spend time making games, not press Manual
Short introduction by the creator of presskit(), Rami Ismail Even though I'm still not quite sure what to call this - be it a kit or a system or a framework or just a way for me to spend more time making games at Vlambeer and spend less time doing repetitive chores. I ended up making this because I felt it would make a lot of lives a lot easier. A good game is worth nothing if no-one plays it & to play a game one needs to know of it. The way I see it, developers & press both have the same goal: to bring great games to as many people as possible. For the press, finding out about a game but not having access to information & media for the game means that they still can't really write something about it. Developers want to spend their valuable time making games instead of press pages, resulting in that so many games that could've touched so many hearts didn't end up doing so. I figured that something that is free for everyone, open and easy-to-use for both sides is the ultimate solution. Developers only have to spend an hour or so creating well-laid out press pages with everything the press needs to write to their hearts desire. Everyone wins.
But this was only possible thanks to these fine folks!
. Andreas Zecher - Made by Pixelate - for the original inspiration that made me create this kit. . Jan Willem Nijman - Vlambeer - for starting Vlambeer with me, which eventually led to this thing. . . . . . Russ Frushtick - Polygon - for general feedback from a press-person point-of-view. Joram Wolters - ]oramWolters.com - for his always sharp critique on game & web design and functionality. Jan Pieter van Seventer - Dutch Game Garden - for support & feedback. Philip Tibitoski - octodadgame.com - for inspiring me to make this publically available. The indie community at large for being amazing, open-minded, supportive, creative and interesting people. Friends, family & girlfriend for allowing & supporting me to do what I love to do, to pursue my dreams and to make games. .
Yes. Installing presskit() was designed to be as painless as possible. However, for those that prefer an old-fashioned manual and for those that run into kinks or other problems, this manual should guide you through the installation quite thoroughly. Let’s get started, shall we?
Before we start, you’re going to need a webserver to host presskit() from & a few pieces of software available on your computer. Most of these programs should come pre- bundled with your operating system or are absolutely necessary to maintain a website in the first place.
File Transfer Protocol client
For most of the communication with your webserver, you’re going to need a so called `FTP client'. For Windows-users, Filezilla is a free program that I can personally recommend. On Mac OS X Filezilla or alternatively, Cyberduck will do the job.
Archiving tool
presskit() is available only as a .zip file, an archive. To be able to use presskit(), you’re going to have to unarchive (oftenly called 'unzipping') the installation script from the archive. On Windows, WinRAR is my personal tool of choice. On Mac OS X, an adequate archiving solution is offered with the operating system.
Any text-editor
Using presskit() will require you to use any text-editor. A text-editor that has syntax highlighting for so-called XML files will is preferred. For Windows, Notepad++ or Sublime Text 2 will do great. On Mac OS X Sublime Text 2 is the only thing I'd recommend.
A somewhat capable image editing tool
Presenting yourself, your company and your games will require you to edit some images, crop, resize and convert some images you might have. presskit() will only accept images in the PNG (Portable Network Graphics)-format. For all platforms, Gimp or Photoshop will do the job just fine. The use of these programs isn't explained in this manual. While most of these programs are pretty straightforward to use, there’s definitely somewhat of a learning curve. When you’ve accustomed yourself with the above programs, we can move on to the next step.
1. Download and unarchive presskit( ) If you download presskit() from dopresskit.com , you're left with a file called dopresskit  install.zip. Unarchive the contents using WinRAR or your archiving tool of choice. The result should be a single file named install.php .
2. Uploading install.php
Use your FTP-client to create an empty folder on your webserver (ie. 'press'). Upload the install.php file to this empty folder on your webserver.
3. Starting installation
Direct your browser to the install.php script manually. For safety purposes, just using the directory name will not work. Hint. If you’ve uploaded install.php to a folder named ’press’ on your server mycompany.com, you’ll want to enter http://mycompany.com/press/install.php to start the installation.
4. Follow the instructions on the screen
The installation script will download & automatically set up everything you need. From that point, you’ll be asked to complete the tasks on the screen. Do not refresh the page, it will automatically update to show your progress. Editing the _data.xml file is going to be the most time-consuming task. The _data.xml file contains all information, text and links to media the press hub will ultimately use.
