Hooded Horse Wikis
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 and only one topic. Suppress the urge to make a page say All The Things or make One Table To Rule Them All. Less information that is well connected and easy to navigate is better than too much information all in one place, so err on the side of less.
Everything on a page should center on that page's topic. Anything related to the page's topic can be included in that article, under an appropriately titled section heading. Anything unrelated should not appear on that page.
While it might seem 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.
| 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 |
| Services | 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 |
| Farm Field | fields |
| Food Production Buildings | ingredients |
Less clear-cut examples
The following examples
| 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.
Use the templates
Numerous templates have been made to create consistent displays of information, to significantly reduce the time it takes to write new articles, to reduce the likelihood of markup errors, and to allow changes to be made site-wide. Please use these templates wherever possible.
See the template's documentation page for full information about to use these templates, variations they allow and encourage, and ideas on how to use them effectively. See this page for a full list of templates on this wiki.
| Template | Example code | Example output or description | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Resource link | {{rl|Berries}} |
 Berries
| ||||
| Template:rl | ||||||
| Template:Building link | {{bl|Herbalists' Camp|large}} |
 Herbalists' Camp
| ||||
| Template:bl | ||||||
| Template:Specialization link | {{sl|Alchemy|med}} |
 Alchemy
| ||||
| Template:sl | ||||||
| Template:Species link | {{Species link|Harpies|med}} |
 Harpies
| ||||
| Template:ImgS | {{ImgS}} |
Our standardized size of small, line-height-sized icons. Use one of the standard sizes for all images except screenshots. | ||||
| Template:ImgM | {{ImgM}} |
Our standardized size of medium-sized icons appropriate for use in small table cells. Use one of the standard sizes for all images except screenshots. | ||||
| Template:ImgL | {{ImgL}} |
Our standardized size of large-sized icons appropriate for use in large table cells. Use one of the standard sizes for all images except screenshots. | ||||
| Template:Amber | {{Amber}} |
| ||||
| Template:Recipe | {{Recipe|Coal|Kiln}} |
A whole table of the data for the recipe, similar to on the in-game Recipes Panel. | ||||
| Template:Construction | {{Construction|4|2}} |
| ||||
| Template:3Star | {{3Star}} |
★★★ | ||||
| Template:P1Star | {{P1Star}} |
(★) | ||||
| Template:Version | {{Version|0.5}} |
Links to external experts on content design and web usability
Thanks for reading! We'll write more soon.
