Contributing

If you're reading this, you're probably thinking of contributing guide material to Acheev - in which case Thank You! All guide/content improvements are gratefully received!

This page outlines some rules/guidelines for guide content here - by contributing you must agree to abide by these guidelines for everything you contribute (don't worry, its not scary!)

In no particular order...

Access to editing

To contribute, you must be signed in and your account must have the editor role. Please contact us on the Discord if you're interested in contributing and would like the role/permissions added to your account.

Definitions & consistency

Please review the Definitions section which describes how tags should be ascribed to achievements and what they mean. It's important that all guides are consistent in how those tags are applied so that users can more quickly understand what is required (and what is not required) for each achievement.

Of particular note is the distinction in achievement Kind between Objective, Grind and All-the-things (collectibles), and the specific semantics around Multiplayer.

Also "Missable" achievements; to be missable, an achievement must require loading an earlier save or losing overall game progress. This, for example, tends not to be a thing in games that revolve around short independent scenarios (like card games). An achievement is not missable if you can just carry on playing and get it again later without losing progress.

If in doubt, follow the same conventions as other popular guide sites like Powerpyx and xboxachievements.com - these are the semantics which users expect when they see words like Missable, Glitched and others.

Writing content

Tone and phrasing

Please refer to the reader as "you", but try not to reference yourself. Be objective and factual in how you phrase your sentences. Try to avoid writing anything unless you're sure it is correct - and if there is doubt make sure this is obvious in how you phrase; e.g. "there are reports of..."

Don't include your own name; as a contributor to the guide you'll be included in the credited contributors at the top of the guide page anyway.

Linking to achievements (smart links)

To add hyperlinks to other achievements in your content use a simple squiggly-bracket notation by wrapping the achievement's name or ID in brackets, like this: {{123456789}}.

Using the name is sometimes easier - but it has to be 100% exact (including upper/lower case) - so using the ID is often more reliable. This is why each achievement's ID is displayed under its name when editing options are enabled.

Using this notation, Acheev will automatically add a hyperlink to the achievement - and if the reader is signed in, will dynamically style the link to indicate whether they already unlocked it or not, like this:

Do this whenever relevant, as lots of links makes the guides easier to understand and navigate for readers.

Originality

Do not copy/paste content from other guide web sites!

When writing, content from the game itself is fine; these are small excerpts from the game and considered Fair Use under copyright law.

Other peoples' guides are not; they are copyright, owned by their author, and copy/pasting their content here is illegal. Do not do this.

Anything you write must be your own work, and by posting it you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable license to display and use it in the context of a publicly accessible achievement guide platform.

All contributions you make are associated with your login account.

You must not post anything abusive, illegal, or irrelevant to the game at hand. We reserve the right to edit - or allow other Editors to edit - any content you post.

Notes, and being efficient

We're not a walkthrough website

Focus on the achievements. This is not a walkthrough site so full explanations of gameplay mechanics and stories are not needed.

The aim is to let the player explore and enjoy the game themselves, where Acheev just provides the assistance to help them not miss any achievements.

Dragon Age: Veilguard is a good example; this game has high production values and mandatory tutorials/intros as the player progresses through the game for all sorts of things that have an achievement. The game explains how to do these things, so we don't need to. Just let the player know what the game doesn't - e.g. when it becomes possible to do it.

Avoid spoilers

Please focus guide content on how to get the achievement and nothing more. You should only include contextual/background information that will help the reader understand both when and how they should be looking to unlock it.

Exclude anything else.

For example; "Just after your best friend and ally is brutally murdered by your brother in Chapter 6, the collectible is behind you on the desk" is bad.

"In Chapter 6, after a surprise, the collectible is behind you on the desk" is much better. It's shorter, and it doesn't spoil the story.

Story, Unmissable achievements do not need any content

The engine will add default explanatory content for the common case of Unmissable Story achievements; the player gets these automatically during natural play through to the end of the story, so no specific content is required here

Any and every contribution is helpful

Don't feel like you have to dedicate the time to write a whole guide to be useful - any contribution is useful, of any size. Acheev is deliberately constructed to allow incremental and iterative construction of guides - partly to make it easier to write them, also because games don't stand still; often they change substantially post-launch (e.g. Cyberpunk 2077 v2.0!) so our setup lets us more easily adapt guides to the current state of a game, not just what it was at launch.

If in doubt, ask

If you're unsure of anything, please just [reach out in the Discord])(https://discord.gg/cYsSfvP) and ask us - we appreciate the contribution and are happy to help!