Planning PSX Book (Updated - See Last Page)

[Dangerboy]

Hello everyone,

So, I have been meaning to post this for a long time now, perhaps afraid to, because it would probably never get done anyway. Lately though, I think it is because I have no direction yet in how to approach such a beast. By beast, I mean the largest behemoth-like project I have ever tackled in my life.

That is, simply put, to write the ultimate PlayStation book(s) or 'guide'.

By ultimate, I do not necessarily mean “everything you could possibly know about each game”, but instead by actual enlightenment and entertainment value. With a library of over 1270 games, 130+ demos, 100+ Lightspan, and god knows what else, this could never be an encyclopedia; no one’s that bored or sits that long on the toilet.

So I do have a few ideas of what I’d like to do, and that’s have fun with it. It wouldn’t be a replacement for Game-Rave.com, but more like a companion to the ship. I could work on both pages (a title’s web-page and in-book page) at the same time to help try and speed up both. I know how the outside would look; how the set of books would look were it needed, and I’m starting to get a feel for the layout possibilities. However, one can not layout what one does not have – and that is a focus on content.

So I leave it to you, dear peers. If you had to spend your money on a book or series of books that covered the 2nd largest gaming catalog in US history, what would you want in it? I don’t mean like, “Reviews and stuff” I mean like:

a. Would you prefer flatbed scans of the box and CD, or just a single group photograph of the manual, disc, case?
b. Are you looking for humor, or serious banter?
c. How many screenshots for a game is too few? Or too many?
d. Just what information about a game are you looking for?
e. Do you care about variants? Sub-genres? Etc…
f. One insanely huge book, or smaller, say alphabetical sections (A-F, F-O, etc)
g. Fun things? Personal stories? Comics? Little mascot like character running around? etc...

Any all comments will be saved to text file and sorted. No honest comments will be shunned, and I will most likely use this as an open forum for further discussion of suggestions and the like. Be as specific as possible! Right now there is no definitive answer, only creative input.

Here’s to passion...

Thank you in advance,
Jason
www.game-rave.com

[strassy]

an apology for killing cartridge gaming! ha

[Dangerboy]

That's hysterical :D

And quick! Duly noted.

[Haoie]

If you or someone else is really working on this, you should strive to work with Playstationmuseum.org.

It's got invalulable data, and a lot of usable images [once you get permission anyway].

As a collector, I feel it's 1 of the few good PS1 tribute sites out there.

[thetoxicone]

an apology for killing cartridge gaming! ha

That definately is great. I'm not much of a playstation fan so I probably can't add much insight but if I were to pick something like that up I'd prefer it contain all that it could about the subject including variants and all the like. I wouldn't want to be reading something and then have to go elsewhere for the rest of the information that wasn't included.

[j_factor]

Actually, I think a full encyclopedia would be awesome. You don't even need screenshots. Just information on every single game (release date, publisher, developer, etc., you know, the basics), with cover scans, variant information, and so on. Preferably with your impressions on the games themselves. I would buy that.

[bcks007]

a: flatbed scans of the box and CD(s), and back of box, and manual.

b: either is good, both is better.

c: Unless the screen shot is showing a variant of the game, then just skip that. Box scans and cd(s), possibly manual scans are very important though.

d: Rarity, release date, company that released it, variants, product codes(slus, scus, and pdss, etc.), upc on back of box.

e: Do you care about variants? Yes very much so. :)
Sub-genres? Like listing them in rpg, action, fps categories? Its alright, but I would prefer in alphabetical order, or chronology(sp?) order. That would make it better, you could give each game there genre, but don't put each game on a certain section based on that.

f: Huge book.

g: Maybe a interesting facts like your website, those are nice reads.



Dangerboy, i read your latest front page post.
"Today's the day! Metal Gear Solid: Essentials Collection is released for the PlayStation 2, and it contains Metal Gear Solid in its original, 2 Disc PlayStation form! This is the first time a video game has had a variant release on a different system, on the same media."

