Hi everyone, i`m making my game manual, and then some questions poped up on my mind;
*what the manual must have? Excluding how to play the game, of course.
*what atractives will be good to add to it? (images, organizated text...)
*and what more i can do to make it look professional?
Thanks!
I think the best thing would be to read manuals. There are AGS awards for the best Documentation, I'd check those out too.
[Edit]: AGS Awards Wiki page (http://www.americangirlscouts.org/agswiki/Ags_awards)
~Trent
Yeah, reading manuals can help creating one, but i want a opinion as a player, what you, a player, want to know about the game?
I think the best AGS example I've seen is the manual from Charlie Foxtrot and the Galaxy of Tomorrow, which I'd consider gets everything right. It has a lot of pictures, nice layout, credits, backstory, sets the tone, and offers some additional facts about people and places in the game that aren't necessary to complete the game but add colour and detail to the world. It may also have a couple of hints in it, it's been a while since I read it. But essentially I think it had everything covered.
A Tale of Two Kingdoms have a good documentation too. Should i add a walkthrough to my manual? In the end i think of putting the walkthrough there and an index for the walkthrough. It`s a bad idea?
Don't forget how crazy hard ATOTK is though. Having a walkthrough for that game isn't so strange... But that's really up to you. I wouldn't want to hand my players a walkthrough simply by downloading the game.
I'd ask your beta testers if they think hints should be included.
Also, remember that there are multiple formats... which are you planning to use? Html? Pdf? Doc? Chm? (never heard of a chm one, but I guess it's possible)
~Trent
Quote from: Trent R on Sat 07/03/2009 05:13:27
Also, remember that there are multiple formats... which are you planning to use? Html? Pdf? Doc? Chm?
Well, PDF. I'm making a .doc an them turn to pdf for easier viewing. Yeah, i think i won't add a walkthrough, neither hints, hint's eill be avaliable on the game. I think if the player have the walkthrough in his hands, he will be more lazy to try discovering the puzzle solution, because he know that if he can't do it, he have the walkthrough. Thank you!
Some one with English writing skills sounds delicious too, Jaker ;)
;D do you mean find someone that IS english (american) to write it for me??? No way, i will write it and someone will correct it ;D
I like writing. Wrong, but writing.
You get MS office ISO off your mate, you download Cute PDF writer from Google, you make a fab MS Word document and don't forget to stretch a bitmap over the entirety of each page as a background & you take a little inspiration from the dozen billion game manuals that exist already.
I think most other people suggested that, they just didn't put it so bluntly.
;)
PS - I know you want SFX so please go here (http://www.screen7.co.uk/store/) and buy the 99 sfx many of which you suggested. I will also send you some of the others you need...soon :)
Ahn, Ok ;D I don't if i turn into a PDF or stay at word .DOC... a pdf is zilion times better to view, but i dont know! :-\
Because it's all the rage. And it's ECO. That way people can print it off if they really want.
To be fair, a PDF manual is standard these days. And it's almost a good thing.
Soon quicktime will be good.
I ROO THAT DAY!
Sounds like I'm into a Vince XII phase today :
If you wanna read the ultimate Game manual, check the one included with this (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=detail&id=607) : It's even bigger than the game itself :P.
EDIT : As a player there's 2 things I wanna know : 1) How to access the option window and 2) How the controls work if and olny if it's featuring something non-standards.
Ok then, in my manual i will explain some shortcuts (like press TAB or CTRL + I to open inventory window, but you can just press the button too.), a chapter explaining how to customize the options and another on how to combine, descombine and use itens. Just examples.