Discussing potential upcoming projects for late 2018.

In this post I’ll be talking about upcoming games that I am considering making guides for. While I am writing this, nothing is set in stone, Its a possibility that I could say I am intending to make a guide for a game and have something else come up which leads to me eventually ending up not following through. Therefore, I would like you to read this post as if it was a stack of concepts sitting on my drawing board with me weighing up the pros and cons before making a dedicated decision.

Now that my disclaimer is out of the way, I’ll tell you straight up that I am going to be making a Spider-man Guide. I’ll also tell you straight up that this post was initially gonna have a poll or something where I ask: “Hey. What would you rather like to see between a Code Vein guide or a Spiderman guide? or maybe both?“.

But Code Vein got delayed to 2019. The colossal task that I had been preparing myself for – maintaining two guides simultaneously – is now off the table now that Code Vein has been pushed back and only Spiderman remains in September.

So this post will talk about the prospects of making a Spiderman guide in September 2018. I’ll talk about how much I am setting out to do, potential problems that could appear and areas in which I could use help. I’ll also end the post by talking about future games in 2019 that I might want to make guides for.

~Marvel’s Spider-man~

What the hell is this game’s official name anyway? I’ve been calling it “Spiderman PS4” ever since it was announced (@_@) Self-titled stuff is always confusing man… and it will make my job of SEO annoying (~_~)

Anyway. I’ve pretty much decided to make a guide for this game and made it official by setting up the game page for it at Marvel’s Spiderman Guide. You can expect to see some content for it in the coming months.

My Motivation

I like Spider-man and I like Insomniac. I like open world games and to put it in one word: the game looks hype. The pre-release allure of this game got me super interested and I am making a decision to make a guide for it without having even played it yet. I’m confident I will like it and my main motivation will probably be “I am writing a guide because I like this game.”

That’s how it should be.

Prospective Guide Contents

Take due note that the stuff listed here is simply a collection of ideas. Guide ideas listed here, doesn’t 100% mean they will materialize. Who knows. maybe I’ll do a Story Guide only and say “Okay. Let me drop this game and go learn Mu-12 in BlazBlue Central Fiction.”

Bare Bones & Basic Guides contents:

FAQ (I’m feeling lazy; don’t wanna do this w)
Story Mode Guide
Basic Controls & Tutorial
Side Episode/Quest Guide
Collectibles Guide/Map
Game Facilities Explanation (can be part of basic tutorial)
Skill Tree List/Guide (If there is anything like this)
Unlockables Guide
Farming Guide??? (If the game has a currency or experience point system)
Update Notes (Redundant because the game is English?)
A Shameless link to my YT Spiderman stuff w

Advanced Guides contents:

Boss tips (Super in-depth; initially planning to put a lot of meat here)
Trophy Guide (This might take a while)
Explanations of any ‘out of the ordinary’ gameplay related exploits I may find
…I’m open to ideas

Things I Worry About

Here’s a list of things that make me double think the idea of making a guide for this game. Its not a lot to fully deter me from taking up this project, but these are things I will consistently be wary of.

I worry about maintaining an FAQ for AAA games. For obvious reasons.
I worry about my prospective ideas/explanations getting stolen by bigger and more well-recognized websites/YouTube Channels.
I worry about the Story having branching paths that might make a Story Guide rough work.
A Collectibles Guide/Map is going to be a damn nightmare without a Strategy Guide.
I worry about DLC adding an unexpected volume of things to add to existing guides.
I always worry about things I’ve explained already suddenly changing in an update.
I worry about the strain of writing a guide making the game not enjoyable for me.

There’s probably a whole lot more I’m forgetting in addition to the standard worries like my PC or PS4 suddenly exploding. Or any other kind of unforeseen event happening that can end up rendering me unable to continue making the guide.

But even so, its very important for me to write down the things I’m worried about. Doing so allows you, the reader, to have an insight to my thought process as I approach things. It also allows me to map down potential problems that I have to think about throughout the guide creation process.

I don’t know how it appears to the reader, but I always put an insane amount of pressure on myself when I am writing a guide. I test things dozens of times and always aim to gain 200% field experience on a topic only to present you with the most relevant 60% of it in a concise manner. The kind of pressure I put on myself to give only my utmost best effort is draining, all-consuming, unrewarding and above all, not fun.

My biggest worry is that this guide makes me unable to fully enjoy a game I’m genuinely excited to play. There’s no easy solution to this worry once I’ve already decided to make the guide. But the key to everything all lies in the kind of mindset I have.

With that being said, I am going to try to write this guide in a way that’s both fun for me and doesn’t become all-consuming. Keep in mind that I’m an expert at not practicing what I preach when it comes to stuff like this but I will really make a conscious effort to try to put enjoying the game first.

Game Longevity

Unless I’m horribly misinformed, Spider-man will be a single player story driven game. This means that there is a finite amount of things for the player to do and experience in the game. There’s no online multiplayer mode or varied character building to spur players into spending extra hours on the game beyond the game’s existing content.

Without having played the game, its hard to judge its scale which in turn makes it difficult to guess the game’s longevity and lifespan. Obviously, the amount of time each player will spend on the game will be different. DLC might also appear to re-ignite the game’s lifespan.

But from a guide making standpoint, the maximum possible number of topics I could cover for this game have a lower upper limit than what I am used to due its seemingly lower longevity. That’s another way of saying that I wouldn’t have to cover as many topics to have a ‘good’ guide for this game as opposed to other games that have character building, leveling, online multiplayer and other stuff that increases the game’s longevity.

I think that’s a good thing as long as I don’t fall into the trap of trying to go into wayyyy too much detail just because I’m used to doing more.

What I Might Need Help With

Its kind of hard to say what I might need help with before the time. But the usual kind of help I like is people helping out in the FAQ(if I decide to do one), telling me about new methods of doing things, or telling me about other existing helpful information so that I can reference it. I always credit people for their ideas so don’t be afraid to tell me about you might wanna see in a guide.

But because its not clear right now how much content I will cover in the guide, its hard to say exactly what I’d need help with.

But the one thing I would need help with since I’m not going to do this time, is sharing the link to my site on places like gamefaqs, reddit or discord or whatever. I don’t really mind if my stuff doesn’t get seen though but that kind of help would be really appreciated.

I used to post the links myself only to be met with vile backlash every time. A man can only be called a “Money Grubbing Cunt” or “Attention Whore Cocksucker” so much before it adds to my RL pent up anger issues (T_T)

So to save myself the trouble, I’m ducking public forums like Jehovah’s Witnesses when they show up at your doorstep on Christmas.

Anyway. That’s it for my prospects on the Spdierman guide.

~Future Projects~

I usually only decide within a month of an upcoming guide if I will 100% go through with making a guide for it, so I can’t say with certainty what future games I will make guides for.

But here’s a list of new games that I am interested in: