

Never Read the Manual. - dunkjmcd
http://www.diaryofanappdeveloper.com/post/18691420746/never-read-the-manual

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kiba
I include a game manual anyway, in addition to a future seamless
tutorial/game. I know time is a limited resource, but in my case, game
development is on a timescale of decades, not a few years.

If it's going to be in development for a few decade, or even longer, I am
going to give players every possible resource on how to play my game. It will
be youtube, in game tutorial, in game manual, question and answers, etc.

Otherwise, I agree with the idea on allocating resource to an interactive
tutorial.

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brador
Any examples of games that have been in developed over decades (indie, own or
retail)? Can't think of any other than Duke...

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kiba
Dwarf Fortress is about ten years old. Battle for Wesnoth is in development
for 9 years. BZFlag is in development since 1992. Freeciv is in development
since 1996.

The only game that in that particular list that is still in major continuous
development is Dwarf Fortress. Everybody else is a completed game that is
still improvement.

Duke doesn't really count, since their development is not really cumulative.

Commercial development tend to develop really intensely for several months to
a short few years and make all their money in a few months. The're short term
motivated and they will never develop their game beyond that. Yet, they took
the equivalent of several decade of development time and never seems to goes
beyond 40 hours gameplay.

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rogerbinns
One of my pet peeves is returning to a game later. So many of them have
"tutorials" or similar initial levels showing you how to play the game. You
come back a month or two later and have forgotten the finer details and there
is no quick summary to jog your memory. You often have to throw away current
progress in order to start from the tutorial again, and the tutorial is
tedious because you have already played it.

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dunkjmcd
Haha. Sorry Taze. Thanks for reminding me.

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TazeTSchnitzel
whatshisname? How dare you insult Om Nom by forgetting his true name!

