Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

The Manual

cliffski

I started work on the manual for GSB today. It’s going to be a pdf that’s installed along with the game, although I am tempted to also make it downloadable before the game is finished, so people can give feedback on the game design.

The good news is that I now have a list of 16 things I need to get done before the game will be alpha, then I need some alpha feedback and I’ll be looking at beta. Some of those 16 things are pretty big, and will take days, some are small, like doing an icon.

One of the bigger ones is the manual. It’s surprising how much information I need to put in it to explain the mechanics of the game, without adding lots of stats stuff such as all of the ship modules and race backstories, which I haven’t done yet. I need to polish up the formatting, and get up to date screen shots for it all too, plus spellcheck, check the grammar blah blah.

Those 16 things do not include graphical fluff and polish which I also intend to get done, but some of that might be done when I’m waiting for alpha or beta feedback.

It’s good to have some sort of plan for getting from here to release anyway.

6 thoughts on The Manual

  1. I think that if you do a weapons/modules section in the manual, you should add a bit more than just stats. It always bothers me when games just tell you in the manual what you can find out easily in-game. Perhaps a bit of info on what the weapon is good for, or what makes it special.

  2. how does it meant with stats? tables of dammage, angle,range etc.?
    In this case, maybe its better to forget the stats because of the balancing.
    If there is a blancing patch or something like that you have to add it in the manual ,too.
    So i think (i dont know how many ships,modules and so on there are) one two sentences each about usefulness and buffes could be fine ;)

  3. Writing manuals and fluff text is fun.

    I actually used to do a lot of fannish stuff where I would, for instance, rewrite the X-Com Ufopaedia. There is a beauty to it. I really, really hope GSB ends up being a similar case, now; I am a huge, huge fan of space opera.

    There are gonna be guys writing ridiculously detailed fanfic-ish after action reports, too. OH GOD. FANGASM. <3

  4. maybe some important or epic battles that changed the galaxy so that it is how it is in GSB .Or the political reasons for the fights…
    I don´t believe spendig millons of money and waste heaps of crews and ships just for fun and for the battles itself isn´t a good answer for the question “why?”,is it? xD

  5. If the game is popular enough a wiki could work well to complement the manual with more in depth stuff. A new player will not want to sift trough a ton of info so he can get to the essential stuff to get him started anyway.

  6. I have some professional editing experience, and I’d be happy to help out if you wanted a second set of eyes going over the manual.

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