ammature first draft Deadworld--sorry for the screw up

[natman]

  Okay, I was very nicely informed that I posted this in the wrong area.  So I'll try this again.  I just finnished a first draft of a survival- horror game called Deadworld.  Its big (50 megs) and for that I'm sorry.  I hope you download it and enjoy it anyway.
  And speaking of which... It has been compressed from 200 megs (pictures, texture, 100+ pages) already, can anyone tell me how to shink it even more without affecting the quality and legebility?

Nate

[natman]

Dang!  I'm on a roll today...Its at:

www.fullboresyndicate.com

  Just tap on the fullbore logo and then right click on the cover of the book at the bottom of the next page.

[Andrew Morris]

Hi Nathan, welcome to the Forge.

What is it exactly that you are looking for? If we know that, we can help you better. Do you want playtesters? An analysis of a specific bit of the game rules? A general call for comments about the rules, setting, or layout?

As to your explicit questions about reducing the file size, I'm really not the best person qualified, since I'm still figuring out how to make PDFs in the first place. On looking at your game, though, the first thing that pops into my mind is doing one without the borders or background images. On some pages, the text is very small, and the background image makes it impossible for me to read on screen. Taking out the borders and backgrounds would probably improve legibility and reduce the file size, which might be a good idea for the review version. Does that help in any way?

[natman]

  Thanks for the info.  when I was putting it together, I didn't want it to look like all I was doing was showing off the art that I had done.  Hence the smallness of the script.  By the same token, I was trying to get the thing to look like the SAS survival manual...and thats where the boarder comes in.  Anyway, If it looks okay with the larger text, (I was trying to get it to not look like a Deadlands book) then thats great.  Thanks.  anything else?

[Sydney Freedberg]

Artwork = very damn cool.
Spelling & Grammar = hoo boy. Every author needs their work proofread by someone else, and this draft needs it badly. (Err, no, I'm not volunteering; I just moved to new home, and Im on deadline at work; sorry). For starters, "ammature" should be spelled "amateur."

As for content, I just skimmed -- as you say, it's huge, which is impressive -- but anyway, while my personal preferences don't mean much without your saying what you are aiming for:

1) I'd like less game fiction. As in, read through all your fiction bits, find the 25% of them you really like, toss the rest even if it hurts.
2) I see you're using D20. Which is not my thing, but okay; do you want the game to be all about finding cool, smart ways of killing stuff, though? Because that's what D20 does well. If you want something else, you might want to explore other systems.

[natman]

damn google...I thought it would spell check that for me.  as for mistakes, you're right.  Its the next real step.  Sorry to anyone who is big on gammmer, structure of sentances, actual coherency, whathaveyou.  Anyway, I was trying to get a feel for the setting in a way that zombie movies (and games) miss--besides the game takes place a year after everything else.  So what should I cut?

[Andrew Morris]

Nate, let me say that an opinion poll is probably going to be counterproductive. We can offer advice, but the hard work and decisions are on you. Like Sydney says, take what you like best and run with that. If you start putting things in because one person thought you should have element X, and another element Y, you're going to dilute whatever it is that you think is cool about your game. If you're excited and passionate about what you create, that will show, and it will pull others in. If you're throwing in everything but the kitchen sink because you kinda-sorta think someone out there might want it, you're likely to end up with something that you don't feel all that jazzed about. And if you don't feel that it's the best game ever, why would anyone else want to check it out?

Even suggestions like Sydney's should be analyzed to see if they align with your goals. Don't just accept them -- make sure you agree with them first. This is your game, right?

As an example, I'm working on a game now that's about people struggling with various mental afflictions and their own natures. One friend looked at it and said, "You should add in cool powers or combat stuff. Nobody wants to play some schmuck whose biggest opponent is himself." Another one said, "Your stats don't make any sense. There's no way to make a fighter as opposed to a talker." I thanked them both for their opinions, and while I respect them as people, their suggestions have absolutely no bearing in regard to my design goals with the game (one of which was specifically to avoid cool powers and combat).

