Sonic News Network:Style/Level

This is a set of general guidelines to follow when creating and editing mainspace articles concerning a level (sometimes referred to as 'acts', 'stages' or 'missions') related to the Sonic the Hedgehog series franchise. Although this is an official guide, editors are encouraged to stray from them if it will improve the overall quality of the article.

Legend

 * Yellow boxes are general guidelines meant to pertain to the main text on the page.
 * Green boxes are guidelines for headers.
 * Red boxes are guidelines for anything else.

Some main space pages regarding levels may have an abundance of images and screenshots available which make render the page unnecessarily large and difficult to navigate. A separate gallery-tab page from the main level page is to be created and placed at the very top, here.

Some levels, acts or missions may have corresponding ones coming before or after it. The "Stage Order" template is to be placed here to allow quick navigation between and from corresponding levels.

Add a quote here. Preferably a short description of the level from official sources such as a game's manual or a quote said by a character's experience, viewpoints, history or significance in regards to the level.

The "Infobox Level" template is to be inserted here. Information in regards to the level, act or mission are to be filled as much as possible including, but not limited to; The game(s) the level appears in, its location (in regard to the game's universe), number of acts/missions and enemies units present as well as the level boss (if any). Image of the level, hub world or loading title for the infobox is preferred and is to be placed at the top, preferably no larger than 300x300 pixels.

This is the summary. The purpose of this is to summarise the level in accordance to the game in appears in. Information should include a brief description of what the level is, its appearance and design, in-universe creation (if artificial, e.g by Dr. Eggman) its relative location, the order of the level in correspondence with past or following levels and stages, hazards, gimmicks, objective and its significance to the game overall. Details of note in the summary could also include differences or noteworthy information of the game's version between different console platforms (if available).

Within a level (sometimes appearing as a Hub or Hub World) may contain multiple acts or missions within. Sub heading must be inserted, with each heading being listed as "Act 1", "Level 1" or "Mission 1" and so forth.

A particular game may be open to access to different console platforms (PC, XBOX, PlayStation, Wii etc.) and may have starkly different designs or details the other may not have. Sub headings to provide descriptions of the level must be created under the name of their respective console platform in question.

A summary of the act, mission or level in particular is to be placed here. It should consist of a paragraph and no more unless absolutely necessary, or long. It is recommended to not contain too much repetitive descriptive information of the level, act or mission which may already have been covered present in the opening summary at the top of the page. This area should contain a description of the design or theme of the stages, with mentions to detail which may include differing paths, routes, gimmicks or suchlike which may or may not be unique to this level, act or mission in particular to others.

Quotes
This section can include quotes which can be heard or present within the level, act or mission in particular. It can include quotes said by characters whilst navigating the stage. Any quote must be placed within the "Quote Left" template, which must include the complete line which consists of the quote at the beginning, with the character who said the quote at the bottom (or source of the quote if the character is unidentifiable.)

Boss
If a Boss (may sometimes referred to as "Challenge", "Challenger" or "Rival") contains sufficient enough detail and information to warrant its own independent article on the Wikia main space, a link to that article in particular should be placed here using the "Main" template.

A Boss (may sometimes referred to as "Challenge", "Challenger" or "Rival") may appear different or function differently between games available on different console platforms. Same rule applies within the "Acts" section covered above.

This section includes the summary of the Boss (may sometimes referred to as "Challenge", "Challenger" or "Rival"). The summary must include a detailed description of the subject's characteristics, designs/appearance, habits, behaviour and weaknesses, as well as details on how to defeat it. Tips on assisting in defeating the subject within a faster time spawn is also welcomed. The section could also include an image of the subject and should be no larger than 300 x 300 pixels.

Gallery
This section is for images of the person. It is recommended to be limited to insertion of significant images in relation to the stage. Such images should include screenshots of the level or from gameplay, official artwork, promotional works such as advertisement or other imagery which may feature the stage, or parts of the stage but may not be the sole focus of (eg. the cover-art of a game may feature one level from it) and cameo appearances.


 * All imagery to be placed in the gallery must be of official sources only (Having appeared in at least 1 officially released, or licensed media.)
 * Imagery of an incarnation of the level must be based off of the one being portrayed in the article. Imagery of different level incarnation should be placed in their respective pages or gallery-tab.

Ranking
A Ranking system may either appear or function differently (or both) in the same game from different console platforms (eg. difference in score calculations, or different objectives). Each score calculation table or objective list must be listed under individual sub headings under the name of the particular console (eg. Nintendo DS, Wii etc.)

May sometimes be referred to as "Score" or "Scoring, this section should include the amount of score or objective required upon stage, act, mission or level completion to obtain a particular rank or reward (if available). It should appear in the form of a table. The table must include (from left-to-right), Rank letter or number (official art imagery can be utilised here instead of text/numeric value), The Act/Mission, Minimum score required/objective to accomplish. An example will be placed below.

Music
Each stage, level or act will have different soundtracks or music played in the background, usually under a loop. A Table must be created with columns containing (from left-to-right), Stage/Mission/Level name of which the soundtrack appears in, or name of the song in particular, music track (in the form of .ogg files), length (Minutes:Seconds form) and composer/arranger and/or vocalists (if known). A sample is provided below.


 * It is to note that since it is common for most stage music to be continuously looped, music length should be no more than 6:00 minutes long.

Video (Walk-through)
<div style="position:relative;border:dashed 2px #999;background-color:palegreen;padding:.5em 2em;margin:.25em 3em .25em 3em;">Stage design, layout and gimmicks may be composed and appear differently between different platform versions of the same game. A sub heading must be created for each video Walk-through tab in relation to the console. Same rule applies with Image Gallery and Ranking. <div style="position:relative;border:dashed 2px black;background-color:salmon;padding:.5em 2em;margin:.25em 3em .25em 3em;">Video Walkthroughs and Tutorials of each stages can be placed here, usually in the form of Youtube videos. Videos placed here in accordance to the level must be guiding or informative as well as being relevant. Contents of video must strictly only contain content from the subject (being the level). Videos selected for insertion here must be: Each video walk-through of different stages must be inserted and separated within the "Tabber" template. An example is provided below.
 * Of highest quality if possible.
 * Must not contain commentary; limited to only sound or music native to the game or level (excludes un-official remixes.)
 * Must not be advertising in nature (both before, during and after the video).
 * Must not be heavily edited, or to the point the editing or post-editing details are discernible. Such includes "intros" or "watermarks". Minor color corrections are acceptable.
 * Must not contain cheat codes or hacks in effect (display, enhancement or functionary hacks or "mods" such as "60 Frames-Per-Second unlock" or "H.U.D removal" for demonstrative purposes or similar are acceptable.)
 * Must be recorded PC-Native (via platform-native means or via emulator or if unavailable, console native.)

Trivia
<div style="position:relative;border:dashed 2px #999;background-color:#fff799;padding:.5em 2em;margin:.25em 3em .25em 3em;">The Trivia section is about small pieces of information about the level, stage or act that do not fit in any of the sections above. Here, the editor must make a list of these little-known facts by using bullet points (*), where each piece of information being given its own paragraph. Please note it is required that the Trivia is informative, not lengthy and pointless.