Tips on making a guide for a game?

[TheDuke_11037]

So I'm planning on creating a online guide for my website. The guide will be for Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, I have made smaller guides before but never one for an entire game. I will like it to be pretty much spoiler free and still encourage exploration from the player. Not just lead them to point A to B, as I feel guides like that don't encourage people to actually experience and play the game. Do yall have any tips or pointers for me on creating it?

 

[Samatonic]

Not much of a tip, but when I made my first game on Unity, A 2D pixel game, I took inspiration first from YouTube videos, what I learned from it are the followings:

• Make a list of what the game will look like, people often forget the first reason of their game concept. Use a roadmap of your own. Make a folder for each type of things or write it on Obsidian.
• Don't start directly with the sprites or designs, make a simple made that can be made online for your game and then only add a character for roaming around.
• UX/UI plays the coin role in your game, the simple the UX/UI is the easier you can play around with.
• Learn from your mistakes, I myself thought I couldn't make a game to begin with until I took it apart, piece-by-piece.
• Itch.io, Pinterest and YouTube are your friends when in need.
• Don't worry about the perfections, take time and take small victories day by day.
• Use sample sprites from Unity (If you're using that) and then implement your own.
• Have Fun. Don't burden yourself.

 

[LiberoVulpes]

It seems to me that you want to make a strategy guide, rather than a walkthrough, so i am gonna give some pointers based on my assumption.

1) Explain things as if you are talking to a 5 year old.
2) Make sure to point out that you want the player to explore, so you won't be holding their hand the whole way through, it helps to reduce people complaining.
3) If there is something you want them to see, but don't want to spoil, point them in the general direction, and maybe give a vague description of the reward, carrot and stick approach works well.
4) A good index goes a long way.
5) Use clear and concise explanations, avoid writing long paragraphs if you can help it.
6) Keeping organized tables of abilities, items and equipment, etc. So the player can easily look for whatever they just picked up does, is a very good addition.

 

[diapered]

You mean a text guide? Well, an important part of writing (and science too) is to "stand on the shoulders of giants". Start reading what others have already created, and mapping out what you think you can do that is different/better than others. I don't know anything about this game, but it looks like someone has updated a guide for it 5 days ago on gamefaqs, and that has a lot of things that I look for in a guide: mostly text, and easy to access/navigate with nice and clean maps.

Or do you mean like a video walk through?

 

[Yousef's iconYousef]

1. Just do it. No matter what, you just need the experience.
2. Look for mistakes you can correct, not ones you can’t. Some times you’ll write a weirdly phrased line that you don’t know how to rephrase. That’s ok. That’s inevitable.
3. Your growth as a writer is incremental, not exponential. It won’t be visible to you but you are constantly improving even if you do not feel it.
4. Do your best to try viewing things as an outsider would, but no need to overdo it. As guide makers we will inevitably have inherent bias to the fact that what comes second nature to us wont be easy to convey, but it’s important not to cross over the territory of being patronizing.
5. Just have fun. It is a hobby after all.

 

[Samatonic]

1. Just do it. No matter what, you just need the experience.
2. Look for mistakes you can correct, not ones you can’t. Some times you’ll write a weirdly phrased line that you don’t know how to rephrase. That’s ok. That’s inevitable.
3. Your growth as a writer is incremental, not exponential. It won’t be visible to you but you are constantly improving even if you do not feel it.
4. Do your best to try viewing things as an outsider would, but no need to overdo it. As guide makers we will inevitably have internet bias to the fact that what comes second nature to us wont be easy to convey, but it’s important not to cross over the territory of being patronizing.
5. Just have fun. It is a hobby after all.

 

[TheDuke_11037]

You mean a text guide? Well, an important part of writing (and science too) is to "stand on the shoulders of giants". Start reading what others have already created, and mapping out what you think you can do that is different/better than others. I don't know anything about this game, but it looks like someone has updated a guide for it 5 days ago on gamefaqs, and that has a lot of things that I look for in a guide: mostly text, and easy to access/navigate with nice and clean maps.

Yeah I saw that guide when look at it earlier. I've been planning and mapping out stuff, thanks for the tips! For now imma collect some references and start listing the content I want in it.