Cough:rocker: there was kinda one before this. Do you collect ps2 games? If not, you might not know this, but for Hitman Trilogy, it comes with a bonus disc, thats inside the case for Hitman: Blood Money, its the Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (demo), as you know thats a ps3 game. You can't play the demo, but it still should be on a blueray disc right, it was put on a dvd. If your aware of this already, whoops. ;)

[evil_genius]

Info on variants might be cool.

[Blitzwing256]

if you're going to do screenshots, DON'T just do a couple from the first 5 minutes of a game, really go the extra mile and get shots from the more interesting parts of each game, more time consuming but really would add alot of readability to the book, espeicaally if you had some interesting shots of say the debug rooms in ff7 ff8 and tactics, or even that one unused area in ff7, just some interesting screenshots that would make people go "hey wheres that from? i need to play that again " etc etc. also a 4 page spread on how awesome hooters road trip is would be cool too ;-)

[PapaStu]

@ Blitzwing

He never has. If you look at the games he has posted reviews of on www.game-rave.com (http://www.game-rave.com/) you'll notice that DB actually plays through the games and screen caps through out and not just in the first 5 minutes.

4 pages on Hooters Road Trip? I don't think one could even HOPE to type 2 paragraphs about how bad it really is, let alone 4 pages.

[Oobgarm]

@ Blitzwing

He


@ Blitzwing

He never has. If you look at the games he has posted on www.game-rave.com (http://www.game-rave.com) you'll


@ Blitzwing

He never has. If you look at the games he has posted on www.game-rave.com (http://www.game-rave.com) you'll notice that

Quoting a rare triple-post. LOL ;)

[PapaStu]

Quoting a rare triple-post. LOL ;)

Dude, it wasn't a triple post it was like a ZOMG R@R3 15X post. I don't know what happened there

[Dangerboy]

If you or someone else is really working on this, you should strive to work with Playstationmuseum.org.

Haoie, I'm in contact with David on a not-quite-every-so-often basis. However, he and I are on different paths. His site is invaluable for the development / import side of the PSX, where I focus on the retail, actually released side. He helped out with another PSX Book that came before, and I would not want to soil the previous book's partnership.

Toxiclone, J_Factor
Noted. Thank you ^_^

bcks007
First full game then. :) Very interesting about the Demo though, I had no clue!

Excellent feedback so far guys! Keep it up.

[Flack]

Off the cuff I'd say I'd be much more likely to buy one book than a series of books, although I understand that this might limit the amount of information contained. I'm not sure how feasable a 1,000+ page book is, and if you want color ... yikes. I'm sure you can find cheaper printers, but at Lulu they charge you around $4 + .15 cents per page for a color book. That's $154 per book! (Black and white would only run you $24/book).

As far as content, I'd like all the standard info (name, developer, genre, etc.) followed by two or three paragraphs about the game. What I'd really like it stuff I can't find by simply playing the game. For example, maybe a paragraph about the developer or how the game came out or what it was based on, etc, followed by a paragraph about the gameplay and a final paragraph about the company, any sequels, etc. Maybe a note about any easter eggs or anything interesting like that. At the end of each one you could mentioned the variants briefly, like "Variants: 2 (big cover, small cover)" or something like that.

Of course I'd also like to read about the development of the PSX, the different models, and have pictures of all the 3rd party accessories and stuff.

Oh, and I'd like someone to help me carry this thick ass book around!!! :)

Let me know if I can help you along your journey.

[Dangerboy]

Of course I'd also like to read about the development of the PSX, the different models, and have pictures of all the 3rd party accessories and stuff.

System models I could do...there's no way all of the 3rd party accessory stuff could be tracked...there were insane amounts of shit cranked out for the PSX, and to a small degree there still is. I'd probably focus on the interesting ones / nifty ones (Dex Drive, Disc Drive, rumble based guncons, etc).

Sadly, it's have to be a black and white book. Readers could always go to the web-site to see the full color.

