Free Desktop Publishing...

[jerry]

So if you can get ahold of a Mac (maybe work on a friend's?) and an extra $40, it's the tool for you.

If you can finagle a a student/educational discount, it's only an extra $9 (i.e., $49 total). Really a good deal.

Jerry

[MatrixGamer]

can anyone reccommend a decent, FREE (or very, very cheap, like less than $40) desktop publishing program


Hummm, you know software is pretty cheap when you think about it. I used to use MS Publisher (which was really cheap because we got a deal on it through the University) but in the long run it isn't worth it. Last year I switched to Adobe PageMaker (which cost a few hundred dollars). The output is SOOOOOO much better. In publishing a good program is a basic tool. Why cheap out here. Adobe InDesign or Quarkxpress are quirky to learn but once you get there they produce beautiful work that you can send to a printer.

We spend a lot of times on our games - why not spend a little money on proper tools?

Chris Engle
Hamster Press

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

We spend a lot of times on our games - why not spend a little money on proper tools?

That's my feeling, too. MS Publisher, by the way, is terrible. At a design house where I used to work, we'd charge extra if someone gave us their files in that format because of the messes it would cause.

You know, there are competent graphic designers in this game crowd. Instead of going for cheap, maybe you want to pay for good?

Among the Forge crowd, I work for a straight percentage for a set amount of time. I do it that way because all of us can be professional game designers, and we should be able to eat while making stuff. No one among us can afford to pay up front for that kind of thing, but percentage (with no minimum or maximum) means that I have faith in the product and my fate is tied to that of the other creator(s) of the product.

Most importantly, it gets around the "I'll undercharge you because you're my friend, then I'll resent the amount of work it takes, so I won't get it done in time" issue.

That is, we're all colleagues.

[xiombarg]

I appreciate the offer, but this is what I eneded up doing:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/xiombarg/708148.html