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Writing Quest Texts

Quest Descriptions

Every quest needs a title, a tagline, and a quest description.

  • The title can be 2-40 characters. Try to aim for 5-30 characters, as the name is a part of the quest cover image, and you don’t want to use a tiny font that occupies the whole image. Puns are welcome, but please don’t make them lewd or otherwise inappropriate. Feel free to browse our current quest catalog for inspiration.
  • The tagline can be 2-100 characters. Try to aim for 5-6 words. Should be a narrative-driven, short sentence. Fun, geeky references and puns are acceptable, but you can also go for something more descriptive.
  • *The description can be up to 100 words. Aim for a narrative-driven quest description, that gives the reader an idea what to expect but in a fun way.

Narrative

When building a new quest, you’ll be able to use one of the following characters to communicate with users:

  • Lucca
  • Keen

Learn more about the Anythink backstory and the characters

To make your quest feel more like a conversation with a real human, make sure that conversation texts align with the voice and tone of each character.

Adjust delay time between messages to make the speed of the conversation feel realistic and give users enough time to read each message.

Conversation Texts

When writing the conversation texts, it is best to read the texts aloud to yourself and ask yourself:

  • Are instructions worded clearly?
  • Is all necessary information provided? (ex: definition of acronyms, links to information about terminology/concepts that may be unfamiliar to some users)
  • Is there any extraneous text that can be cut out?
  • Does the conversation read out as a dialogue or a long monologue?
  • Is text formatted properly to highlight instructions, code, etc.? Learn more

Hints

  • Have you provided enough hints for each step?
  • Are the hints helpful?

Feedback

The feedback users receive throughout the quest is not only an opportunity to let users know if they did something right or wrong. Frequent meaningful can help users stay engaged in the quest, point them in the right direction when they make a mistake and build their confidence.