The Guide to Transcript Writing
From Destinypedia, the Destiny wiki
Transcripts are fairly easy (and fun!) to write. Below are some guidelines on proper formatting, as well as examples.
This page will serve as a general guide on how to write a game level transcript. In Destiny, these would be Story Missions, Strikes, and Raids.
Guidelines
First off, it's important to specify when the actions in the transcript are happening. Are they part of the cutscene or gameplay? Since most game levels begin with a cutscene, it needs to be specified. On wikis, it's done like this:
'''{Cutscene}''' This will produce: {Cutscene}
When the cutscene ends and gameplay begins, simply follow the same format:
'''{Gameplay}''' {Gameplay}
Since many of Destiny's levels begin with a loading screen, insert {Loading screen} at the beginning of the level transcript. On Destinypedia, it may also be necessary to insert {Mission ends} within a transcript, such as if the mission is followed by a cutscene.
Once cutscenes, gameplay, and the beginning and end of missions are sorted, the next step is is writing out the dialogue. First things first, character names should be bolded, with a colon (:) to the right of the character name. Each line of dialogue should also begin with an asterisk (*). If the character is speaking for the first time during the level, a link should be provided to the character's respective article. Second, for the dialogue, be sure to listen to each line more than once to ensure accuracy, or find a walkthrough that has subtitles. Finally, when writing the dialogue out, be sure to put it in quotation marks.
- Example
- Holly Tanaka: "Is that it?"
- Olympia Vale: "Where are we?"
Next, player actions (pressing a button, walking towards something, etc.), enemy actions, and the rest of important non-dialogue actions should be written out in italic text, in order between each line of dialogue.
- Example
A garbled, noisy transmission plays.
- Ghost: "They managed to restore an information hub here, down in the tunnels below. We should check it out."
The Guardian heads into a nearby building and finds a terminal.
- Ghost: "A map of the entire area."
Lastly, any on screen text, such as chapter names, taglines, dates, and etc., should be written out in bold text in the order they appear.
Examples
Check out these examples of some well-written transcripts.