Style guide: revision #31

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Consistency makes the wiki readable for people and parseable for machines. When editing, match this style.

## Tone

- **Neutral and descriptive.** Describe what a game is and what sources say about it. No marketing language ("stunning", "must-play"), no reviews, no second person ("you'll love…" — the article is not talking to a player).
- **Plain over clever.** Short sentences. Concrete facts. The coziness belongs in the games; the prose should be calm and clear.
- **Attribute opinions.** Critical assessments appear only as attributed, cited claims ("Rolling Stone described…"), never in the wiki's own voice.

## Article structure

Game articles follow this skeleton (sections may be omitted when empty):

1. **Lead** — one short paragraph: what the game is, who made it, first release (with citations). Bold the game's title on first mention.
2. **Gameplay** — how it plays, neutrally paraphrased from official/store descriptions, cited.
3. **Development and release** — studio background, early access and 1.0 dates, platform rollout, publisher changes.
4. **Reception** — awards, sales milestones, notable coverage. Only what can be cited.
5. **External links** — official site, store page.
6. **References** — generated from your footnotes.

## Dates and numbers

- Write dates as **26 February 2016** (day Month year). Use "as of [date]" for time-sensitive figures like sales.
- Prefer exact figures with sources over vague claims ("sold over 41 million copies as of December 2024", not "extremely popular").

## Links

- Link other wiki pages with double brackets: [[Stardew Valley]], or with a label: [[cozy-game|cozy game]]. Link the first mention only.
- Red links (to pages that don't exist yet) are encouraged — they map what the wiki still needs.
- External links live in citations and the External links section, not sprinkled through prose.

## Citations

- Place the footnote marker directly after the punctuation of the claim it supports.
- One footnote per source; reuse the same marker for repeat citations of that source.
- Footnote format: publisher/author, linked title, publisher name, "Retrieved" date — see [[Verifiability]].

## Titles and naming

- Article titles use the game's official name, including punctuation ("Animal Crossing: New Horizons").
- Use the developer's preferred studio name; note self-publishing as "self-published" where relevant.