[Vectorman0]

I don't know if you are familiar with it, but ABC to the VCS (http://rolentapress.com/Products/ABC%20To%20The%20VCS%201/Preview.htm) is a good book that has a good concept that could be applied to the PSX library. I have never read it cover to cover, but I often flip through it or reference it. It basically covers every single 2600 game (some games multiple times for different game variations), and for each game it described the gameplay; many of the games have a screenshot. The only complaint I have about this book, is that it doesn't really discuss the quality of the games at all. While I realize this is hard to do in many cases as opinions vary, in many cases some games are just bad. Another downfall is that you will come across entries that you already know about, like combat. I think it would be good if you did something like this in your book, but kept it as simple as possible and added additional more specific information to keep the attention of those who are already familiar with it.

I think you should do something like ABC to the VCS, but do more, such as listing information about the game and other details you wouldn't be able to find anywhere else.


a. Would you prefer flatbed scans of the box and CD, or just a single group photograph of the manual, disc, case?

I think disc photos are overkill, unless there is something notable about a specific game. The front of the manual, or front insert is enough. The back inserts would be good too, but only if you could actually read the description; this seems unlikely since you will be cramming hundreds of them in there and shrinking them to conserve space.

b. Are you looking for humor, or serious banter?

It should be done seriously, but jokes thrown around can keep it fresh, sort of like DP guide entries. If you tried too hard to make jokes and they didn't go well, the book will be worse than with no jokes at all.

c. How many screenshots for a game is too few? Or too many?

I would say it varies from game to game depending on how many aspects of it you think need to be seen by the reader. For a shooter, one picture mid-gameplay could be enough; if you wanted more you could do a picture of a boss. For an RPG, you might want to have a cutscene picture, battle picture, world overview picture, etc. At a page per game, you are looking at over 600 pages. Pictures are definitely necessary, but should be kept to a minimum. I would say fewer bigger pictures are also better than more smaller ones.

d. Just what information about a game are you looking for?

This is the hardest thing of all your questions for me to nail down. Going back to ABC to the VCS, it would be good to hear how many of the games work. There are about 1300 PSX games, and I only know about a fraction of them and have played a much smaller amount. How the game works and plays should only be a part of each entry. I agree with what Flack suggested. Discuss everything from the gameplay to how the game came about and what followed it, or interesting related tidbits.

e. Do you care about variants? Sub-genres? Etc…

Variants aren't very important to most people, as they usually aren't that interesting. I wouldn't cover all of them in detail. You can mention them briefly in most cases, but it would be much better to save that space to talk more specifically about the ones that are more special, such as the Assassins Case, that MK variant that took you years to find, the seemingly non-existent Space Hulk longbox, etc.

f. One insanely huge book, or smaller, say alphabetical sections (A-F, F-O, etc)

One book is definitely better. If you did multiple books, I would prefer each book covered a different aspect of every psx game title, not only a portion of the library.

g. Fun things? Personal stories? Comics? Little mascot like character running around? etc...

Don't clutter the pages with pictures of Cloud and video game sprites. I would keep it simple. If you really wanted to do something like that, put them all together on some giant fold-out spread at the end of the book. Other sections like lore or trivia would be good, especially the trivia section. I'm not sure if I answered your question or not, let me know!

[Vectorman0]

Of course I'd also like to read about the development of the PSX, the different models, and have pictures of all the 3rd party accessories and stuff.

System models I could do...there's no way all of the 3rd party accessory stuff could be tracked...there were insane amounts of shit cranked out for the PSX, and to a small degree there still is. I'd probably focus on the interesting ones / nifty ones (Dex Drive, Disc Drive, rumble based guncons, etc).

Sadly, it's have to be a black and white book. Readers could always go to the web-site to see the full color.

You don't need to catalog all third party stuff, no one wants to read about crappy third party memory cards. Well, besides you. ;)

You should at least do a section on it and the notable, unique, stupid and crazy accessories the system has seen. You could also probably do a section on official ones since that would be small as well.

[Dangerboy]

You could also probably do a section on official ones since that would be small as well.


That would be a good idea. Especially since the PSX was the first with two memory card slots...or was it?

[Haoie]

Well, it's good to see you guys know each other and have worked on projects before, but I still make my point, if only for ease sake.

Anyway, 1 of my suggestions for this book/series is not to make it US centric. This is the way quite often.

There are lots of non US release titles too that are certainly worth your time too!!

