David Barnes @ Packt

Tips for Writing a Screencast Script

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:47:00 +0000

• Use a template. Try using the sample scripts TechSmith offers as part of their Camtasia Tutorial series, or developing your own custom template. Consistency in the design and layout of your scripts helps as you begin to produce more videos, especially if other stakeholders are involved.

• Take screenshots as you write. Match screeenshots to the narration in your video so you know what action to illustrate as each part of your script is spoken. Taking screenshots as you write forces you to walk through the process, which helps you write better and demonstrate your points when you share the script with others.

• Record yourself explaining the process, then transcribe the audio as a rough draft of your script. Use a program on your computer or a voice memo app on your smartphone to capture your audio.

• How would you explain it to someone over the phone? Write how you would talk it out. This results in conversational, natural-sounding narration.

• Provide context. Explain WHY the user is following these directions. Set up the scene before walking them through.

• As you write and edit the script, read it out loud. Do you sound natural? Is the sentence too long? This also helps you write transitions between actions.

• Narration should be straightforward and to the point.

• Consider writing a canned intro and/or conclusion for branding and consistency if you plan on producing a series of screencasts.

• Create a folder where you will save all of the assets of the screencast: the script, any images/screenshots and eventually, video clips and caption files. As you create more screencasts, good file management will be critical.

Useful notes on effective screencast scripting. Lots more in the PDF.

Experts See Parallels Between Dot-Com, Social Media Bubbles

Thu, 03 May 2012 17:02:33 +0100

Experts See Parallels Between Dot-Com, Social Media Bubbles:

RRW thinks that advertising driven revenue models are fragile:

When you spend a week interviewing people about a social media bubble and whether it exists, one of the things you notice is that people who insist there is no bubble make little mention of revenue and business models. They talk about the depth of which social media has permeated the culture and niche markets, but rarely mention the fact that the most frequently used social networks ultimately rely on the fickle relationship between users and advertisers.

Forgetting that TV relies on the exact same fickle relationship, but has been both profitable and world changing for over 60 years.

Valve’s new pricing will charge players based on how much of a jerk they are

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:31:00 +0100

Valve’s new pricing will charge players based on how much of a jerk they are:

“The issue that we’re struggling with quite a bit is something I’ve kind of talked about before, which is how do you properly value people’s contributions to a community?”

People who are active in a community grow the market and lead to more revenue in the long run, so it makes sense to let them participate for free — and even give them extras that amplify their positive impact. I like it.

In publishing the equivalent would be giving free books, subscriptions, etc. to the people who are most active in the communities your products serve.

Amazon trying to rehabilitate its public image after lots of...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:36:00 +0100

Amazon trying to rehabilitate its public image after lots of negative press from publishers…? This image features on the front page today.

Tumbling to Tumblr

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:31:17 +0100

Gonna try Tumblr for a bit; Posterous is getting too slow.

Follow me at http://packtdavidb.tumblr.com/

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Financial Times’ Web app draws in 2m users in the ten months since launch

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:44:12 +0100

Financial Times’ Web app draws in 2m users in the ten months since launch Last month we wrote that FT.com’s subscription revenue was on course to overtake its ad-based revenue in 2012, with Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director …

Source: http://goo.gl/mag/XziiZ Shared via Google Currents

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Move over Harry Potter... Packt books bought from Packtpub.com can now be sent straight to Kindle

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:36:54 +0100

Screenshots below. And of course you’ll still be able to access the book in a variety of DRM free formats from your Packtpub.com account.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Nobody Wants to Learn How To Program

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:04:36 +0000

This post by @AlSweigart says more about how to write a tech book than the whole history of this blog, in a single post. http://inventwithpython.com/blog/2012/03/03/nobody-wants-to-learn-how-to-prog…

It doesn’t just apply to programming. Just about every technical skill fits this pattern. Nobody wants to learn Drupal. They want to build a web site.
Nobody wants to learn Backtrack. They want to hack (or protect) wireless networks.

Too few authors and publishers take this seriously. In my experience heeding Al’s advice leads to happy readers and substantial sales.

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The most useful thing I learned at university

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:10:34 +0000

Early in the second year we were given a project to develop an IT strategy for a small printing business. We delivered a comprehensive strategy with some pretty powerful recommendations for enterprise grade marketing management software. It was going well until one of the lecturer’s playing the role of client said, “just one thing… what makes you think a small business like ours wants to implement a complex IT strategy like this?”

“You’ve got to move with the times,” we said. “You’ve got to modernize.”
“We’d rather not, if we can help it,” said the lecturer.
“Well you asked us here to present an IT strategy, you’re paying us to deliver one, so you must want to change.” Then another lecturer, Carsten Sørensen, said one of the most useful things I have ever heard:

“We’d be quite happy to pay you to tell us we didn’t need to change anything. We’d pay you double.” That was the end of the presentation.

