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View Full Version : I wrote a game. Now what?



Grod_The_Giant
2015-03-30, 09:44 AM
After years of playtesting and revisions, I've finally gotten my homebrew system, STaRS, to a state where I'd consider it finished. Now, I'd love to get it published-- even self-published-- but I've got no idea how to go from "nicely formatted Word document" to "printable manuscript." Can anyone suggest good resources/give advice themselves?

Maglubiyet
2015-03-30, 10:05 AM
If you just want to print it out yourself there are a bunch of sites that will convert your doc into an actual physical book. I use Lulu.com for family genealogies and things.

Rafferty
2015-03-30, 10:22 AM
Hello, I'm Norman Rafferty, art director for Sanguine Games.
We've been using Microsoft Word for our critically-acclaimed RPGs, for years.

Word will allow you to export to PDF files, which is all you need for a book.
There's also tools to export to .epub and .mobi formats, but for a beginner, I'd recommend you stick with PDF.

Word has a very handy feature called OUTLINING and STYLES.
Choose View > Outline to see this.
* Heading 1 for Chapter titles.
* Heading 2 for Section titles.
* Normal for body text.
Word can use these styles to automatically generate a table of contents.

Your best friends are the following paragraph format options:
* Keep With Next. This tells word that THIS paragraph has to go with the NEXT paragraph on the same page. Use this to keep two rules together on the same page. (For example, you want these two paragraphs on the same page: "You can kill people with a glance. / A glance is defined as making eye contact with your foe." Otherwise, players will see the first paragraph, but no one will even know the second one exists if it's on a different page!)
* Keep Lines Together. This tells word that this paragraph isn't to be broken up across pages. All the text in this paragraph must be on the same page. If it doesn't fit, move it to the next page.
* Line Spacing: Exact Line Height lines. Don't have your paragraphs set to "Multiple". Choose a 10-point font, then set your line height to exactly 12 points. Exact line height makes a printed book more readable.

Word also has Index feature, where you select a word, and Mark it as Add to Index.
You will have to manually go through your book and use this Mark as Index feature.
Ever play an RPG where each Index entry has 7 pages, 6 of which are useless?
Or play an RPG that has cross-references to the wrong page, or index entries that don't exist?
Those people used an automatic index generator. You, you make your index manually. <3

If your game has few or no illustrations, then Word 2007 or 2010 will be fine.
If you want lots of big pictures, you must upgrade to Word 2013 ... and you really should have the 64-bit version running on a 64-bit OS. (If this doesn't make sense to you, then keep your graphics simple.)
Word 2010+ will let you lay out large pictures in corners of your book. A simple layout, of rectangular pictures, is relatively simple to do and much easier on the eyes for readability. Save the fancy text-wrapping-around-pictures with alpha-transparency for your next game.

I could go into greater detail. Obviously, there's a lot more to learn.
But to sum up: Microsoft Word for RPG layout has many advantages and will look indistinguishable from other, professional projects.
Especially for your first RPG.

There's lots more I could say about this, but this should be enough to get you started.
Good luck!

-- Norman Rafferty
www.SanguineGames.com

Rafferty
2015-03-30, 12:54 PM
I've had a chance to download your PDF. It looks good for a start!
You have your table of contents set up.
You're using colors for readability.

Couple things to improve presentation:
* Use a two-column layout for the insides of chapters. (Select the text, choose Page Layout > Columns > 2)

* Edit the Normal style to keep lines together. (Style Gallery > right-click on Normal > Modify > Format > Paragraph > Line & Page Breaks > Keep Lines together)

* Some paragraphs should have the "Keep with Next" option set.
** Set this "Keep with Next" option for all cells in a table, so the table always shows up on the same page. (While you're at it, use the Table Tools menu > Layout > Properties > Row and disable "Allow my row to break across pages")
** Set this "Keep with Next" for any two-paragraph rule section
** Set this "Keep with Next" for short bulleted lists

* Change your fonts. You can do this quickly from Page Layout > Fonts, and choose a new theme.
As a rule, your "+Body" font should be a serif font, such as Cambria, Jasmine, Palatino, etc. Your "+Headings" font should be a thick bold font, such as Gill Sans Ultra Bold, Impact, Rockwell, etc. You can find numerous font combinations online, Microsoft will make several suggestions.

* Experiment with Insert > Header to put in a fancier header. Some of the options in the Office.com gallery have options to dynamically read your body text, find the Headings, and report those at the top of the page. For example, when the book changes from "Conflict" to "Core", the Header will automatically put "Conflict" or "Core" at the top of the page. Bingo, instead section titles on each page.

You have excellent use of white space! Lots of space makes the game easier to read.

There's more I could go into, but this should get you started. It's looking great so far!

veti
2015-03-30, 04:23 PM
I have no experience with game design, but a fair bit with using Word to produce and publish large documents.

Rafferty has already covered most of what I could tell you, but I'd just like to enlarge on a couple of points:

Rather than View -> Outline, use View -> Navigation Pane, and I'd suggest keeping this open the whole time you're working on the document, certainly when you're planning/arranging it. As well as jumping immediately to a known paragraph/section, you can also use this pane to move sections around if you want.
The more heading styles you use, the more useful this feature will be. I generally use headings 1 (chapter), 2 (section), 3 and 4 (subsections), 5 (headed paragraph, although these are quite rare). Word's inbuilt heading styles go up to 9, which is way overkill (but there's nothing to stop you defining more, if you need even more overkill...).
All heading styles should have "Keep with next" defined as a property of the style. There's never a case for having a heading appear at the bottom of a page with nothing below it.
You can also apply "Page break before" as a property of a paragraph. This will ensure that this paragraph appears at the top of a fresh, new page. I use this liberally on headings, but not as a style-level property (because that gives silly results when you have a Heading 2 immediately below a Heading 1).
General design rule, not ironclad but a solid guideline: don't use more than two fonts on the same page. (So if you use, say, Palatino for text and Rockwell for headings, don't go using, say, Gill Sans for captions or footers - reuse one of the two already there.)

