AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Find detailed help from the AAO community, or write your own tutorials.

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E.D.Revolution
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by E.D.Revolution »

I'm still looking for experienced and veteran authors to post up advice or content to this guide. I feel like I'm missing some content. They don't need to be specific. Just general advice that is in the scope of the thread.

Also, I would appreciate it if newbie authors give their feedback on this comprehensive guide.
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by Phantom »

I think it's too hard to contribute anything new, comprehensive indeed xP
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by AP-Master »

This guide is REALLY good, to put it in a few words xD

On my part, I really don't have anything to say for feedback, the guide really appeals to me. If I must say something, I ask that the part of "playing other featured trials to know what must be done" must be highlighted a bit more.
English Section - Visit my Sprite Castle!: http://aceattorney.sparklin.org/forum/v ... =30&t=5716
Sección Española - Visita mi Castillo de Sprites! [Peticiones ABIERTAS]: http://aceattorney.sparklin.org/forum/v ... =31&t=7792
¡Aprende a Spritear! - http://aceattorney.sparklin.org/forum/v ... =31&t=7838
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by E.D.Revolution »

Updated the thread with more content.
From Planning - Pre-Writing and Research
  • Play through the Featured Trials in AAO, and also pay attention to the reviews/feedbacks that other users made about those trials (and other non-featured trials, if you have the time). Learning the correct way of doing things by seeing them yourself in action will help you get your ideas in the right way.
  • Decide which path your case will follow: a Novel orientation, or a Game orientation.
    • If you want to drive the player through a fixed story of emotion, conflicts and solutions, you are going for the Novel orientation (a Visual Novel, which is what Capcom did with Trials & Tribulations and Apollo Justice). This means you have to put a special focus on storytelling and character development (the player won't have a lot of control over the direction the case takes) AAO Example: Hope Springs Hotel.
    • If you want the player to work his way through conflicts by controlling a protagonist character, you are going for the Game orientation (the prime characteristic to a videogame is the decisions the player can make. The first Ace Attorney had a LOT of dialogue decisions to make). This means that you have to focus on the player interaction with the development of the story: the player MUST feel that he was the responsible of the case's ending.
Credits to AP-Master for the above.

From Execution/Presentation - Preparing the Trial Thread
  • Put effort to writing up a summary/synopsis of your trial/series. The best way to get people to start to take interest in your case is if you put effort into writing up a summary on the thread. That way, people will know what they can expect when they read it. Don't make the standard I Suck at Summaries excuse. That gives the reader an excuse, excuse the pun, to not play through your trial.
  • Advertise your trial correctly. Don't say it's a serious trial when it's a comedy. Don't say it's an AJ era case when it's a DD era case. If you're not getting the right kind of criticism (i.e. getting criticism aimed for a AJ era case when your case is a DD era case), then maybe you need to look at how you advertised your trial.
From Reviews and QAs - Preparing for the General Crowd
  • Don't make excuses for any mistakes that you have made. Own up to it. When another author has pointed out any mistakes you have made, don't dismiss it with an excuse. Address the issue either by talking about it or actually fixing it. Most newbie trials are small enough that changes can be made. This means that you have less room to make excuses.
    The following is a sample of the most commonly used excuses made:
    • Don't Like, Don't Play. This is the most tired excuse that has ever been made. And worse, every time it's invoked, it's used as a crutch to ignore legitimate criticism. Nobody has ever used this excuse correctly. You cannot make this excuse after the first reviews come in. Why? It's never a legitimate argument. The only way this can be used correctly is if you put up a content warning in the main post BEFORE any review comes in. After that, you lose legitimacy.
    • I Can't Change The Stuff. That's a big lie. Again, as stated above, most trials are small enough that you can go back to the editor and make the necessary changes. The Editor ALLOWS you to make the changes. If you invoke this excuse, you will be branded as lazy. And even worse, a liar. You might have an excuse if your trial is large (I'm talking about having a trial north of 2500 frames). However, even the best authors have been able to make the necessary changes with an even bigger frame count, so this excuse is even more diminished.
(For above, I need more standard excuses so I can put it on the list)[/list]


From the HELPFUL TIPS!
  • Being a novice does not give you immunity to criticism.
    AP-Master wrote:Being a novice means that you have no previous experience in making your own case. A lot of the aspects that define a good game are not necessarily determined by experience. After all, there are a lot of masterpieces out there that were the author's first work! If you prepare yourself properly before starting your work, you can certainly have your own masterpiece to present! So please, don't demand people to overlook your mistakes because you are a rookie.
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by Phantom »

Holy moly i reread the guide just now and it has shaped up to be even more useful then it already was. Nice work on that ED.
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by E.D.Revolution »

Thanks, dude. The things I do when I'm bored and look at what I've written/formatted. I'm still looking for stuff to add, even though it looks complete. Cuz I'm never going to be completely convinced it'll ever be complete. :P

On another note.

By golly, this restriction is ridiculous. Not because of the punishment, but because I don't get to see when you make the post. It also doesn't show up when I'm checking my posts via "view your posts". Which means January 31 is actually the first time I'm seeing that post. This is a pain in the ass, in general. If you're going to attempt to post something, it better get posted by the next day (if not denied). Otherwise, it should be deleted after 2 days or so. A huge lack of foresight, I say.
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by Phantom »

Eh, it's certainly an annoyance the way it can't notify users as so. It can almost certainly discourage someone like me from even bothering to post, because as you say, by the time the thing actually gets approved, it's pretty much too late for anyone to want to reply and such.

That being said, it's a good note that you added about the way the guide could help/be useless for someone utilizing a different engine. That's an important distinction, I think.
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by E.D.Revolution »

Okay, 2 days later. Improving, but needs to be expedited. I suppose it's better than taking your baby with you, leaving him in the car in 100 F weather while you go shopping. Then you come back to a dead baby due to neglect. Okay, that's hyperbole.

The reason I have to make this disclaimer is because Tap put this guide up on CR (or rather link this from CR to here) so I kinda have to make a secondary disclaimer. The technical stuff obviously do not apply to Py or PWLib (they have their own forums) but the main idea of starting and knowing your engine and the best way to make your debut case are universal.
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by E.D.Revolution »

Announcement to make:

I am overhauling this guide to make it truly comprehensive. What I mean is that every point will be explained in full and expanded on. I also need some feedback on the advice on this column. I am also considering adding and deleting some of the points here (or perhaps changing it altogether). Before you ask for some advice to be removed for the new version, be forewarned that I might have already done that on the new version. As of this post, I'm about half way done with the new column.

The last day to submit your suggestions for this column before the new one becomes active is August 24th. After that, once I have the new version up on the v6 Tutorial forum to reflect current standards, this will be locked and all feedback should go on that column instead.
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Re: AAO's Comprehensive Guide for New Trial Authors

Post by E.D.Revolution »

The revamping of this guide is complete and updated. Go herefor the updated guide.
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