Kompas Productions:Summertime Saga Wiki:Manual of Style

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Revision as of 20:03, 3 September 2019 by Casiope (talk | contribs) (General writing advice)
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The manual of style is the style guide applied on Summertime Saga Wiki. It help editors write articles with consistent and precise language, layout, and formatting, making the wiki easier and more intuitive for users.

General writing advice

The articles must be easy to understand, both in their structure and in the vocabulary used, as these pages are also intended for people who are not native English speakers. It is recommended to mention the player in the third person in the general articles. With the exceptions of the Walkthrough and Getting started articles where the steps must be written in the second person since they give direct recommendations to be followed.

An introductory sentence using, if possible, the title of the article and its definition should open the article and precede the first paragraph, so it appears before the summary.

Most guidelines that apply on this wiki are similar to those of other encyclopedia. They are summarized below.

Capitalization

  • Article titles and section headings use sentence case, not title case, to avoid unnecessary capitalization; only “special” titles that correspond to walkthrough steps or character events have title case. Titles of work (i.e. the references in the easter eggs page) are also given title case.

Abbreviations

  • Prevent abbreviations if the expressions are commonly unknown.
Correct:    The main character is heavily endowed.
Incorrect: MC is heavily endowed.

Italic

  • Italics are used for emphasis and titles of work.
Correct:    Summertime Saga is the game’s title.
Incorrect: Summertime Saga is the game’s title.

Punctuation

  • Consistent use of the curly (or typographic) apostrophe ( ) is recommended, as opposed to the straight (or typewriter) apostrophe ( ' ). Same rule exists for the quotation marks.
Correct:    Jenny doesn’t do anything for free.
Incorrect: Jenny doesn't do anything for free.
  • You can use both the precomposed ellipsis character () or the three unspaced periods (...) for the ellipses. The three spaced periods or (. . .) is not recommended because it requires non‐breaking spaces to keep it from breaking at the end of a line.
Correct:    A fresh fish! A bit smelly…
Incorrect: A fresh fish! A bit smelly. . .
  • On Summertime Saga Wiki, en dash () is prefered to em dash ().
Correct:    Martinez – whose first name is Camila – is Consuela’s daughter.
Incorrect: Martinez — whose first name is Camila — is Consuela’s daughter.
  • Hyphens (‐) indicate conjonction. They should not be confused with dashes, or with the minus sign (−).
Correct:    Missy’s outfit is made up of a pink off‐the‐shoulder short‐sleeve crop top and dark‐navy low‐waist pleated miniskirt.
Incorrect: Missy’s outfit is made up of a pink off the shoulder short sleeve crop top and dark navy low waist pleated miniskirt.

Grammar

  • For the possessive of singular nouns ending with just one s, add just an apostrophe.
Correct:    Ms. Ross’ office
Incorrect: Ms. Ross’s office
Incorrect: Ms. Ross office
  • For a normal plural noun, ending with a pronounced s, form the possessive by adding just an apostrophe e.g. his sons' wives.
Correct:    Boys’ locker room
Incorrect: Boys’s locker room
Incorrect: Boys locker room

Numbers

  • Integers greater than nine expressible in one or two words may be expressed either in numerals or in words. When written as words, numbers from 21 to 99 are hyphenated.
Correct:    Presenting herself as a twenty‐four‐year‐old goddess, Jenny is a pretty tall girl with a curvaceous figure.
  • Left of the decimal point, five or more digits are grouped into threes separated by commas.
Correct:    The player needs $5,000 to purchase the beachhouse.

Dates and time

  • Use of the term “current” should be avoided. What is current today may not be on the next release; game is changing over time. Instead, use date and number‐specific version.
  • Prefer to specify a full date format Day–month–year. Please avoid the full‐numeric format as it creates confusion.
Correct:    Version 0.18.6 – 5 June 2019
Incorrect: Version 0.18.6 – 5th June 2019
Incorrect: Version 0.18.6 – 2019-6-5
Incorrect: Version 0.18.6 – 2019/06/05

Links

  • Make links only where they are relevant and helpful in the context: Hyperlinks are distracting, and may slow the reader down. If a content is already linked in the page, please don’t add another one. A link to the main character’s page is useless as the readers are supposed to know who is the protagonist.
  • Do not add external links to other Summertime Saga‐related sites without permission.
  • Do not use external links in the body of an article.

Character pages

Titles and names

Please use the short name for the title of the main page of each character, and the complete or long name inside the Character Infobox. Example: Priya (page title) / Dr. Priya Singh (infobox title). Don’t forget to add page redirections if needed.

Infobox

Infoboxes present a set of relevant, consistent and universal information for all characters. If a type of information is not shared by the majority of characters, then it has no place here. Location are exclusively places where the character can be found usually – so not limited in a route, or from a route. Example: Helen moves to the church location at a later point in Mia and Helen’s route. This info should not be presented in the infobox.

