Well, I've been working through a handful of these games, and have been in touch with those of you who have offered your wisdom (thanks guys!) I just wanted to hammer out some details for those of you still not 100% sure of what I'm banging on about.
As you know, I have been pushing to group games by series more than by system. Part of the reason for this was to expand on series information. This project is me getting the ball rolling on expanding NinDB to what I always wanted it to be, rather than what it has become (that is, a quickly-written list of games with release dates and cameos).
Of the projects I have started so far, I guess the Mother series will best illustrate what I'm going for, as it only has 3 games, from well-known to obscure.
Mother SeriesMother Series OverviewThe series overview page will become more like a Mother series homepage, linking to all the main areas of that section and containing updates to that series.
Game Overviews1. Mother
2. Mother 2 / EarthBound
3. Mother 3
These pages are pretty much what the site has at the moment. I will be reintroducing a piece of boxart at the top (most likely the Japanese boxart, because they usually look better). They will contain:
- Overview (basic data, currently down the right hand side)
- Screenshots (a bar of pop-up screenshots)
- Story (brief synopsis of the game's prologue)
- Gameplay (overview of the game's contents)
- Other sections (depending on the series, there may be facts and figures, development information and other stuff here. In Mother's case, development of the first and last games will require their own sections).
Character EncyclopaediaHow these pages work is dependent on the series. Metroid and Mario, for example, will require just one page for the characters, as they are consistent. Mother will require separate pages for each game.
The key difference for NinDB will be the international focus. Mother 1 will place emphasis on the Japanese names
as EarthBound NES was never released. We will, of course, reference the names people know best... but it will be "Mothersday", not "Podunk". The same goes for the fanslation of Mother 3.
Enemy EncyclopaediaAs above, but for enemies.
Other Encyclopaedia EntriesMother may well need "places" and "items" to be included, being an RPG. Mario might have "power-ups", while Metroid might have "planets" and "factions". There's a lot that can be done here for each series, forming a kind of instruction manual for each game or series.
For series-wide encyclopaedias, a list of appearances may also be required.
How To PlayThis isn't strictly relevant to the Mother series, but will be used more for puzzle games. It will outline the rules and play mechanics, like an instruction manual would.
Game GuideFor me, the priority is game guides for obscure titles not released outside of Japan. There won't be guides for the latest brand-new games, as the purpose here is to walk the readers through a game they might never play themselves (I am guilty of reading game guides or watching playthroughs for RPGs, in particular, as I just don't enjoy the gameplay).
StorylineSome series have interesting or convoluted storylines that need a feature (sometimes speculative, sometimes factual) showing the timeline of the game, with spoilers. That's what this is for - a series-wide storyline to complement the story overview on the overview page.
Other featuresMother 3's troubled N64 development, for example, would make a good feature. Perhaps a feature on the Donkey Kong / Cranky Kong relationship, or connections between Zelda stories... Basically, the kind of thing we argue about on these forums! Why not throw in a feature on the Koopa Kids to kill off some of those all-pervading myths? Many options!
Other MediaSoundtracks, TV shows, etc. etc. This is an area I haven't touched before, but the times they are a-changing. There were quite a few Mother soundtracks.
CameosThis is tricky. Sometimes a cameo in a game is worth mentioning, sometimes you want to see that information when viewing the represented series instead. I think I'm going to have to go half-and-half. The cameos will be grouped with the represented series as a rule (so Mr. Saturn in Kirby Super Star will appear in the Mother section, rather than the Kirby Super Star page), but that doesn't mean the Kirby Super Star page can't reference it as well.
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Anything submitted to NinDB will be used by me to write it up and schedule for an update. This is being done for 2 reasons:
1) I write in a largely objective style, and in order to maintain the single voice used across the website, this shall continue.
2) More importantly, if one person starts writing a section, but drops out before finishing it, it means another person can swoop in and finish it up without affecting how the section is written. This is a bugbear of mine on other sites, where half-finished guides sit thanks to a staffer leaving.
Of course, all contributors will be credited for the work they do.
I won't post anything half-finished, but I will post individual sections for a particular game or series. For example, if a character guide is complete, but an enemy guide is far from finished, then I will post the character guide.
I'm still looking for people to help write things up, as there's
a lot of series on NinDB. However, I am making a couple of changes:
1. Game & Watch games will all be grouped together, rather than broken up into their individual series (even if part of a main series). Again, I can reference "Balloon Fight G&W" from the Balloon Fight series page easily, but it will, for all intents and purposes, be a G&W page. This section will also include Game Boy Gallery, Game & Watch Gallery and Game & Watch Collection.
2. Art Style games will all be grouped together.
3. DS Training games will all be grouped together.
4. Early arcade games MAY be grouped together (although this is proving tricky with the Color TV Game systems sharing several titles with them).
5. Arm Wrestling will become part of the Punch-Out!! series. I am undecided on Teleroboxer.
This actually reduces the number of series to something fairly manageable. If you think you can help with a game series, or even an individual section of a game series, then I'd be grateful for anything you can provide.
