Know your game!

When you are familiar with all aspects of a game, creating content for it becomes a lot easier. Ask questions when in doubt!

Save Often!

The Dized Content Creation Tools are still being worked on, so there might be unexpected behavior!

Start with the Rules

This will help you analyze the rules of the game thoroughly and will already start the process of structuring the flow in your head.

Progress in Phases

If you’re creating Dized Tutorials or Extras, start with creating a functioning flow before you start animating.

The biggest undertaking is typically the visual work, including creating animations. Make sure you have a very good idea what will be needed before you really get into it. After the first flow is in place, there might be big changes that need to be made along with any animations already done.

Typical order of progress when creating a Dized Tutorial:

Learn the game well. Playtest alone and with a group. Make mental notes on what is important to get the game going.

​ Create Dized Rules. You can add placeholder images for now. Artwork is typically added later.

Design how to teach the game. Break the rules a part, figure out what is essential to know at what point.

Create a functioning, interactive story flow (playtest!)

Create visuals (Game Components and UI elements such as buttons)

Spend some time to create a "master step", where ALL elements are PERFECTLY in place. You will use this for copy-pasting!

Create animations (playtest!)

Add audio (voiceover, music and SFX)

Go through the final checklists and do any final polishing (playtest!)

Publish!

Focus on User Experience

It’s easy to focus on creating good looking content and forget what it’s actually meant for, who’s using it, where, and how. For example, when designing and optimizing content with a 27″ monitor it's very typical to forget, that players are likely using the content with a smart device that has a 5″ screen. Or, designing soundscapes using studio headphones or speaker systems probably provide a very different experience on a smart phone speaker.

While this angle looks good on your monitor, the camera is far away from the assets. And there is too much space on the sides. Smaller screens will have trouble seeing the cards.

The camera is closer to assets and they fill the guide-lines on screen. Card text visible with a mobile devices as well. It's totally fine if all the assets do not fit in the camera view, as long as the objects that are being taught are in view.

Use camera animation if you need to focus on assets that are far apart! Or if you want to show a wide image, then use camera animation to zoom in for details.

Have clear UI elements and avoid using one UI element both as a button and just as a visual element. Buttons should have a uniform look, and should differ from other visual elements used. Also make sure that elements, such as buttons, that should not have a shadow, don't have one.

Also, to be in line with all other tutorials, organize buttons so that the positive answer is ALWAYS on the right side (as that’s the side where the forward buttons are too). Ask questions so that the expected (default) answer is the positive one. For example: “Are you playing with a new copy of the game?”. Yes is likely, as players are currently in a tutorial to learn the game.

Share Ideas and Consult Others

The Dized Content Creator Community on Discord is working with the Dized tools and on all sorts of different projects. Sharing ideas and asking questions is an efficient way to get better results!