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Andy Stanly
Andy Stanly

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A wiki for a horror game has one rule: never spoil the scare

Writing a guide for a horror game is a different discipline from writing one for a strategy game. In both cases the reader wants help; in one case the help can destroy the experience.

The reader's real question

Someone searching for a horror game walkthrough is usually stuck, frightened, or deciding whether to keep playing. Those are three different pages. Collapsing them into one spoiler-heavy article is why people bounce.

Spoiler-safe structure

Put the answer first at the level of detail the reader asked for, then offer a collapsible deeper layer. A reader who wants the route gets the route; a reader who wants the mechanic gets the mechanic. Nobody gets the ending by accident.

Where the fear actually comes from

The scariest parts of these games are usually structural: what you cannot see, what the game withholds. A guide that explains the withholding removes the game. A guide that explains the mechanic preserves it.

Update discipline

Horror games get patched too. A visible last-checked date and a note on which patch changed what is what keeps a guide trustworthy.

If you are building one of these references, decide the spoiler policy before the first page — then make the walkthroughs and guides enforce it.

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