Tay Posted August 4, 2013 Share Posted August 4, 2013 (edited) How to Submit New Walkthroughs We need your help to build our walkthrough database! If you'd like to contribute a full or partial walkthrough, please follow these instructions: Follow the format guide below for making a walkthrough topic in the "Unformatted walkthrough" section. When finished (with the full walkthrough, or whatever portion you wanted to add), PM a moderator. We will make sure the formatting is correct and move it to this forum in all of its glory! Walkthrough Format These are our formatting rules which you should obey in order to be moved to the 'Walkthrough' forum. Once finished creating your thread, PM a moderator and he will check your thread to make sure it follows the formatting rules, and will also help fix any mistakes. Game Image - (Centered) (No NSFW or Spoiler images, please) (You can embed a a link to VNDB here, if you want) Game Title - (Centered, bold, large font) (You can embed a a link to VNDB here, if you want) Link to Legal Source - In case of a fan-translated title, include a link to where to obtain the patch. (Centered) Game Synopsis - (Can pull from Fuwanovel page, VNDB, write it yourself, etc.) Ending Guide - (Use Spoiler Tags Where Appropriate) (Explain the types of endings possible in the game; break them down by "hero"/"heroine"; provide suggested route order if important) Individual Route Walkthroughs - (USE SPOILER TAGS) (Each individual route needs to be a full walkthrough from the beginning of the game. Please do not use saves or checkpoints.) Source - (If you based your walkthrough on another person's work, please post thanks to them, and a link to their guide) Notes Bad Endings, CGs, Achievements, Extra Scenes and such are not required, although recommended for a thoroughly comprehensive guide. VNs with meaningful gameplay can and should accommodate for the gameplay, including tips or explanations of the game systems as necessary. Examples of Walkthrough Formats: Single Route Character Routes Initial Route + Character Routes Story Routes Single Route, Different Epilogue/Scenes Walkthrough Template If you're not sure how to create a Walkthrough, follow the general template listed below. Spoiler Formatting Template. Red text are comments and explanations for this template and are not to be included in a final Walkthrough. CENTERED_IMAGE VNDB_LINK LINK_TO_LEGAL_SOURCE/TRANSLATION PATCH (Assuming the game was never officially released) (These links can be embedded in the image and VN title, for example) Summary A short summary describing the Visual Novel. Ending Guideline / Suggested Route Order An explanation of the available types of endings, the Visual Novel's systems for branching if useful (ex: Common Route + Heroine Routes VS One Single Route that branches off into heroine routes [Grisaia no Kajitsu/G-Senjou no Maou], etc.), and a suggested route order, should there be one. Route Guideline Any background information relevant to what follows that did not fit in the previous section. ROUTE_IMAGE (Where possible) ROUTE_NAME (Ex: 'Common Route', 'Prologue', or Character_Name) Good End Spoiler Any background or explanation for this route in particular. STEP 1 (If extra information about a choice is necessary, for whatever reason, add it near the choice, but make it clear it's not part of the choice) STEP 2 STEP 3 Etc. NOTE: If all the bad ends branch off a single choice in this section, you may choose to, instead of listing them in their own spoiler below, simply add a mention between parenthesis after the choices here, like so: (Selecting 'Choice A' will lead to Bad End 1) Bad End/Normal End (If either exist. If only one ending exits, there's no need to label them as 'good', 'bad', or 'normal'.) Spoiler Any background or explanation for this route in particular. STEP 1 (If extra information about a choice is necessary, for whatever reason, add it near the choice, but make it clear it's not part of the choice) STEP 2 STEP 3 Etc. Other If you think there is other important or useful information, feel free to create (a) new section(s) for it, with whichever name(s) proves relevant. (Ex: Achievements, Extra Scenes, CG Guides, Explanation on How the Flags Work, Etc.) Attribution Any other guides or locations you took information from should be linked here. Implementing Save Points Into Full Guides We do not recommend relying on Save Points for your walkthroughs, for the sake of user friendliness. However, also for the sake of user friendliness, including suggestions for save points in order to save time is a good idea. First, you must make a full wakthrough for every route. Do not use Save Points. After that, mark places for save points with [SAVE 01], [SAVE 02], etc. In any routes in that you wish to load a save point go with something like [LOAD 