Does anyone know what kind of manual or guide will come with Coldstone? Nothing published, just electronic, perhaps? Also, how easy will it be for someone who is BASICally a novice at computer prgramming to understand (heavy jargon, etc.)?

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Coldstone will come with tutorials on how to make a game.

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"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Muad'Dib

i read that you don't need any kind of previous programming experiance to use coldstone. i sure hope not, as i have no experiance whatsoever.

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Posted by Duckboy:
i read that you don't need any kind of previous programming experiance to use coldstone. i sure hope not, as i have no experiance whatsoever.

Yup. That's what I've heard too.
Coldstone will be very user friendly, and pretty simple to get a hang of.
Maybe Dee can back me up on that one

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In Nomeni Patri Et Fili Spiritus Sancti
It's not so bad being trendy, everyone who looks like me is my friend.
•Reel Big Fish

Looking back at Ambrosia's previous documentation, I'd say it's safe to assume that there won't be a published manual per sé. It's far more likely that they'll release a DOCmaker or PDF file manual than a published one, largely because a great deal of their clientelé downloads rather than ships their products. And yes, it has been mentioned that a step by step tutorial will be included with Coldstone.

-Andiyar

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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"

Well, Andiyar, there won't be a printed manual (most likely) for a much simpler reason.
Printed manuals require money. Text files are free.

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"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Muad'Dib

Yes, there will be a large and fairly in-depth manual, as well as a tutorial to get you started.

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quitcherbellyachin.
---
New Fortress of Die Nacht released! (12/20) (url="http://"http://aviary.damnsw.net")Download it from here!(/url) | | (url="http://"http://aviary.damnsw.net/downloads/dienachtd5.sit")direct download(/url) | | (url="http://"http://aviary.damnsw.net/fortress/progresslog.html")Progress Log (12/20)(/url)

Printed or text file?

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"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Muad'Dib

Coldstone comes with 3 PDF files:

• Coldstone User Manual.pdf (4MB - 87 illustrated pages)

• Coldstone Game Tutorial.pdf (884k - 31 illustrated pages)

• Coldstone Plugin Tutorial.pdf (12k - 4 pages)

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Dee Brown
Beenox inc. - (url="http://"http://www.beenox.com")www.beenox.com(/url) (check our new web site!)
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/coldstone/")Coldstone Game Engine(/url) / (url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/games/pog/")Pillars of Garendall(/url) developers

Coldstone is very very easy to use so no, one does not need to know any programming...Time is a problem though

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"Well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder."
"AARGH! MY SPINAL ERECTORS!!!!"

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Originally posted by Dee:
**Coldstone comes with 3 PDF files...
**

#%*%! PDFs are crap.

Oh, well, we can print them or export to a text file which will be readable on screen.

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

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Originally posted by Joe Burnette:
**#%*%! PDFs are crap.

**

yea, but you can do a lot more with them than regular text files (ie. ones form simpletext)

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In Nomeni Patri Et Fili Spiritus Sancti
It's not so bad being trendy, everyone who looks like me is my friend.
•Reel Big Fish

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Originally posted by Bean *:
**yea, but you can do a lot more with them than regular text files (ie. ones form simpletext)

**

You can do almost anything with PDFs except read them

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

Its only the most popular and easily exchangeable file format for going between different OS's. Just download the FREE acrobat viewer. Its free.

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"Dont be angry, not everyone can be as cool as me."
" "Genghis Khan," he said, "you are a wanker; you are a tosspot; you are a very tiny piece of turd. Thank you." With that he retreated into his ship and flew off.
The was a nasty kind of silence.
Later that year Genghis Khan stormed into Europe in such a rage that he almost forgot to burn down Asia before he left." Douglas Adams

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Originally posted by Joe Burnette:
**You can do almost anything with PDFs except read them:)

**

COuld you explain? I have no problems reading PDF files at all. I'm pretty sure there are PDF readers for Windows, too.

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"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Muad'Dib

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Originally posted by Celchu:
** Could you explain? I have no problems reading PDF files at all. I'm pretty sure there are PDF readers for Windows, too.

**

Not 'read' as in 'open', 'read' as in 'read'. He's commenting upon how hard it is to actually read the text in a PDF file, probably due to the fact that you have to zoom each file individually to read it properly. At least, I think that's what he means.

-Andiyar

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"Any good that I may do here, let me do now, for I may not pass this way again"

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Originally posted by Tarnćlion Andiyarus:
**Not 'read' as in 'open', 'read' as in 'read'. He's commenting upon how hard it is to actually read the text in a PDF file, probably due to the fact that you have to zoom each file individually to read it properly. At least, I think that's what he means.:)

-Andiyar

**

OMG the horrors of having to use the magnifying glass tool!

Seriously, as long as we're on the subject, let me offer this piece of advice. When it comes time for you (you meaning everyone, not just the person I'm quoting above) to release your first CS game, you will want some kind of documentation. For a lot of people, this document will become their first impression of what you've created, therefore the more professional looking the document is, the greater the chance that your audience will react enthuastically to what they've just downloaded.

Anything longer or more involved than a simple progress log should be done in something more sophisticated than a simple text document. Web savy people should be able to create a very nice html formated manual full of graphics and links to take the reader anywhere he wants to go quickly. For the rest of us, (like myself) creating a PDF document is a good alternative.

When making these documents, remember that the details count. Don't spend six months or a year making a game and then only devote half and hour to the documentation. Proofread everything several times, make sure you have no spelling or grammar mistakes. And for the love of all that right and good, please please please use a front that is readable -- do not write a 20 page manual in Old English Text! For that matter, don't use an ugly system font like Geneva either. Nice serif fronts like TimesTen, Palatino, Caslon, and Veljovic are the easiest on the eyes for large bodies of text.

(/endrant)

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--
Mauglir

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Originally posted by Tarnćlion Andiyarus:
**Not 'read' as in 'open', 'read' as in 'read'....
**

Give the man a cigar

Sure, you can enlarge a page in Acrobat; then instead of tiny fuzzy gray text, you have large fuzzy gray text which is still a pain to read. It may be possible to produce truly legible text in a PDF, but I haven't seen one yet - including those that I make.

Mauglir: good points on designing documentation. It's really annoying to get software that has a poorly written and poorly designed manual. Far too many developers neglect that aspect.

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Joe Burnette
"I find that humans can be divided into only two meaningful categories: Decent Humans and Sonsofbitches; both types appear to be evenly distributed
among all shapes, colors, sizes, and nationalities." -- Keith Laumer

And if we are French and we don't speak English very well ?? I think I've to learn it !

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: : Delete : :

Sorry Joe, I did not realize that your monitor was fuzzy. Discussion dropped.

BTW, very good advice, Mauglir.

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"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear's path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." - Muad'Dib

(This message has been edited by Celchu (edited 01-08-2002).)