What software does the aspiring publisher need?

[Eric J. Boyd]

Flush with enthusiasm from Game Chef, I've decided it's time to gather the items I need to get my designs laid out and publishable in PDF or book form. That means I'm ready to open my wallet and consider buying some software.

So I've done some spelunking in past threads via the search function, and I've got some good recommendations for desktop publishing software (I'll likely go with Serif's Page Plus 11 because I'm not made of money). I've also found some stock images and public domain photos and such that I'd like to use in my game, although I may need to manipulate them a bit. What I'm wondering is will desktop publishing software alone do the job? What else do I need to handle graphics and art? Basically, what tools does the aspiring indie publisher need to get rolling?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[dindenver]

Hi!
  You could theoretically use Freeware:
OpenOffice
Scribus (dtp)
GIMP (Graphics)

[MatrixGamer]

You want programs that allow you to scan and manipulate pictures and do layout. The end document is then saved as a PDF file. I think there are a lot of ways to go to do this.

The PDF file is something you can sell right now and also send to an on demand printer to make hard copies.

Say you want to spend some money. Say you want to do a real professional job and take a few years to build up your skills. You're a bit obsessive compulsive, undoubtly crazy, but what they hay, this is gaming. If all this is true then you will want to look at professional publishing programs.

People say that Quark Express and Adobe InDesign are the standards. Pick one and stick with it. I went the Adobe way (yeah I crazy to) so I got Pagemaker. I next want to learn Photoshop and Illustrator, and use Distiller to make the files into PDFs. This is expensive - if I couldn't buy them at a discount through the university I work for, I might not do it.

I personally like the technical aspects of game making but if that is not your bag then learn the simplest program you can and put most of your time into the fun stuff - making, and running, the games.

Chris Engle
Hamster Press = Engle Matrix Games

[Josh Roby]

Eric, does this mean we'll see the Committee for Exploration of biglongtitleIcan'tremember in print?  *hope*

Are you a PC or a Mac guy?

[Eric J. Boyd]

Eric, does this mean we'll see the Committee for Exploration of biglongtitleIcan'tremember in print?  *hope*

Are you a PC or a Mac guy?

Joshua, yep, that's the project that's getting me off my duff and serious about publishing. I'm a PC guy. I'm interested in developing my layout and graphics skills, but I would like to keep costs under control (so game sales actually pay for the software and printing costs). My sister-in-law could get me Adobe products from her university, but I'm not sure it's worth the hefty investment. Plus, since I likely need graphics and photo programs, I would be looking at an even bigger price tag. Thoughts?

Dindenver, the GIMP site looks pretty good. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Blankshield]

Alternately, use the Connections forum and say "Hey, I wrote a game, now I want a kick-ass layout and artwork!"  There's folks around here that do that.

thanks,

James

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

As a really quick addendum, you don't need Adobe products to make a PDF. Openoffice 2 point whatever will export as a PDF. Now I don't know how it compares to Adobe Pagemaker for the creation of text as I don't have Pagemaker, but so far I can't see the difference in output between when I save in OpenOffice's ODT format or export to a PDF.

[talysman]

If you want to do it yourself (sounds like you want to learn layout skills) and you don't want a huge expense, Dave's suggestion can work for you this way:

• Get the GIMP to create/edit images, OpenOffice.org (OO.o) for writing.
• Create original artwork in the GIMP or alter some public domain artwork.
• Write your game text in OO.o, but don't do layout/fonts, beyond boldface, italics, and bullet lists.
• Make sure you have a FAT32 partition. Save your OO.o .odt documents there.
• You can do some test layouts in OO.o and export as PDF to make sure you have roughly what you need. I'd advice saving each chapter of the final draft as a separate document. You might even want to save tables and sidebars separately.
• Get a Knoppix Linux live CD distro.
• Reboot to Knoppix. Knoppix comes with Scribus, Scribus can import OO.o documents.
• Do your layout there and save the PDFs.

You might also want to do some maps, charts, or special symbols as additional graphics in your document. I would recommend AutoREALM for this, because you can save maps as standard jpeg.