However, since we are talking about advice and opinions here, I'll second Sydney's comments about the d20 system. It's really good at what it does, but is that what you want for your game? Only you can answer that. Just think about your game using totally unique rules systems. What if the only stats were Fear, Instinct, and Compassion. What kind of game would that create? Is it closer to what you want than d20 rules, or further?

It might help if you lay out your goals. For example, do you want this game to play out like zombie movies? Do you want to force the players (the actual people playing the game) to come out and take a moral stand (e.g. survival vs. human compassion)? Do you want it to be about killing zombies and raiding places for cooler and better supplies?

Sorry I can't be more specific here, but if you want that, you're going to need to be more specific in what kind of feedback you want.

[Sydney Freedberg]

damn google...I thought it would spell check that for me.

Hah! Computer spellcheckers are very nearly useless: they miss lots of mistakes and flag lots of other things that are actually fine. Get a human. Try posting in the "Connections" forum for someone who'll volunteer to read this carefully and mark it up. But you don't need to do that until you answer the Big Questions, like the ones Andrew just posed.

[jerry]

  Okay, I was very nicely informed that I posted this in the wrong area.  So I'll try this again.  I just finnished a first draft of a survival- horror game called Deadworld.  Its big (50 megs) and for that I'm sorry.  I hope you download it and enjoy it anyway.
  And speaking of which... It has been compressed from 200 megs (pictures, texture, 100+ pages) already, can anyone tell me how to shink it even more without affecting the quality and legebility?

I could save it compressed down to 7 megabytes from 50, but then the text becomes unreadable: the text is not text, but rather images. That's why it is so huge. If you can just embed your font (or use one that doesn't need embedding) and keep your text as text, the file size should drop considerably; as a side-benefit:

a) the text will be resizable for those who need to increase the size, (with the dark grey text on a light grey background, by the time I upped the image size to a readable size, the "text" had degraded), and

b) the text will be copyable for those who want to comment on parts of it.

Short answer is, use text where it is text; text is much more compressible than an image that looks like text and is also more readable than an image that looks like text. I'd guess that you can get to a tenth of the current size just by making that change.

Jerry

[natman]

  Thank you all for the advice.  For starters, ya, I really do need to have someone else edit the damn thing.  It makes it look silly.
  As for the rules... I chose d20 because it was so ubiquitous.  I figure about half the gammers out there can make one of these characters in their sleep. This wasn't ment to be my Citizen Kane or anything like that.  Its always been ment to be a free game for anyone looking for a fun pick up game, or who just likes reading disaster scenarios (like me).
  I'm going to try uninbedding the font like Jerry suggested, so that more people can have a chance to download it without tying up their machine for a good long while. 

  Having said that, you've all been very helpful and if you have any more ideas, keep 'em comming.

Nate

[Andrew Morris]

Nate, I'd still like to hear more about what you want out of your game. It sounds like you want the joy of creation, coupled with the enjoyment of knowing there are people out there who enjoy playing your game. Is this accurate? Honestly, these are probably the best reasons to design your own game.

Now, about using d20, I think it's a bad idea to use it just because it's readily available. Note that it might be a great idea to go with d20 for other reasons. I can't say until I get a description of what you want play to be like, though.

I'm frustrated, not with you, but because I don't have enough information to give any feedback that is really helpful. So, if you could answer the critical questions outlined below, I'm sure we'll all be able to step up and give you some good advice and feedback.

1) What is your game about? Yes, I know it's a survival horror game. That tells me something, but not what I'm looking for. What's the "fun" of the game? Is it simply playing in a world overrun with zombies? Human drama with the zombies as a backdrop? Killin' zombies for fun and profit? Faithfully recreating the feel of zombie movies? There's no "wrong" answer here, but this is the single most important question you can answer. In fact, according to the rules of this forum, if you can't answer this question, you shouldn't even be posting.

2) What makes your game different? If the answer is "nothing," why would anyone want to play it?

3) How do you imagine play proceeding? A short, made-up example of play might be useful.