01]. These save points are complementary. They are there for those who wish to use them, but the walkthrough should stand without them. Check this walkthrough for an example of this system. Be sure to include an explanation and ensure that it is clear to the reader that the Save Points are not necessary. Furthermore, if there is no enforced playing order, the reader may choose to tackle the routes by any order, which would mean that certain Load Points may turn into Save Points. Tips for Allowing Player Freedom in a Guide Spoiler Many guides are satisfied with listing a pre-chosen combination of choices that will achieve the ending in question. While this is a perfectly safe way to make a guide, it does remove player choice from the equation, even when it is not always necessary. If you want to go the extra mile, you can try to dedicate some of your time to figuring out which choices are important and which are not, and account for these in your guide. Granting Player Freedom Many Visual Novels include choices that don't affect anything. If you've found these choices, you might consider simply labelling them with 'Your Choice', as opposed to selecting a choice yourself. But, sometimes, choices that do not affect the route you end up in may end up affecting the scenes you're on in a positive or negative way. Consider the example of a volleyball game in a VN whose outcome relies on the choices the player makes. Here, you can opt for 'recommended choices' for winning the game, while leaving the actual choice to the player. The best way to do this is to only mark the required choices in bold, allowing the player to deviate from the guide at his leisure. Example: Spoiler Your Choice Move to the left Trust your team Your Choice Accept her gift In this fictional example, 'Accept her gift' is required for this route, whereas 'Move to the left' and 'Trust your team' are not. They are simply suggestions for winning the in-game game, should a player want to do so. Should they not, they are free to deviate, as the choices are non-important. If you adopt such a system, or any other similar system, your Walkthrough should always inform the reader about the rules. What does a bold choice mean? What's a 'recommended choice'? Etcetera. Choices that unlock other choices Sometimes, selecting certain choices unlocks other choices, making it difficult for the player to keep track of where he is. In such cases, we have the following recommendation. For the purposes of this guide, let's reuse the earlier example, and assume that if you don't select 'Move to the left', the next two choices would not occur. This would be a problem for any players that decided to deviate, because according to the guide, the next two choices would not be important. But, if those two choices disappear, the player may not realise that their next choice would actually be the required 'Accept her gift'. In order to make situations like these clearer, we recommend that the indentation of the choices unlocked by a previous one. Spoiler Your Choice Move to the left (selecting this choice unlocks the two following choices) Trust your team Your Choice Accept her gift You can also indent choices that have already been indented once. This would mean that a choice unlocked by another choice would also unlock another one... This is a bit complicated, yes. It could also happen that whatever you choose in choice 3 in a route unlocks choice 7, for example. Here, indenting would not represent the situation properly, and something else would be necessary. For situations like these, we recommend simply explaining that this choice only unlocks depending on a previous one in parenthesis. Spoiler Your Choice Move to the left Trust your team (Only appears if you previously chose 'Move to the left') Your Choice (Only appears if you previously chose 'Move to the left') Accept her gift Including Tips Walkthroughs are by their very nature spoilers. If, during the making of the walkthrough, you've become intricately familiar with the choices in the visual novel, you may opt to add a 'Tips' section with no spoilers, instead with suggestions to unlocking the good endings that do not spoil anything. These systems are especially good for Visual Novels with a single route. What to do if You Find an Error If you find an error in any of the walkthroughs, please post your concerns in this topic or inform staff via PM. Thank you for your diligence! How to Leave Feedback We've locked the Walkthrough forum down pretty tight to keep it as clean and accessible as possible. If you have any feedback about any of the walkthroughs (or other suggestions), please post it here. Edited February 5, 2018 by Mr Poltroon Updated LanThief(HUN) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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