And I don't just mean Japan, I mean PAL regions too [of which I'm a part of].

[Cinder6]

I like a lot of the suggestions so far. I'd rather not just hear your views on how the game is, but if you can find a general opinion on the game, that is fine. Talk about success and critical acclaim, if applicable. But in particular I'd want to know what to expect from each game.

I'd prefer to have one big book, but I do sort of like the idea of different books that look at different aspects of the entire library (one for variants, one for trivia, one for gameplay, etc.).

One thing I'd be really interested in is learning about influences in the game. For instance, finding out about various references to Greek, Norse, etc. mythology would be cool (obviously, where applicable).

As for scans, I'd prefer a flatbed scan of the front of the manual. If the game has notable variants (such as different disc arts and rear inserts for Working Designs games), you could show them. Screenshots, maybe one per game, or three or four for RPGs. If there's something particularly notable about one aspect of a game, an extra picture of that would suffice.

If you go through with this, good luck!

[Fuyukaze]

I'd like a full list that offered info like who released the game, a scan of the front of the game, parts #, UPC, year of release, number of blocks used on a memory card, and genre. Also, a cross refrence index would be nice. As far as anything actualy usefull, a small write up on either each game, or if not posible, a decent write up on each of the publishers (those still active and those not) listing any bits of trivia and where they are and if no longer in buisness, when they died. Also, a small bit on their more known titles. A limit of 2-5 games per company as needed according to the number of releases they had on the system. Another thing would be a small section dedicated to variants (could also be called the working designs section) and games that were announced but cancled at the last minute. Maybe list a few tidbits of easter eggs or such on some of the games as well.

All that said, I forgot to answer your individual questions....

a. Would you prefer flatbed scans of the box and CD, or just a single group photograph of the manual, disc, case?
Flatbed of front and box unless the game itself warrents the need thru variants.

b. Are you looking for humor, or serious banter?

Everyone loved a good joke but not every joke can stand the test of time. As the book(s) would be covering the life span of the system, you'd have to pick jokes that could last atleast a week so serious for the most part and very select about what jokes do make it.

c. How many screenshots for a game is too few? Or too many?

None. I realize people tend to want screen shots but if your getting the front and back of the CD case, more often then not you'll have your screen shots there. As has been pointed out in a good number of posts above, you'll already be using a great deal of images already. If it's in color, the cost would be insane.

d. Just what information about a game are you looking for?

I said it in the mess above all this but I'll say it again. Actualy usefull information. Stuff like the company that released it, the year it was released, the parts #, the UPC, developer (if posible), memory blocks used, number of players, and controlers supported. Also if it was a net link game or not. Yeah, not many games after launch supported hooking up multiple systems but a few did. Another thing is if it got a GH release or a pack together release. Some games like the spyro series, GTA series, and others eventualy got a 3 for one package. It'd be nice to know what went GH as well as pack.

e. Do you care about variants? Sub-genres? Etc…

Variants deserve their own section, the stuff from WD alone is enough to drive most people nuts. I couldnt care much about sub-genres though.

f. One insanely huge book, or smaller, say alphabetical sections (A-F, F-O, etc)

One book to rule them all, one book to....forget that part, I'd like something different. Rather then do it by the alphabet, How about by years of release? Sure, some would be larger then others but over all you'd know from the start how many books there'd be and it'd give you the ability to re-use or, if you have the ability, to include updated info for companies as they changed over that particular year. It'd also give you the ability to let the readers know when any of the publishers droped out of the race.

g. Fun things? Personal stories? Comics? Little mascot like character running around? etc...

Fun things? This is video games, I thought that was fun....
Personal stories would be good but from which side? Industry? Gamer? I could care less one way or the other. Not big on comics but once again, care less one or other. Lil mascot charcters could be good. Depends how they look.

[The 1 2 P]

What I'd really like to see is a list of all the many titles that never got released with some sort of back story for each.

[bcks007]

What is the MK variant that was mentioned earlyer?

[Matt-El]

The recent Pre-NES book I peeked at MGC did a page by page picture variant price guide listing. Quite size consuming possibly, but an idea, nonetheless.

