A profesional looking game? bits and bobs.

[Pessi]

InCreator, you might want to take that "documents look awful" bit back. I've seen lots of electronic books that are exact copies of the originals. You can use vectors and images in PDF documents, for example. I don't understand why the documents should look awful. Please, elaborate.

For a reasonable readme or how-to-play document, the file size shouldn't be too big an issue, I reckon. For example, RodeQuest 2's Armbot Manual that has graphic content and text is 8 pages long and takes 400 kilobytes. I don't think that's an unreasonable size, even for a small game. It really added to the experience and in my opinion, was something that could not have been done with Notepad.

However, it's not to say that PDF is the way to go in all cases. I'm just saying you might be a bit unfair with judging PDF format. I think it's great for professional look and generally, any representation is more effective with some graphics. Notepad is great for small bits of instructions, bug fix documents, how to install documents and license agreements, for example. But I do believe PDF beats it when it comes to professional how-to-play documents and other perhaps more extensive representations.

HTML is also a very good idea, but it might not quite convey equally professional image.

[Gemmalah]

OK thanks guys

so in breakdown
I may need an installer but it can be annoying
A manual is important made in either acrobat reader or notepad (i don't have acrobat) maybe HTML (i'm lost on this front i thought you needed a special programme to run it)
I should/ should not winzip it ( will i need to put something on the disk to run it on the other end)

I like the menu screen Idea, Will definately be incorporated, i may have 4 options Run game, load game, quit, and show trailers!
This is supposed to be a demo so i can show off a bit with more trailers as it is supposed to be a selling point for a whole compendium.

last thing, i don't know what programmes or computer the examiner has on the other end, I don't want to fail because he can't see my game! Will AGS run alone and how do I put an installer thing on if i need to. If so  what is it under in the manual ect...