A lot of tech books focus on how different a new tool is from the old, and how much the reader’s working practices should change as a result. This misses the point. Most people do not adopt new technology eager to change their old habits. The more you can tell them they don’t need to change, the happier they will be. If you are interested in teaching new technologies in a way that makes readers want to pay you double, contact me on davidb@packtpub.com.

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Lean back, lean forward, lean over

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:21:41 +0000

On Twitter yesterday I was raving about a fantastic Economist slideshow that sets out a credible and satisfying vision for the future of publishing:

The slide show misses an important third mode of reading. For the Economist it makes sense to ignore it. Technical and “how to” publishers can’t afford to. The three modes are:

Lean forward: rapid browsing, search, instant gratification.
Lean back: deep, reflective, minimum distraction.
NEW! Lean over: instructions that you refer to while you carry out the task.

Here’s some lean over reading:

My guess is that most Packt and other “how to” tech books are really lean over. Mainly people have them on their desk (or a PDF in a separate window) at the same time as they’re doing the work. What’s your experience?

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Anatomy of a Training Video. First draft plan for each 3-5 minute Packt training video. I crave your feedback.

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:49:43 +0000

anatomy of training video.pdf Download this file

This is my plan for how to structure a 3-5 minute “how to” training video. Each video will form part of a series of videos that makes up a course.

The structure ensures that:

The reader gets a clear idea of what they’re going to achieve and why in the first 20 seconds.
The instructional steps are clustered into logical groups, to make the steps more meaningful and memorable. And you have no more than 20 seconds before the steps begin.
The video ends by reminding the viewer what they did and why it was worthwhile, and then encourages them to keep learning. Again this is just a 10-20 second wrap up.

I’m hoping this will make the videos more accessible and useful than a straight, unstructured “do this, then this” screencast. We’ll see…

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"Show Stuff Off As Soon As You Can" says

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:07:44 +0100

Indie Games Channel: One of the goals of events like IndieCade and IGF are to expose new indie games to a new audience. In your experience, what is the best way to market and create awareness for indie games?

Ricky Haggett: It takes a lot of time to build awareness for anything these days – there’s so much stuff out there! And this is especially true if you’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done before, and you don’t have a huge marketing budget. I think for a game like Hohokum, it makes sense to start showing and talking about something as soon as there’s something you’re happy with people seeing.

Of course, this has downsides too – we’ve definitely seen that people are excited about our game to the point where they’re actually frustrated about not knowing when they’ll be able to play it for real. But especially when you factor in the benefits of being to watch people play early versions of your game at events like IndieCade or IGF, the net result of announcing early is positive.

via indiegameschannel.com

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How to Make a Simple HTML5 Canvas game via @zavolokas_eng

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:55:07 +0100

So here it is! Let’s jump right in by walking through game.js. You can also play the game right here.

1. Create the canvas
// Create the canvas var canvas = document.createElement("canvas"); var ctx = canvas.getContext("2d"); canvas.width = 512; canvas.height = 480; document.body.appendChild(canvas);
The first thing we need to do is create a canvas element. I did this in JavaScript instead of HTML to demonstrate how easily it is accomplished. Once we have the element we get a reference to its context, set its dimensions and append it to the document’s body.

via blog.lostdecadegames.com

From the creator of HTML5 game Onslaught! Arena comes this fun step-by-step tutorial where you build an HTML5 game from scratch. Have fun!

Don’t forget Packt’s HTML5 Games Beginner’s Guide too: http://goo.gl/tRMg1

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Developing your book in public -- Jesse Freeman shares his TOC on Google+

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:17:29 +0100

This Flash game book is getting serious now, already up to 70 pages! Still need to flesh out the section on Blitting as well as Game UI sections. Blitting will probably be the largest part of the book. I already have a feeling like I am going to need to cut back or see if O’Reilly is ok if I go a few pages over my 100 page estimate. I would really love to add in a few pages of interviews. How do you summarize an introduction to Flash Game Dev in 100 pages?
I also added some screen shots of my tabel of contents. I’m interested in feedback on it.
Finally, I put in a B&N Nook Color Market deployment section based on +Terry Paton post yesterday (https://plus.google.com/114101814013862230773/posts/NgNXtCSMBHL) and some chats I have been having with Ted Patrick.
2011-08-30 (4 photos)

via plus.google.com

Good idea to share your outline early and get feedback. Too bad he’s doing it for O’Reilly. (Why am I helping him then?)

One problem with his approach is that you get feedback from educated people about what they think should be covered, but not much from the target reader: people who don’t know exactly what they need but ultimately will decide whether or not to buy and read the book.