[poloplayr]

an apology for killing cartridge gaming! ha

:)

WORD!

[rolenta]

b. Are you looking for humor, or serious banter?

One of the biggest complaints I get about Phoenix is that the book is so void of humor, that it's dry. This is intentional. I don't think a reference book should be humorous. If the content doesn't keep the reader coming back, then that doesn't say much for the content.

If I want humor, I'll read a joke book.

[Poofta!]

first of all, my initial thought was "there already is one, done by a forum member already"
which led me thinking it doesnt matter, im sure your take on it all and your collection is vastly different than his, and since youre one of the two PS1 pros around here, and the PS1 is quite possibly my favorite console for which i have, by far, the most games for (even though the NES was my first), i say HOORAH!

*maniacal joe voice* LETS DO THIS!


a. Would you prefer flatbed scans of the box and CD, or just a single group photograph of the manual, disc, case?
b. Are you looking for humor, or serious banter?
c. How many screenshots for a game is too few? Or too many?
d. Just what information about a game are you looking for?
e. Do you care about variants? Sub-genres? Etc…
f. One insanely huge book, or smaller, say alphabetical sections (A-F, F-O, etc)
g. Fun things? Personal stories? Comics? Little mascot like character running around? etc...


a) group photo by far, its a little annoying to have 3 pages/pictures of what can essentially be 1. good zoom/resolution makes scans unnecessary, and since this isnt for very detailed view of the items condition, photos are great. but please: COLOR ! nothing is more sad than b&w pics of material thats meant to be colorful

b) a little bit of both. but honestly id prefer humor, it can get *very* tedious reading serious discussion on a topic you know a lot about and learning nothing new, just regurgitation of facts... humor and your own personal cynical/sarcasstic spin *will* make it a very amusing read!

c) too few: 1, depending on game, 2 may be too few too. most worthless screenshot: the title screen. this says *nothing* about the game. same goes for a cgi cut scene.. 2 pics of actual gameplay is great for most games (not both of the first 5 minutes of the game). but like for driving game, 1 screen shot is enough if its nicely details... maybe a 2nd one just to show how the engine renders many cars or the lineup etc. for side scrollers 1-2 is good, same goes for RPGs. so maybe 1 isnt too few though... but if 1 screenshot is of a cut scene or title screen, then it must be accompanied by some gameplay photos.

d) some of this stuff may be hard to find out but:
release date,
genre + subgenre,
packaging includes...
developer/publisher,
print run,
rarity,
maybe initial price,
# of players,
approximate length of completion,
difficulty?,
if there are any sequels/prequels,
a "if you liked this... try this" mention,
maybe also a "better than... worse than..." mention (last 2 came as ideas from some magazine reviews).
years in development?

e) guess i already mentioned this before but: yes varients are interesting to note, along w/ which is the rarer one. genres: YES! should probably be like 3 step process:
step 1 - main genre ie: rpg, action, adventure, shooter, card game, strategy etc
step 2 - descriptive genre: Strategy RPG (for rpgs), real time or Turn based Strategy (for strategy games), side scroller, isometric, for shooters this can be very tricky, depends on how you define the main catagory -- if you make 'shooter' mean any game that has you shooting most of hte time then this will have to have a 2nd genre of either shmup/fps/3rdpersion etc.
step 3 - story generation (ie: fantasy, sci-fi, alternate history).

overall i think the genre thing is so hard to do and very very few place (if any) did it right. this is your chance to make a definitive description of ps1 games!

f) i think breaking it up into 300 page affairs is the best way to go. and i know this chance the cost a lot, but a hardcover is soooooo much more awesome than softcover

g) fun things sure, personal stories? kept to a bare minimum, a foreword is of course a great place to put it, explain why this book exists and your personal history w/ the system. if youre writing about dev hardware or a game you had personal impact on, then that is definately worth mentioning (or like i know, Sony actually asks you for info on some of their own games). but dont turn this into a memoir. (and of course dont use "I" when talking about games unless this is a direction of the book you wish to take throughout)

comics - if theres a comic that perfectly describes a game, hell yes! i know many pvp/penny arcade strips directed at certain games are wonderful, but it may be difficult to secure rights to do that.

mascot running around? meh... last time i saw a mascot in/around something i was doing (microsoft paperclip) i wanted to slaughter it. then again, Coconut Monkey was awesome (PCGamer).

this is accompanied by a PM.

