Against the Storm Official Wiki:Style

Overview

The intent of this style guide is to establish conventions that we can reuse to render information consistently, aid in readers' recognition of game concepts and terms, and assist authors in writing.

Although not essential for authors on this wiki, consult the Wikipedia Manual of Style for an excellent set of guidelines.

Keep articles focused

The majority of articles (pages) should focus on one topic. Anything related to that topic can be included in that article, under an appropriately titled section heading. While it might be convenient to try to include things indirectly related to the article, it helps readers to understand the primary purposes of the information to keep the article focused on the topic and its direct relationships. Look for other (or create new) pages where that information might be more appropriate, then add a link.

Use consistent capitalization of terms

Use upper case for terms with special meaning

When writing about game concepts, use upper case that matches in-game naming conventions when naming concepts that have special meaning to this game. Everything else should be lowercase. This helps reduce the density of capitalized terms in paragraphs, aiding in reading comprehension.

Most unique game concepts should have a dedicated page, so including the link to the page makes the concept stand out even further. However, this is not the sole deciding factor of capitalization. For example, you can have a sentence that discusses when villagers get a bonus to their Resolve, where both are links but only the latter is capitalized.

Use lower case for everything else

Use your judgment to evaluate whether a term is unique or special or whether it means the same thing outside of this game as it does within the game. For example, even though this game has villagers and buildings and they contribute fundamentally to game mechanics, the concepts of villager and buildings aren't unique and have no special meaning, so those terms are written in lowercase. Similarly, referring to the perseverance or resolve of villagers in the face of trials and challenges warrants lower case, but referring to villagers gaining a bonus to Resolve—as the unique game concept—warrants capitalization so that it stands out.

Ask yourself whether the idea could be misinterpreted if you mentioned it to someone unfamiliar to this game. They would understand the idea of villagers, species, goods and resources, food, services, buildings—even farms, camps, production, events, perks, and newcomers. Those terms should all be lowercase. They would not understand or would misunderstand what you meant if you talked about a bonus to Resolve, or the Hostility of the Forest, the Queen's Impatience, Reputation, Cornerstones, Blueprints, Complex Food, Glades, the Hearth, the Storm, Drizzle, or Rainpunk. Those terms should all be capitalized, because those terms warrant attention and special interpretation in order to be understood. This also means naming specific buildings, goods, species, etc., like the Lumber Mill, Mushrooms, and Harpies, since your intent would be misunderstood without those terms being capitalized.

Follow the case written on-screen

The other guideline is, when repeating something that is written on-screen, follow the example on-screen. This means that mentioning constructing camps should be done in lowercase, but clicking the Camps button is uppercase, because that is how it is written on-screen. It is also a convention in English to italicize literals. (That is, you aren't clicking the camps, you are clicking on the word that says, literally, Camps.)

Reference examples

Refer to this table for terms that should be capitalized and terms that should be left lowercase.

Examples of uppercase and lowercase terms

Upper case	Lower case
Resolve	satisfying
Reputation	points
Hostility	trees
The Storm	seasons
The Queen's Impatience	timer
Blueprints	buildings
Crafting Materials	inventory
Complex Food	raw food
Leisure	resting
Service	goods
Housing	houses
Forest Mystery	modifier
Glade Event	penalty
Specialization	worker
Orders	objectives
Alchemy	extra chance
Engineering	comfortable
Pack of Trade Goods	trade
Sahilda	trader
Trading Post	trading

Less clear-cut examples

The following examples

Examples where capitalization clarifies intent

Upper case	Lower case
Recipe (the name of the panel on-screen	recipe (the idea of following a pattern to make something)
Farming (the Specialization)	farming (the idea of agriculture)
Newcomers (the name of the UI panel on-screen)	newcomers (the idea of new people coming)

Italicize literals

Italicize the words that you are reading off the screen to the reader. For example, when giving instruction to click the Options button and click Key Bindings, you should follow the case on the screen and italicize what you both can read: Options and Keybindings.

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