fix it: I bake each level first. But baking, in my experience, removes the ability to edit the levels with the tooling... which I don't want to do yet... cuz I'm not done building the initial levels! So the dev downloads will stay big until I can package without the editor content, which I won't do until I'm done developing the initial levels. So the download stays big, for now.
Learning has occurred (for me). Thanks for reading.
Ortisha