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Latest Kindle format introduces ebook rentals

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 23:59:01 +0100

Another innovation introduced with this new format is the ability to rent ebooks rather than buying them. Books can typically be rented for between 30 to 360 days, although the exact limits will vary from book to book. And rented book can be bought with full credit given for the rental fee, if bought before then end of the rental period.

via teleread.com

Had to happen really.

Also new in the latest Kindle software: fixed layout ebooks (like PDFs) for books with complex formatting.

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10 Steps to Design a Game for Learning (including poster!) by @varelidi

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:27:58 +0100

via chloeatplay.tumblr.com

A nice clear How To for creating learning games (and not just video games either). For an example of the sort of learning experience Chloe comes up with, visit Creepytown: http://goo.gl/LjfyW

Or click the via for more details.

Meanwhile, a book idea inspired by this for you to vote on: http://goo.gl/mod/zr8N

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Cocos2D Tutorial - Dynamically Coloring Sprites, Tiny Tower Style

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:38:34 +0100

Have you ever seen a game (such as Tiny Tower) that contains similar sprites that only vary by certain attributes (coloring, shading, accessories, etc…)? I would often wonder how long it would take the artists to create each permutation of these sprites. After discovering that you can call a method on a CCSprite called setColor, I realized how most of this customization is done in code.

This tutorial will be a continuation of my last post about creating your own Bitizen in Photoshop. So, if you don’t already have a Bitizen character to work with, I suggest you follow that tutorial OR download my template here.

via brandontreb.com

Want to fill your Cocos2D game with hundreds of sprites of all races, creeds, and fashion sensibilities? Go no further than this adorable tutorial.

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Emerging Job Market for HTML5 Game Developers

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:26:31 +0100

via indeed.com

The job market for HTML5 game developers is growing fast, already out stripping advertised positions for Unity game developers according to job search engine Indeed.com.

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Giving the three things clients and customers want to our readers

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:40:15 +0100

Not just the first one.

And not all three.

But you really need at least one.

1. Results. If you can offer a return on investment, an engineering solution, more sales, no tax audits, a cute haircut, the fastest rollercoaster, a pristine beach, reliable insurance payouts at the best price, peace of mind, productive consulting or any other measurable result, this is a great place to start.

2. Thrills. More difficult to quantify but often as important, partners and customers respond to heroism. We are amazed and drawn to over the top effort, incredible risk taking on our behalf, the blood, sweat and tears that (rarely) comes from a great partner. A smart person working harder on your behalf than you’d be willing to work—that’s pretty compelling.

3. Ego. Is it nice to feel important? You bet. When you greet us at the door with a glass of white wine, put our name in the lobby of the hotel, actually treat us better than anyone else does (not just promise it, but do it)… This can get old really fast if you industrialize and systemize it, though.

This explains why the local branch of the big insurance company has trouble growing. It’s hard for them to outdeliver the other guys when it comes to the cost effectiveness of their policy (#1). They are unsuited from a personality and organizational point of view to do #2. And they just can’t scale the third.

Put just about any business with partners into this matrix and you see how it works. Book publishing, for sure. Hairdressers. Spas. Even real estate.

The Ritz Carlton is all about #3, ego, right? And on a good day, there’s a perception that the guys at Apple are hellbent on amazing us yet again, delivering on #2, taking huge career and corporate risks on our behalf. As soon as they stop doing that, the tribe will get bored.

(There’s a variation of ego, #3, that comes from being in good company. This is what gets people to sign up for Davos, or to choose ICM as their agent. Your ego is stroked by knowing that only people as cool as you are part of this gig. Sort of the anti-Groucho opportunity. Nice position, if you can get it, because it scales.).

It’s tempting, particularly for a small business, to obsess about the first—results—to spend all its time trying to prove that the ROI is higher, the brownies are tastier and the coaching is more effective. You’d be amazed at how far you can go with the other two, if you commit to doing it, not merely talking about it.

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Can tech writers and publishers offer more than results to readers?

1. Results: shows readers how to do the things they needed/wanted to do.
2. Thrills: shows surprising tricks, features witty and attention-holding examples and stories.
3. Ego: makes the reader feel like they’re doing a great job, making loads of progress, and are really clever.

Is it possible to do all three? Sometimes it’s hard to massage the reader’s ego — making them feel clever — and at the same time be thrilling, which means doing things outside the reader’s expectations. Which is most important?

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Unbound funds second book. ONLY THE SECOND?

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:24:33 +0100

Considering the amount of press Unbound has got, I’m amazed it’s only managed to get two books funded so far. Without the benefit of launch PR how can their model prove sustainable?

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