Sunday 12 April 2015

Help

Hello everyone! 

I trust you're all suitably panicked by the dramatic post title. Well, the time has come for me to actually write a help section for new players. There'll be a button added to each page and they all need their own help topic.

That's where you come in. I sometimes get messages from people asking if they can help with development, and I usually turn them down. This time though, I think it would be helpful if I can call on the community to assist.

So far I've done all the coding and I've written two help pages and started a third. That's the main menu, scene viewer, and wardrobe screen topics.
If people want to contribute to Newlife, then it would be very helpful if you could write up a help page similar to (or better than) the example in the screenshot below and either message me with it or post it as a comment.

Help pages I need include:
- One for every screen except the help one. Remaining are the character screen, relationship browser, character creation screen, male character creation and week planner.
- A simple "getting started" page with advice for new players on starting a game. I'm going to write up a blog page with screenshots and link it from this, but there should also be an in-game help page for people without internet access.
- Maybe some pages for game concepts, although I might hold off on writing these for the first release. If there are specific topics you think that new players will want to know about though, then by all means write me a page for them!

Help pages are just written in html, so no need for Java code. The above set are the ones that need to be done before the next release, so if any haven't been submitted by the time all the other changes are ready then I'll write them myself.



Thanks for any help you can give, and of course it's fine if you aren't able to contribute. Have a great week :)

7 comments:

  1. Dont think you need a help Page. If player need a help Page for your game, the player got biger problems thea your game ::p

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    Replies
    1. That's my sentiment as well. The game is self-explanatory enough that I don't see a lot of people using a separate help page. I could see adding a box to some of the screens that display contextual information a la the character creator. That would be useful anyway for showing information about items the player owns or traits they have, as well as for displaying an interface function.

      And to be honest, "help contribute to the help pages" doesn't have quite the same ring to it as "help contribute to the ten person office gangbang scene".

      Delete
    2. Tough. I've made the screen and integrated it into the UI, so it's staying :P

      I might add an info box to the character screen with information about traits and so on as well, but that won't be in the next version.

      And of course writing the help pages is a bit dull... that's why I'm hoping someone else will want to do it!

      Delete
  2. Can I help program/build the game I know Java script so I know how to helpish.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the offer, but I prefer to handle the programming myself.

      Delete
  3. The only thing I had trouble with when starting was clothes.

    Everything else was self-explanatory.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I did feel writing a line in the help page to explain what the "Load Game" button does might be a little excessive, but outfit creation definitely needed something.

      Delete