Manuals, In-Game Text, and Credits - Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing - page 49

misspelling bugs (Bug 3456: Misspelled word: “L'ch'mok Du Aruk's Flaming Sword
of Phlegm� should be “L'c'hmok Du Aruk's Flaming Sword of Phlegm�) and wrongly
attached bugs (Bug 3457: Lady's Purse is labeled “Dungeon of Horror� in pop-up
text).
5.5 A Note about Credits
As mentioned earlier, credits are a big part of why manuals are the favorite part of the
box for game developers. Most developers like recognition and are thrilled to have
their name printed a million times in a million manuals showing off that they made
this incredibly wonderful game. What they don't like is to be mislabeled or left out.
There is nothing more sour and bitter than someone who has spent a good portion
of their lives creating a piece of software and not seeing their name amongst the other
people they worked with.
Unfortunately, the crediting issue is fraught with problems in the game industry.
The credits section is the place where petty egos go to hurt the people who they feel
slighted them during the development of the game. It's a place of low fidelity, of
last-minute sign-your-name-here-if-you-worked-on-the-game list creation. In other
words, it's a mess.
Further, the title for each role in the game differs from developer to developer.
A “Lead Designer� one place may be a “Creative Director� another place and just
“Game Designer� at still another place.
Lucky for you, the International Game Developer's Association has created a
whitepaper to help you out with their attempt at standardizing the crediting process.
If you are the person responsible for doing credits, you can access all the IGDA
Crediting Committee has to offer by going to the IGDA wiki at http://www.igda.
org/wiki/index.php/IGDA Credits and Awards Committee.
5.6 Conclusion
Hopefully, I've given you enough of a start that you feel better about writing a man-
ual. If there are only two things you must remember out of this chapter, they are the
following.
1. Keep it short.
2. Communicate a lot with the game development team.
Keeping to these two principles will go a long way to making a good, informative
manual.
5.7 Exercises
1. Write a short manual on how to drive a car. Include pictures or drawings of
the steering wheel, gauges, and foot pedals. Keep the manual fewer than three