Yes
This post is going to be a wall of text. Sorry about that. If you want an example of how a new page will look, check out the Contra page:
https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Contra
We're making a lot of changes to the KB and along with that comes some changes to the way that we'd like to do game pages. I'm really happy to hear that so many of you have already shown interest and started working on content and I'm excited to see what we can all come up with. For anyone who isn't clear what exactly goes into the new knowledge base, here is what we'd like you to write. Write down what someone would need to know in order to do a speedrun of the game you're covering to get it accepted on SDA. If there's already a run posted, what would you need to know in order to obsolete the current run? If the SDA run is outdated, focus on the strategies that need to be included in order to obsolete the current best known time for a game. What you write will help someone get a run that meets SDA strandards and will document the current optimal strats for a game.
Here's why we're doing this. We make better speedruns when more people get involved. As our community grows larger we share discoveries and the end result becomes something magical. It goes without saying that speedrunning takes a ton of planning and can demand a very deep knowledge of a game's mechanics. There's nothing wrong with games being hard and complex, but just because something is complex doesn't mean it has to be inaccessible to people. The goal of the new strategy wiki is to take all of the information that members of the speedrunning community know about their games and organize it into a way that makes it accessible for everyone. When I say everyone, I mean the whole speedrunning community. Instead of just thinking about speedrunning as separate communities like SDA/SRL and TAS videos each doing their own thing, this can become a resource that every community contributes to and shares. Again, the more people we involve, the better our finished product gets. The content that you create can help people from TAS Videos dissect your game and push it to its limits. If I had a dime for every time I stole an interesting trick from a tool assisted speedrun, I could afford a new copy of Earthbound. Your work in the KB can also help someone casually interested in speedrunning develop a better appreciation for what goes into speedrunning your game. It can also help grow your game's popularity on SpeedRunsLive. SpeedRunsLive is currently working on a leaderboard for games. We're hoping that by the time it's finished, the KB will be built up enough to the point where a leaderboard page for a game can link directly to the game's KB entry in the strategy wiki. Information shouldn't stay undocumented in someone's head or get buried in forum threads. Because speedrunning gets so complicated we've got to put some sort of organization into our documentation otherwise we get a gigantic wall of text that's not very accessible. We've come up with a format that will work well for most games.
Format:
*Everything will no longer be in one page. Instead there will be a landing pages will link to all of the other pages.
*Each game's category will have its own page
*Each game will have a separate page devoted to its mechanics and glitches
Detail:
->Each game has a main landing page
-The landing page will list the categories for each game and what the categories consist of
-The landing page will link to a game mechanics page and link to additional resources
What goes into each page:
->Category Page
-A link to the fastest known time will be at the top of each category page (it does not have to be a run verified on SDA)
-The game's route will be covered on this page. The entire route needs to be on one page
-Use the wiki sectional formatting to keep the route organized and allow readers to jump to a particular section of the route
-If there are two different routes for a game and they are both viable contenders for the fastest time, make two pages. Ex: Any % dungeon x first, Any % dungeon y first
-To help keep this page concise, link to tricks and their explanations in the game mechanics page instead of explaining every trick on the route page
***I don't know your game better than you do. Break out the route into whatever sections you think is best, but PLEASE make sure it makes sense to someone who is new to speedrunning the game, keep it on the same page, and keep it organized using the wiki's sectional formatting. For a linear game like Super Mario Bros. for the NES the formatting you'd use would be a section for each stage. For a game that has a more complex route like OoT you can do what you think is best for your category. Just identify ways of breaking the route up into sections and use the wiki formatting to keep navigating between them easy.
->Game Mechanics Page
-Explanations of the game mechanics. This may include how values of weapon damage or enemy health. It can also include detailed explanation of something that is unique to a particular game for example the
mechanics of the roll in Donkey Kong Country
-Video explanations are ideal
-You can explain a mechanic that is unique to a particular area of the game. For example in Contra, this is how the claws work in stage 7.
-Important notes on timing (game time vs real time) can go here
-Version differences in games can go here
-Glitches and explanations on how to do them go here
-You are more than welcome to link to external guides and content.
-Depending on the complexity of the game, mechanics and glitches may be split off into multiple pages
-If you are discussing a particular mechanic in a great amount of detail, you may create a separate page or pages for that mechanic and link to it on the mechanics page
->Additional Resources
-Anything that doesn't fit neatly into the other pages can go here
-Link to a TAS for the game or a theory TAS can go here
-If a game has an irc channel on SDA or SRL it can go here
-If the game has its own separate community, it can be linked here
->(Optional) casual speedrunning section
- If there are safe strats or route changes that are suboptimal, but make the game much easier to speedrun for casual players they can be documented here
- Expectation of main category page is to list the fastest route or the best techniques
I'm working on a tutorial video that explains everything you need to know about making game pages. I'll have that ready shortly. For now please use this thread to discuss any questions you may have. I'm sure there will be corner cases and we'll see if we can get them to work with this format as best as we can. I look forward to building up the new KB with all of you!