I have a macro for formatting tables. It:

applies a consistent style and colour scheme
applies the "don't allow row to break across pages" and "repeat header row at the top of each page" rules

to each table in my document. It saves me hours. If you have any inclination/time to experiment with VBA programming, I'd recommend that as a starter project. (I'd be happy to send you the code, but if you don't have any interest in VBA, it's probably not worth learning what you'd need to know to adapt it.)

Unlike Rafferty, I like Word 2010 over 2013, even with lots of illustrations. (However, I use tools that mean 'document stability' isn't an issue for me, so maybe that's a reason to prefer 2013.)

Grod_The_Giant
2015-03-30, 04:34 PM
I've had a chance to download your PDF. It looks good for a start!
Thank you so much for your help! I'll definitely be working to refine that over the next day or two. Since it's looking like most of the formatting is stuff I can do myself, do you (or others) have any suggestions on art? Am I going to need some, or can I get away with plain text?

Grinner
2015-03-30, 07:01 PM
Thank you so much for your help! I'll definitely be working to refine that over the next day or two. Since it's looking like most of the formatting is stuff I can do myself, do you (or others) have any suggestions on art? Am I going to need some, or can I get away with plain text?

For a system document? I remember this one game system-ish thingie which incorporated art, and that art really helped break up the document. I say it wouldn't hurt, but it's really a luxury.

As with anything creative, make sure you have the rights to the art. If you're willing to put in a few bucks, you can get some stock art off DrivethruRPG. You can also distribute it there, if you want, but you might want to look that into a bit more closely than I have. There may be better options, depending on what you're trying to accomplish.

Seerow
2015-03-30, 07:03 PM
Thank you so much for your help! I'll definitely be working to refine that over the next day or two. Since it's looking like most of the formatting is stuff I can do myself, do you (or others) have any suggestions on art? Am I going to need some, or can I get away with plain text?

Art sells games. Even if you plan to give it away free, some art makes it far more likely people will read what you have. I recommend at the very least getting some free licensed images from google to use wherever it seems appropriate. If you have any artist friends or some extra cash you can burn on commissions, I recommend tapping those resources if you plan to sell, but probably not worth it if you just want people to check it out.

Grinner
2015-03-30, 07:05 PM
Art sells games. Even if you plan to give it away free, some art makes it far more likely people will read what you have. I recommend at the very least getting some free licensed images from google to use wherever it seems appropriate. If you have any artist friends or some extra cash you can burn on commissions, I recommend tapping those resources if you plan to sell, but probably not worth it if you just want people to check it out.

Be careful about licensing. Not all licenses are the same.

And yeah, commissions would be overkill for this.

ddude987
2015-03-30, 07:15 PM
I have experience with design and I recommend Adobe inDesign. It is actually designed for making books. It has features to wrap words around pictures, insert tables, and tons of other features. Though since its adobe it is pricey if you buy it.

Maglubiyet
2015-03-30, 10:26 PM
Thank you so much for your help! I'll definitely be working to refine that over the next day or two. Since it's looking like most of the formatting is stuff I can do myself, do you (or others) have any suggestions on art? Am I going to need some, or can I get away with plain text?

Depends on what you're doing with it. If you clip pictures off of the internet and put them in a book, that is copyright infringement. You can be sued for that.

Grod_The_Giant
2015-03-30, 10:56 PM
Art sells games. Even if you plan to give it away free, some art makes it far more likely people will read what you have. I recommend at the very least getting some free licensed images from google to use wherever it seems appropriate. If you have any artist friends or some extra cash you can burn on commissions, I recommend tapping those resources if you plan to sell, but probably not worth it if you just want people to check it out.
Hmm. Probably the best bet. I can probably get cheaper commissions from friends, at least. I need a cover, and... probably around a dozen more, if the pdf is around a hundred pages. Huh.

The third question, then: marketing. Is there any good, easy way to get the word out about, say, a self-publication on DriveThruRPG? (Beyond posting for you fine lot)

Cluedrew
2015-03-31, 07:41 AM
First let me say that it is completely awesome to see a home brewer get so far.

Second, a question that I don't think has been addressed, is do you want to make money off of this or do you just want to get it into people's hands? A related question would be how much money are you willing to spend to get it out their. I have no published works myself, and can't give any expert advice, but I think those things would help others help you.

Also I read STaRS a few months ago, thumbs up on your work.

Grinner
2015-03-31, 08:18 AM
Hmm. Probably the best bet. I can probably get cheaper commissions from friends, at least. I need a cover, and... probably around a dozen more, if the pdf is around a hundred pages. Huh.

The third question, then: marketing. Is there any good, easy way to get the word out about, say, a self-publication on DriveThruRPG? (Beyond posting for you fine lot)

There's Lulu, Smashwords, Amazon, etc. You could also just set up a free website and post it there.

DrivethruRPG might be your best bet, since it targets the RPG crowd. However, Paizo also has an online store, though I'm not sure if they focus solely on d20 products. Also, there are different kinds of publishing agreements, exclusive or inexclusive, and you may also need to register a business. Again, I think you need to do some research to see if all that's right for you.

Beleriphon
2015-03-31, 01:48 PM
I'm going to make a suggestion here. Make sure that you register a numbered corporation for this venture. Its pretty cheap in most places (under $100) and you can license the entire game to the company which allows you retain your copyrights. The reason I suggest this is it makes things much easier to work with other businesses, and protects you from any possible personal liability, even if you are the only shareholder and officer of the corporation.