Kompas Productions:Summertime Saga Wiki:Manual of Style
The manual of style is the guidelines applied on the official wiki. It helps editors write articles with consistent and precise language, layout, and formatting, making the wiki easier and more intuitive for users.
Summertime Saga Wiki is a collaborative publication designed to provide players with relevant information about the visual novel. However, it’s not intended to detail the game’s storytelling in its entirety, but to serve useful resources for its apprehension.
Contents
General writing advice
The articles must be easy to understand, both in their structure and in the vocabulary used, as the readers may be not native English speakers. It’s encouraged to mention the main character in the third person in articles. With the exceptions of the Walkthrough and Getting started pages where the steps must be written in the second person since they give direct recommendations for the player to be followed.
The introductory sentence that opens the article and precedes the first paragraph defines the title of the article.
Capitalization
Article titles and section headings use sentence case, not title case, to avoid unnecessary capitalization.
- Capitalize titles of work (i.e. the references in the easter eggs page)
Correct: Diane appreciates The Breeder Guide reading. Incorrect: Diane appreciates the breeder guide reading.
- Capitalize proper nouns
Correct: Hillside Mall is the local mall where the main character is used to go. Incorrect: Hillside mall is the local mall where the main character is used to go.
- But don’t capitalize generic locations
Correct: Harold serves at the police station. Incorrect: Harold serves at the Police Station.
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 preferred 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.
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 adjoin 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.
Characters names
In order not to confuse readers who may not be familiar with the game characters, consider using their common titles for one-time references.
Correct: No one likes Coach Bridget except Ronda. Incorrect: No one likes Ms. Bridget except Ronda.
Infoboxes
Infoboxes present a set of consistent and universal information for all characters, locations and items. If a type of information is not shared by the majority of them, then it has no place here. Schedule are exclusively places where the player can find the character the very first time, or just after being unlocked – 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 in the infobox.
A new feature in the Character Infobox valids the characters who can be pregnant. This category also includes the future dating system. The reference color is the own dedicated color used for each character in the game.
Character pages
Titles
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 redirect page if needed.
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 comment must be written inside the Easter eggs page; we 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 bigger descriptions can be exempted from them.
Personality section
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 an introduction to the next section.
Events section
First, not every events should be 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 a quick overview 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.
Location pages
Articles on the locations in Summerville focus on their descriptions and particularities. These elements make the connection to the people who live, work or have their habits there. These same characters, whose place constitutes their original location, are alphabetically ordered in the People section. In the same way, the items that can be purchased have to be listed with their price. If the place includes a subplace that justifies a separate article, its link must be appended.
The notes reveil further informations on how to unlock the place, and the minigame(s) that can be played there.
Finally the screens of each individual room are catalogued in the Screens section.
Walkthrough pages
The 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 written in distinctive paragraphs 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.
- 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 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> |
|
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
Title B
Title C
|
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 list the main articles 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. Your help is welcome. Casiope (talk)