-K
https://kb.speeddemosarchive.com/Contra
We're making a lot of changes to the KB and along with that comes some changes to the way that we'd like to do game pages. I'm really happy to hear that so many of you have already shown interest and started working on content and I'm excited to see what we can all come up with. For anyone who isn't clear what exactly goes into the new knowledge base, here is what we'd like you to write. Write down what someone would need to know in order to do a speedrun of the game you're covering to get it accepted on SDA. If there's already a run posted, what would you need to know in order to obsolete the current run? If the SDA run is outdated, focus on the strategies that need to be included in order to obsolete the current best known time for a game. What you write will help someone get a run that meets SDA strandards and will document the current optimal strats for a game.
Here's why we're doing this. We make better speedruns when more people get involved. As our community grows larger we share discoveries and the end result becomes something magical. It goes without saying that speedrunning takes a ton of planning and can demand a very deep knowledge of a game's mechanics. There's nothing wrong with games being hard and complex, but just because something is complex doesn't mean it has to be inaccessible to people. The goal of the new strategy wiki is to take all of the information that members of the speedrunning community know about their games and organize it into a way that makes it accessible for everyone. When I say everyone, I mean the whole speedrunning community. Instead of just thinking about speedrunning as separate communities like SDA/SRL and TAS videos each doing their own thing, this can become a resource that every community contributes to and shares. Again, the more people we involve, the better our finished product gets. The content that you create can help people from TAS Videos dissect your game and push it to its limits. If I had a dime for every time I stole an interesting trick from a tool assisted speedrun, I could afford a new copy of Earthbound. Your work in the KB can also help someone casually interested in speedrunning develop a better appreciation for what goes into speedrunning your game. It can also help grow your game's popularity on SpeedRunsLive. SpeedRunsLive is currently working on a leaderboard for games. We're hoping that by the time it's finished, the KB will be built up enough to the point where a leaderboard page for a game can link directly to the game's KB entry in the strategy wiki. Information shouldn't stay undocumented in someone's head or get buried in forum threads. Because speedrunning gets so complicated we've got to put some sort of organization into our documentation otherwise we get a gigantic wall of text that's not very accessible. We've come up with a format that will work well for most games.
Format:
*Everything will no longer be in one page. Instead there will be a landing pages will link to all of the other pages.
*Each game's category will have its own page
*Each game will have a separate page devoted to its mechanics and glitches
Detail:
->Each game has a main landing page
-The landing page will list the categories for each game and what the categories consist of
-The landing page will link to a game mechanics page and link to additional resources
What goes into each page:
->Category Page
-A link to the fastest known time will be at the top of each category page (it does not have to be a run verified on SDA)
-The game's route will be covered on this page. The entire route needs to be on one page
-Use the wiki sectional formatting to keep the route organized and allow readers to jump to a particular section of the route
-If there are two different routes for a game and they are both viable contenders for the fastest time, make two pages. Ex: Any % dungeon x first, Any % dungeon y first
-To help keep this page concise, link to tricks and their explanations in the game mechanics page instead of explaining every trick on the route page
***I don't know your game better than you do. Break out the route into whatever sections you think is best, but PLEASE make sure it makes sense to someone who is new to speedrunning the game, keep it on the same page, and keep it organized using the wiki's sectional formatting. For a linear game like Super Mario Bros. for the NES the formatting you'd use would be a section for each stage. For a game that has a more complex route like OoT you can do what you think is best for your category. Just identify ways of breaking the route up into sections and use the wiki formatting to keep navigating between them easy.
->Game Mechanics Page
-Explanations of the game mechanics. This may include how values of weapon damage or enemy health. It can also include detailed explanation of something that is unique to a particular game for example the
mechanics of the roll in Donkey Kong Country
-Video explanations are ideal
-You can explain a mechanic that is unique to a particular area of the game. For example in Contra, this is how the claws work in stage 7.
-Important notes on timing (game time vs real time) can go here
-Version differences in games can go here
-Glitches and explanations on how to do them go here
-You are more than welcome to link to external guides and content.
-Depending on the complexity of the game, mechanics and glitches may be split off into multiple pages
-If you are discussing a particular mechanic in a great amount of detail, you may create a separate page or pages for that mechanic and link to it on the mechanics page
->Additional Resources
-Anything that doesn't fit neatly into the other pages can go here
-Link to a TAS for the game or a theory TAS can go here
-If a game has an irc channel on SDA or SRL it can go here
-If the game has its own separate community, it can be linked here
->(Optional) casual speedrunning section
- If there are safe strats or route changes that are suboptimal, but make the game much easier to speedrun for casual players they can be documented here
- Expectation of main category page is to list the fastest route or the best techniques
I'm working on a tutorial video that explains everything you need to know about making game pages. I'll have that ready shortly. For now please use this thread to discuss any questions you may have. I'm sure there will be corner cases and we'll see if we can get them to work with this format as best as we can. I look forward to building up the new KB with all of you!
-K
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