The bright side of this is as the customer base grows the less tutorial information will be needed.
I mean look at PDS. They don't even bother with manuals. All useful material other than tool tips are produced by their customers.
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But to be honest ... if this game and FOG2 had not come with excellent manuals, I would have thought less of both you and Richard. Because I think the expectation of making customers do your job for you is somewhat arrogant. Clearly, for Empires and FOG2, there are wonderful videos that give insight into game strategies. I don't think the documentation needs to be that extensive, but it alone should be sufficient that someone can play decently on balanced difficulty level and have a good time. I would say the the both game manuals were a few times beyond that. I was pleased with both games.
Also, as a software engineer, I always required the writing of high level docs before the coding. If it is impossible to coherently explain in plain language how something is to work, then there is a good chance it is flawed and cannot be coded. So, much less expensive to find this out by writing 10-30 pages than months of coding. So, in a way, a players manual is the first validity check of concepts.
Oh, as long as I am rambling (I think I can do that as a senior now) ... one of thing Empires does very well is the graphical combat presentation. The old AGEOD games contained that much information and more, but Empires ... if you just watch a days worth of battles ... you get a good sense of what is going on and how you can improve your outcomes. Although the old titles were very detailed, battles did not leap off the screen and fill your mind with many insights.
So, you are a team of one. But just think of how much time you get to save on senseless meetings!