[Dangerboy]

Hey Everyone,

We're getting some AMAZING ideas here, and I can tell that the expectations seem very high as to what would be wanted in such a book.

A random comment sparked an interesting thought that attached itself to someone else's random comment.

I have currently begun sketching out the first idea of what a game's "panel" (basically it's section on a page) would look like, and it's becoming clear that there needs to be a viable set of options available to the reader.

One of the current concerns with a "all in one book" is that there would need to be MASSIVE amounts of shorthand when it came to tech specs and the like; that's not an issue. Where space becomes an issue is the actual descriptive area, which becomes limited to roughly 4 sentences, tops.

This left me to come up with a rather...unique idea.

Once I have these ideas more fleshed out, I'll present them and explain the reasoning behind it.

Please keep the ideas flowing in! I really, really do appreciate it, and truth be told, have already selected 2 for sure. ^__^

[Haoie]

Hold on, what's the book that exists already?

Title and author, and maybe a review would be nice.

[bcks007]

*cough* What is the MK variant that was mentioned earlyer?

[Dangerboy]

Haoie

Kevin Bryan, who used to frequent the boards quite often, released a 142 page book called "A Guide to the Sony PlayStation", which is for sale at $30 or Free to download PDF at:
http://www.lulu.com/content/199464

The problem with the book, which the reviewer points out, is that it's really just a slightly extended version of the Digit Press Advance Guide's PSX section with some features tossed in.

I'm looking to provide a very large photograph / screenshot archive that explains all the variants, missed gems, etc.

bcks

That would be the jewel case variant to the long box. Please refer to here:

http://www.game-rave.com/psx/playstation_perfect_guide/releasedgames/mortal_kombat_3/index.html

[Dangerboy]

Okay, here's the first concept page. In trying to determine what was too small for a screenshot, I referenced the DP Guide. This is set-up on a 8 x 10 page

Please note that this page design is based on the condensed, "black and white" version (even though its in color), at 4 games per page.

http://www.game-rave.com/full_page_portable_web.jpg

The screenshots, though viewable, seem useless at the size without color. So the option would be to remove them, slide the information bar over, and allow the paragraph area to be wider, and allow for more room to disuss / list variants and the like.

The info bar would be shorthand, with the "key" explained at the beginning of the book.

Bear in mind that even at 4 games a page, that's 320 pages without demos, hardware etc.

I'll be looking over the pricing ideas later this week, which will help set-up what could truly be done.

It's looking like it would have to be more than one book, however.

[Blitzwing256]

i'd certianly purchase a series of books if it meant more content,
a simmilar project was done for transformers (i beleive they were called transmanuals?) and the first few were very nice with lots of pictures and info on the early years, (never bought the last two) much better then a singular book that gives marginal info on each item.

[The 1 2 P]

Just don't forget to add the section on the many vaperware titles that either neither saw the light of day or only made an appearance as a demo or beta. Speaking of demos, do I even have to ask you to add that part to the book?

[Poofta!]

page looks good. another option might be instead of screen shots, put in back cover, which would also provide some screenshots...


either way, the set up is very nice =]

i would pay for a color copy.

[koster]

IMHO, screenshots for video games should be in color, and how many to show per game can vary greatly. Certain games may only need one or two, while other games would benefit from much more than that.

Have you considered the possibility of creating a companion DVD of game screenshots for the book? It would be nice to view screenshots that would be very close (if not identical) to what someone playing the game would see.

[Dangerboy]

So I had an alternative idea on how the book would need to be laid out; the "not every game needs the same space" comment a user made to me in #vbender has taken this to a different standpoint.

I need to sit down and figure out all the variant images needed (long box, gh, etc) for any game that has one, demo discs included (yes, even demos have variants). Once I get that sorted out, I could then start to work out templates for the needed footage of each game.