5. Add new projects
When you’re done creating your press-page, you’ll want to add ’projects’ to your kit. To create a new project, duplicate the _template folder the installation script has created and rename it to the project name. The folder-name should be lower-case, with all white-space replaced by underscores. Hint. If your project name is ’Super Crate Box’, you should rename the duplicate of the _template folder to 'super_crate_box'. The project will show up in the hub and clicking on it with present you with an interface that’ll help you complete the steps necessary to create a beautiful press page.
6. Upgrade your presskit()
You can try and upgrade your presskit() installation with minor fixes that’ll be continuously made. To do so, simply download presskit() from dopresskit.com again and repeat steps 1 to 3. Instead of being presented with the installation interface, you’ll be presented with the upgrade interface. Upgrading should take a few seconds at worst.
Writing: Perspective, Quantity and Quality Writing a great presskit() involves trying to save potential visitors as much time as possible. To do this, always make sure your writing is succinct, to-the-point and not overly verbose. In essence, your first paragraph should always cover the length of the whole page. In presskit(), this first paragraph is your description – so make the description count in as few sentences as possible. Making sure as much of your text is in third-person in such a way that it could essentially be copy-pasted directly into an article. This will not only help save time for the press, it will (hopefully) also stop you from peppering your text with a load of hyperboles and self- inflating nonsense nobody wants to read. Finally, for your sake, spellcheck & proofread your text. Nothing looks worse than a typo or a broken sentence in an official press page.
Media: Diversity, Archives and Quality
The main thing press will be looking for in your presskit() is media. Offering a wide range of high-quality screenshots, logos, headers and trailers should be your primary goal for the kit. presskit() will automatically process and show any .png file that is uploaded to the images folder of your press hub or project. Images that have a minimum resolution of 800 pixels wide will work best, although 1024 pixels or 1920 pixels wide would be better. As a small service, archive your screenshots as images.zip and upload that to the images folder as well – presskit() will automatically create a button that’ll allow people to download the archive with all your images. Offering your logos and icons can be similarly improved by uploading color variations and / or vectorized versions of your logos and icons in an archive named logo.zip.
Accessibility
Make your presskit() available through a clear and prominent link on your website. Alternatively, locating the presskit() at http://www.yourdomain.com/press or at http://press.yourdomain.com/ can make it easier for people to find your presskit() again if they quickly need something.
presskit() is a stand-alone tool, even though it was built to optionally integrate with several other online services. Currently available services to integrate are Promoter and Google Analytics. If you have a great idea for integration, please do get in touch.
Promoter
What is Promoter?
Promoter ( http://promoterapp.com/ ) is a tool that automatically finds ( p )reviews, articles and news stories about your game on the internet. Promoter is a great way to keep track of the added interest that your presskit() generates, even though Promoter is not required to use presskit(). Promoter is free with some limitations – a yearly fee is required for unlimited use. Whether you’re using the free or paid version, you can easily integrate with presskit(). If you are using Promoter, you can quickly embed your favorite quotes and awards from Promoter into presskit(). These embedded quotes and awards will automatically update as you add them in Promoter, allowing you to show them off using presskit().
How to integrate Promoter?
In Promoter, click on 'Edit' to go to the settings of the relevant game. Next, check the box that says presskit() integration. Follow the instructions and edit the data.xml file for the game accordingly. Any awards or reviews marked public in Promoter will now automatically show up in presskit(). These will not overwrite existing awards or reviews.
Google Analytics
What is Google Analytics? Google Analytics is a free service by Google that’ll allow you to quickly and easily keep track of traffic on your presskit(). This way, you can easily keep track of when, how often & from where your presskit() is visited.
How to integrate Google Analytics?
Log in to Google Analytics at http://analytics.google.com/ . Find or create your Property & write down the Property ID, which should look somewhat like AA- 12345678-9. In your company data.xml in the presskit() root folder, add the following tag: <analytics> FILL OUT THE PROPERTY ID HERE </analytics>