Appearance section

Write a complete description of the character, starting with the physical characteristics. Face type, haircut, gaze, chest size or general appearance are often the missing features. The purpose of this section is to help the readers to imagine the character. Please do not indicate who is the inspiration as this information must be added to the Easter eggs page; we can assume the wiki to be small enough for its repetition to be dispensable.

There is no objection to detailing the character’s lower clothing and shoes; but these elements are often masked, so the bigger descriptions can be exempted from them and they can be reserved for the shortest ones.

Personality section

Add here the character’s general personality, possibly specifying how he/she reacts to certain situations. Also, what does he/she like to do, what does he/she dislike.

Story section

This section is not intended to reveal Summertime Saga stories, but only to give a context. Most of the characters portrayed in the game have a backstory, a family, a place where they live or work, hobby or activity. His/Her name or surname should be explained. Some details may not be given in the game but during the game artist’s streams, such as the character’s age or origins. Depending on their pertinence, they have their place in the article. A forelook of the next events can be used as a conclusion in order to introduced the next section.

Events section

I’ve spent few weeks wondering if an Events section belongs to the characters pages. If so, what should be presented inside this section?

First, we should not add every events on the pages. It’s not the right place for that, the walkthrough page is more appropriate. And we cannot maintain every characters pages with all the stories in the game, it represents too much work.

But, because Summertime Saga is an adult game, a good compromise is to add a small summary of the sexy scenes encountered. One title, and one or two sentences that explain what is happening should be enough. Priority is given to additional sexual scenes that are not in the walkthrough because they are unlocked elsewhere. This list of events should arouse curiosity and make the reader want to discover them in‐game.

Moreover, please use the collapsible element to hide the contents that spoil the story.

Pregnancy

A new feature category has been added in the Character Infobox for the few characters – three in version 0.18.6 – who can be pregnant. This category will also include the future dating system.

Location pages

To be written.

Walkthrough pages

Writing advice

The main purpose of the walkthrough is to help Summertime Saga players to progress step by step in each of the routes offered by the game. This requires several writing efforts:

  • The different quests must be displayed in distinctive parts and be accompanied by a title, so the readers know where they have to look for.
  • Write using the second‐person singular point of view, as if you were explaining the game to a friend.
  • What: The objective(s) may be mentioned – for example if they give direction to the story – but they should not be generalized everywhere.
  • When: Time of day and day of the week are two essential elements because the objectives are based on them.
  • Where: Location is not mandatory if it has not changed since the previous quest, and if we can suppose the readers have already visited it. You don’t need to repeat that Sister Angelica is in the room located on the second floor of the church for the third time since it’s her usual place.
  • Who: If a character has already been introduced by his/her name to the player in the previous steps, writing the name is not required. Adjective or term that refers to this character can be used instead. Keep in mind that he/she should not be confound with somebody else.
  • Add hyperlinks! The walkthrough should not be exhaustive but send readers to other articles. Items must always redirect to the pages dedicated to them. There is no need to repeat the same link several times in the same page.
  • Finally, read you again. If a passage seems confusing to you, there is a good chance that it will also be confusing to readers.

Requirements

Each walkthrough has its first paragraph reserved for the requirements. They include, in a bullet list, anything that can be unlocked or acquired beforehand; such as items (but not the quest objects), locations, the main character’s statistics, or how much money you need to complete the route.

Illustrations

Due to the wiki page format, please refrain to add too many or too big images. The illustrations are not limited to gameplay elements, but also to funny or memorable scenes that the players encounter in the game. Prefer the thumbnail format option and don’t forget to add a caption text.

The full syntax for displaying an image is:

[[File:filename.extension|options|caption]]

Story

After many tries, it seemed impossible to me to use the basic lists as recommended by MediaWiki. The presence of many sub‐items in the walkthrough, such as titles or specific indications (which both require special indentations), systematically breaks the order of steps. So I came with the HTML syntax which allows you to indicate starting values.

Wikitext Rendering
<ol start="3">
<li>'''Step 3'''</li>
<li>'''Step 4'''</li>
<li>'''Step 5'''</li>
</ol>
  1. Step 3
  2. Step 4
  3. Step 5

And with the sub‐items:

Wikitext Rendering
'''Title A'''
<ol start="3"><li>Step 3</li></ol>

: Wait until…

'''Title B'''
<ol start="4"><li>Step 4</li></ol>

: Branching here

'''Title C'''
<ol start="5"><li>Step 5</li></ol>

Title A

  1. Step 3
Wait until…

Title B

  1. Step 4
Branching here

Title C

  1. Step 5

Main page

The wiki home page is a protected page. This means that only wiki administrators can update it. This page has been redesigned to display the main articles listed by category. The effort is put into ensuring its accessibility.

Your opinion and help

Feel free to let me know your opinions, positives and negatives, on these subjects. Do you think we could add more info in the infobox? Add links to the cookie jar? Etc. Your help is welcome. Casiope (talk)