Designing games

Got a cool new pyramid game you designed? Great! This page describes the process for contributing new games to the wiki. Correctly following the steps below should make adding your game easier and improve the quality of information about your game in the database. This will allow it to be automatically located by the search pages.

When should you add your game to the wiki?

In general, don't make a page for a game that you don't intend to finish designing within a reasonable amount of time. Unfortunately, many game designs don't develop much beyond a concept and a few general ideas. Some designs may take months or even years to mature into something that is playable. If your game is still mostly just an idea or you are not entirely sure what you are going to name it, we kindly request that you refrain from making a page for it until you are more certain. If you would still like to get some feedback at this early stage, we encourage you to instead make a post on one of the other pyramid game forums online (you will probably get more responses that way). Also, please do not create a page for a game you have not even designed yet just because you think the name is cool and want to save it for later.

Creating a new page for your game

There are a number of different ways you can create a new page on the wiki. However, it is recommended to first perform a search to see if your desired name is already taken.

1. Type your desired game name in the search box on any page. Hit "enter"
2. If there is not already a game or page on the wiki using that name, there will be a bold line near the top of the search results that should look something like this: Create the page "GAME NAME" on this wiki!.
3. Click the red link to be taken to the page editor.

Formatting your rules

While you are free to format your rules however you see fit, it will be easier for other people to read and learn your game if you stick with a format similar to other game pages. Common sections include:

• A short sentence or two at the top of the page summarizing what kind of game it is and other other notable details such as "won 3rd place in ____ game contest" or "this game was inspired by and/or is similar to ____"
• An "Equipment" section with a bulleted list of the pyramids and components needed to play the game.
• An short "Overview" section giving a players a general idea of what the game is about and what they are trying to do (sometimes also used in conjunction with a "Goal" or "Objective" subsection).
• "Setup", "How to Play", "Ending the Game" (or "How to Win"), "Scoring", and "Designers Notes"
  • These should be fairly self explanatory. Use subsections as necessary to divide your rules into smaller, logical chunks and be sure to bold or italicize and key rules that might get overlooked. This will make it earlier for people to reference the rules during the game.

See this page for a quick explanation on how to format text on a wiki. More general wiki help can also be found here. Important! please enclose your section titles with double equal signs (such as in == SECTION_TITLE ==). This will make reading on a phone much easier as it allows for sections to be collapsed and hidden.

Adding your game to the database

Most of the identification of your game is done automatically once you add an Infobox to the page and include your game in a few high-level categories. Failure to correctly follow any of these instructions may result in your game not displaying in automatically generated lists!

Adding an Infobox

Every game on the wiki should have an Infobox! No only does it look good, but all of the input parameters are mapped to searchable properties in the database. Adding an Infobox is a breeze, just go to the Infobox page and copy the code to the very top of your game page, before any of the other text. Then fill out the parameters as needed. Please refer to the instructions on the infobox page for more explanation about the variables and how to properly fill out the form. In general, the more information you provide, the easier it will be to find your game.

Adding Categories

Is your game still a work in progress? Be sure to put it in the correct development category! This is done by adding a template to the top of the page, before the infobox text.

• Initial Design - idea fragments and any rules which are incomplete in their current state. This category also includes any game rules you have written the inital draft for but have not gotten the opportunity to playtest yourself.
  • Template code: {{Under Development|Initial Design}}
    • this automatically puts it into the Category:Games_Under_Development/Initial_Design category.
• Playtesting - games which you have tried out a few times yourself and deem ready for blind playtesting.
  • Note: this wiki is not a good place to look for playtesters. You are better off making a post on Pyramid Games subforum of the Looney Labs Fan Club, the Starship Captains Facebook Group or one of the forums for Looney pyramids on BoardGameGeek (please don't create a game page on BGG for your unfinished game ideas).
  • Template code: {{Game Under Development|Playtesting}}
    • this automatically puts it into the Category:Games_Under_Development/Playtesting category.
• Nearly Complete - games that have undergone significant playtesting but are not yet considered ready for various reasons, such as recent changes to the rules that as still being tested out or because the on-line description needs spelling or grammar corrections.
  • Template code: {{Under Development|Nearly Complete}}
    • this automatically puts it into the Category:Games_Under_Development/Nearly_Complete category.

Complete - If your game design is complete, add it to the CATAGORY NAME TBD category by placing [[CATAGORY NAME]] at the top of the game page. Be sure to remove any of the "Under Development" templates you might have been using previously.

still need to add more notes on additional, top-level categories go here. Also need to decide on a short but useful list, the old list of categories is rather large and unmaintainable (not to mention largely replaced by semantic properties).