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

Gratuitous Manual Battles

cliffski

A lot of people really liked the manual for Gratuitous Space Battles, and I’m conscious of this fact when working on the one for GTB. As with all complex strategy games, there is a ton of stuff to tell the player, and they will likely want to reference it after playing for an hour or two, in order to look-up or clarify stuff. It’s also a good place to put stuff like lists of hotkeys, or unit stat comparisons, although I probably won’t be doing the latter.

Some trendy designers would suggest that ‘a game that needs a manual is badly designed’. This is just silly. We don’t all want to play games as simple as Bejeweled, and sometimes, a separate reference manual is a good idea for a game that has real depth and a ton of features. I also like doing a manual because it means people can read how to play the game on their laptop, or a work PC, where maybe actually playing through a tutorial isn’t an option. Plus it means people who are really on the fence can read the manual before deciding to buy the game.

The manual is maybe half done. It’s mostly all there, but it will need some more images, some proof-reading, spell checking, and a second pass for actual humour and flavour text to make it more in-keeping with the blackadderish spirit of the game design. I might change my typewriter font to make it more typerwriterish, a tradeoff between authenticity and legibility. I like the idea of a 1914 army document that never got updated during 200 years of war. maybe the army spent all it’s effort on making more deadly lasers and none on word processors?

On the technical side, it looks like the server move went ok. Just quadruple checking it all before I turn off the old one. That still scares me…

14 thoughts on Gratuitous Manual Battles

  1. Awesome, I never found the GSB manual, but it looks great and I would definitely love to have this in GTB. Just another reason to buy it (or pre-order if possible). The typewriter font sounds cool, especially if there are other ways of getting the same information in-game (with legible font), but if not maybe consider keeping it more legible.

    Thanks cliffski for sticking with the stuff that we like and just giving us more of it.

  2. Designers who despise manuals are like coders who espouse self-documenting code as a replacement for good comments ;)

    There’s no substitute for good documentation.

  3. I think a good tutorial that teaches you how to play is incredibly important, and you shouldn’t need to refer to a manual to learn at least the basics. However, a manual to refer to for particular things and more complex features I don’t have a problem with, and I kind of wish more games had. There are often times when there is one particular feature or mechanic that I am aware of but don’t quite understand, and being able to just look that up in a manual is helpful.

  6. Redacted stuff can look cool for authenticity.

    “The best strategy against heavy lasers is [redacted], which has the added bonus of giving free biscuits to your men.”

  7. The classification level is also at the top and bottom of documents here in the UK, so it’s not just a US thing, or at least it is these days. I don’t know whether that was the case in the 1910s. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any examples of declassified documents from around that period that are on the net. If you are particularly interested in a genuine feel, you could always visit the National Archives, which will have plenty of examples of released documents from the time of WWI.

    I also like the redaction idea, as that always looks a bit cool.

  9. Those game designers who claim that manuals are not needed for any game aren’t really game designers and they have no idea what they are talking about.

  10. I like the look of the manual. The scattered ‘Top Secret’ stamps remind me of the info cards that came with my Gi Joes when I was a kid.

    I hate the dearth of manuals in complex games. There should be either a printed manual or if it’s a downloaded game it should have a way to pause the game and access the manual without having to exit the game.

  11. Most (intelligent) people who claim manuals aren’t needed these days are implicitly opining the use of in-game tutorials (rather than just all games being stupidly simple.) Which are essentially manuals (sometimes literally manuals), but we don’t worry about that because being in-game is cool (and, at least in theory, helps to maintain the suspension of disbelief.)

    Of course “most” isn’t “all” ;).

    Personally I’m of mixed feelings. In-game tutorials have a bad habit of being front-loaded.. which in itself is OK, but it causes problems when I put down the game for 2 months and then have to either try and remember how to do everything, or start from scratch and go through the (often boring) tutorial level again. Plus, there’s only so many plausible excuses designers can make for why the player’s avatar needs to be taught “the basics” in every game!

    On the other hand, reading a manual doesn’t tend to sink in (even over the short term) as well as “hands-on” does. At least for me. So what I gain in ease of reference is somewhat offset by having to reference it more ;).

    So really, the best way to go about it is to forget about the fad-of-the-decade and just do what works best for you and your game!

  12. I don’t find a hotkey list to be all that useful, especially in a game that has (hopefully?) tooltips that include the hotkeys for that command and the ability to rebind keys. Frequently, that list doesn’t end up looking like my final configuration anyway, at least in a couple of ways.

    Unit stat comparisons, on the other hand, are quite useful; I’ve scribbled down some of my own notes and/or dug up and printed someone else’s online spreadsheet for a number of games, and having something like that in the manual already would be handy :)

  13. Must agree with what you said: I’m definitely one of those people who enjoy the GSB manual :) (in fact, I almost sprayed my computer monitor with tea a little earlier while reading it…)

    And also, just wanted to say that you’re my new hero – just read that you’re a “one man show”. Tonnes of respect! And SUCH amazing games – you’re a god amongst men :)

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