OK, so at the moment I am polishing off the electronic version of Best Friends so that it is in line with the new printing. Mainly this involves hyperlinking the Index.
What do you feel you like to provide/get from electronic versions of games?
For Best Friends I'll be providing
* A PDF that looks like the book but with some colour.
* A PDF without artwork that is designed for saving ink when printed, it also can be read aloud by Reader.
* Some exclusive Wallpapers.
* Play sheets as separate PDFs.
I used to provide the text as an RTF file but I've just gone with the simple PDF instead -- less work and I never got any feedback on the utility of the RTF file.
Taking advantage of the format
Submitted by Matt on Sun, 05/08/2007 - 22:49.
I do wonder if there isn't more you could do with PDF... It has that whole scripting thing built in, and there's embedding of media. One of the companies I do articles for produces a e-zine with all kinds of extras.
For example: Say, rather than do two versions one ink heavy one ink light, you do one and set it up to switch between modes. Or embed a few actual play examples in the file.
That kind of thing.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
I suppose you could even
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Mon, 06/08/2007 - 00:59.
I suppose you could even imbed links to actual play reports vodcasts and the like. Character sheet would be a deal breaker for me, it must be available to print out easily. To be honest I have never bought a PDF, I prefer owning the book!
If the books is colour then a black and white version would be a must for me.
Cheers
Iain
Mob Justice now available!
'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.
Bookmarks and links
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Mon, 06/08/2007 - 18:03.
Forgot to say that the main PDF has a host of bookmarks and many hyperlinks (both within the document and also pointing to URLs too).
I'd like to bundle MP3s with the e-book, but I wonder if I might instead put that content on webspace rather than in a product download from an e-shop.
Also, for some stat heavy games a worksheet for Excel can be a good idea.
Context
Submitted by Matt on Tue, 07/08/2007 - 08:37.
is the most valuable bit of embedding. It means you can marry up audio with relevant sections of rules (rather than hunting around).
-Matt
Realms Publishing