I think to truly make this the end-all-be-all it's going to have to be multiple volumes, and by multiple, I mean more than 3. Setting up the multiple books would require an interesting adjustment; that is how to have "everything" in a book when it only has a "chunk" of it.

The idea would be to have several volumes spread out - let's say 5 just because it's my number.

a. The book's feature content would be say 1/5th of the Alphabet. This will be for the photos, scans, variant data, background data, etc. The true meat of the book.

b. To help keep each volume set with a complete list of games, there would be two options available - a minimilist checklist a la Digitpress style for record keeping - which would be in every book. This would allow anyone to grab any volume if they wanted to see specific games in a certain alphabetical slot, but have access to the complete list.

It would also allow me to make amendments to the list, should there need to be any, with each next book so that the list isn't outdated instantly.

The other list would be changed for curiosity purposes - one book's 2nd list could be sorted by release order; the next volume's sorted by company, the next volume's sorted by genre, etc.

Cost factors...

Color is going to be very, very expensive. 100 pages alone is about $20 making cost. Same page count at black and white is $7. This is still being researched however. I am sticking with publish-on-demand sites because I can not afford the upfront fees, much less have room to store a bunch of books.

As much as I would love to do a DVD / CD add-on with the images and the like, not only would that add to the cost of the book, but I do not want a media that can be instantly copied and dumped on a newsgroup thread after a single purchase. Not only that, but my html skills are not up to snuff, and having seen how different my web-site looks on different compuers, I wouldn't want to release something that could be a 100% same in each person's hands.

Truth be told, I have been thinking about attempting a book of a much smaller calibur, focused on something entirely different to try and get a running start at it. I mean....a LOT smaller. More on this later.

Keep the feedback coming. There is a LOT of work to do. ^_^

[Haoie]

Don't be too ambitious.

A lot of people are telling you I want this, I want that. There's no way to please them all.

Think about your budget and time constraints, distribution, etc.

Yeah, I'm a realist. An undertaking like this is hard enough already.

[Poofta!]

i like your multivolume idea.

give people the option to get color, 100p/20$ isnt that bad. this is a very very amazing book that someone with a passion for the subject would appreciate.

[Dangerboy]

Hey Guys and gals,

Figured I'd just update ya'll to show the project is not dead, but growing very nicely. If this were a planned pregnancy, I'd say we're at the "romantic dinner" part of the conception night. :)

In designing the book, no matter what I tried to do, there was just no right way to cram more than one game on a page - especially with what I want to provide in terms of content and the like.

That said, I figured I'd show you an 80% complete -template- of what a "game with no variant" page would look like laid out. Bear in the mind the text is just filler; not even the font is correct. That said...

http://www.game-rave.com/jam.jpg

Obviously the text in the data area will be justified, but this is what the going idea is so far. I'm planning on having at least 3 templates, plus flipped per game type (no variant, 1 variant, 2 variant, etc) so that even if two games of the same type are on facing pages, they won't seem repetitive.

For example, in this template I can drop the 2nd row of text and get in 2 more screen shots, for RPGs where you need to get an idea of the multiple play areas.



The work continues...keep tossing in the ideas as they come to you.

...

No pun intended. ^o^

(watermark on page for © reasons)

[RPG_Fanatic]

That looks great, only if it would be in color like that. I hope you do a color version of your book I would pay a premium for it or a limited color version that would be sweet!!!!

[Dangerboy]

RPG:

That would be the plan, full color. I'm going to take this beyond the lulu.com thing and see if I can get an advance / funding / publisher once I get everything laid out and put to paper.

That way a real editor could suffer through my words ^o^

[Buyatari]

RPG:

That would be the plan, full color. I'm going to take this beyond the lulu.com thing and see if I can get an advance / funding / publisher once I get everything laid out and put to paper.

That way a real editor could suffer through my words ^o^

Sure its not about the money but take note.

If you plan to make any money at all then self publish it.

You will sell less copies ,get less exposure but will actually make some money. It is doubtful you will make anything with a publisher.

Ask Joe for tips. He self publishes the DP guide.