At this point I have seen many WC stories that fall to the same mistakes. They're comments are shouting them out, only a few, if any, listen to them. And apparently someone has to write a rule book of this, so here I go. These are based on mine, and other CYS member's opinions and reviews of of the WC games here.
Dear WC writer. Read this whole thing. Yes it's long, but if you can read the books, you can read this.
1 Listen to the 'haters' Unless they're telling you to die in a fire, or something of that sorts.They don't 'hate' it because it's WC, no matter what you think. They 'hate' on it because it's bad. So if you see comments on games, saying that the grammar is bad or the story is dull. I suggest you'd listen to them, and go fix it. And it may not even be hate, it might be building critique.(it most likely is.)
2 Have proper grammar! I can't even count the stories with this problem, almost all of them are like this. If you get the red squiggly line under your word, it means you spelled it wrong. Which means you're going to have to spell it again. If you don't know how to spell the word, google it. I use this method and it has worked fine for me. And please, there's a difference between too and to, know it! This also applies to there, they're their. And it's: 'She walks.' not 'She walk.' I think I'm done with my English for dummies-lesson, so let's move on.
3 Try to make a different plot Almost all the WC stories here seem like duplicates of one another. Yes you can have your growing up from kit to leader story if you want, but make it different. Give it an element to make it stick out. They are cats, but it doesn't mean they can't breathe fire or have other crazy powers. There's a world of possibilities. You could have different ranks, or different clans. Why not make a game about the ancient clans? Or a game where the leaders and medicine cats can harness the power of their clan name? Now isn't that different?
4 Add a disclamer at the end This is not necessary, but I recommend it. At the end of your story place little note saying: 'If you found this through google and are thinking about making a story yourself, first consider do you have what it takes?' This would control the bad WC writers, that ignore these rules, flooding in to the site.
5 Add adjectives, lots of them Description runs the world of your story. Have lots of adjectives in your story. The better you describe the scene, the better the reader can see it, and most likely have more fun reading your story.
6 Polish your writing It sounds better. Use the fancy words. For example: 'Firestar looked at Tigerstar. "You will not destroy my clan." Firestar meowed. "You think you can stop me?" Tigerstar meows.' can be turned in to: 'Firestar glared in to Tigerstar's scorching amber eyes. "I will not let you destroy my clan!" Firestar muttered slashing his tail through the air. "You think you can stop me?" Tigerstar hisses with a murderous glare.' Doesn't that sound better?
7 Don't be afraid to ask the community If you need help, just make a thread. The people here are very helpful, well most of them. If you have questions ask them. I for example made a thread about my game, it would be another bad one if I wouldn't have made that thread. If you're having trouble with rule 6 and 5, I suggest you get a story editor who has that under control.
8 The gender choice is not necessary Some people really don't care, whether they're a tom or a she-cat. They advise to not have the entire choice, unless it affects the story. Some people find it annoying to pick they're gender, and most find it annoying to pick it ten times. So if you have a gender choice, make it matter and appear only once. For an example: I believe it was 'Warrior Cats Adventure' by Wildfur, that had a patrol, which your gender determined. If I remember correctly, as a tom you would run in to a fox, and as a she-cat in to an enemy patrol. And my brother is making a game where as a she-cat you will be the clan's medicine cat, but as a tom a warrior. Long story short, if it doesn't affect the story, you might just leave it out.
9 Choices need to affect the story I'll start off with a question: Would you prefer three 'continue' links in a row, or three links leading to the same page in a row. I don't know about you, but some people think that every choice should affect the story. Whether it's a choice of will you hunt or patrol, or a choice of running in to a forest fire to save kits. It should at least seem like it affects the story.
10 Do NOT rush! This is the most common complain I see in the comments after, 2 and 3. Never make a game in a day. It does not end well. Don't even think when you'll publish, until the time comes. Take your time! If you're eager to get your story out, work on it more often, but remember to work at normal and speed. It gets it out faster, yet with out the minuses of rushing. You should work on your story for at least a month, maybe six, or even ten, depends on how long it is. A good story may consume years.
11 Work on only one project at a time This gets your focus on the one you're writing. You may write some small stories to get feedback on your writing style, but I suggest to not work on many large projects at a time.
12 Consider remakes Let's say you already wrote a WC story, and it got bad ratings. People have commented that the problem was your poor grammar and clumsy dialogue. So if you would be in this situation, I'd suggest you to remake the game and fix the listed problems. Doing this might raise your ratings.
13 Design the characters well I suggest you take a day of just charting your characters. Just sit down and think it through. Like this: This cat will be the leader. It will look like this, and has this kind of personality. And it will have this significance to the story.
14 Know the characters In order to not have clumsy dialogue, you need to make it sound believable. To do this, you have to have your characters planned. You need to know your characters, know what they would say in that situation, and what they would never say in that situation.
15 Proofread before publishing! This is very important, as it is the last time to check your grammar and that you have links to proper pages. And of course, is your story what you want it to be. If you're too lazy to proofread yourself, you can always get someone else to do it for you.
16 Introduction to the world Not everyone knows the WC details. You should introduce the reader to your world, whether as a kit, apprentice or warrior. It doesn't matter as long as you have it. And you should write: 'a day in the season of Greenleaf' instead of ' a day of Greenleaf'.
17 The reader needs to know their mate You can't just write: 'You met a cat named Sandstorm. You spend some time hunting, and she asked you to be her mate.' You can write this, if you have had scenes with Sandstorm in them. I have seen stories where your mate doesn't have a single line of dialogue. The reader needs to have the chance to spend time with their mate-to-be. They need to know what they like about that cat. They need to know why they should be together. They need to know the cat.
These are the rules of writing WC. There may be more, but I just forgot to add them. If you can come up with some rules I forgot, than post them here. I hope this wil up the quality of WC games at least a little.
(I also hope I won't sound like a hypocrite once my story gets published)
