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How To Write A Review On Star Struck Gaming

So you’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon, get involved and get your name out there for some awesome gaming reviews. But where do you start?

As the founder of Star Struck Gaming, I had to learn to write, then learn to design, and then learn how to market the website. It took a while to get used to it, but then it wasn’t so scary once I’d written my first few posts.

What better way than following step by step on how to write a review than seeing it in action, without delay, lets get going.

Step 1 Logging into WordPress.

Rather than learning heaps of code to be able to build a website I went with something much easier and user friendly – hence using WordPress. WordPress is basically what you’ll use to type up and submit your posts/reviews/news or whatever you want to call them.

At this point you should have received an email with your login details, this should usually include a link to reset your password – let us know if not!

you’ll want to keep your username and password safe, then head over to https://starstruckgaming.com/wp-admin where you’ll have a login box to enter your username and password details – go ahead and then click login.

Creating your first review

Look to the top-left area of your dashboard, hover over posts and click add new. We’re now in business.

The first thing you’ll want to do is scroll all the way down to page options, selecting the ‘review’ option, you’ll then see a prompt stating your settings have been saved. In doing this, this tells the site that what you’re writing is a different layout, and that you’ll be including a review rather than something newsworthy.

Score your review

Of course you’ll need to score your review out of 10, 1 being the worst, 10 being perfect. We go in multiples of .5, so 9.5 for example would be a ‘not quite 10’. We do this by scrolling down to page options, selecting review on the left, then adding your rating into the box. You don’t need to click the button below it, just put the number in the box.

If you feel like it you can also add good points and bad points.

Choose a catchy title

At the top of the screen is where you’ll enter your title. Now depending on which game you’re reviewing will depend on your title, so for a Splatoon 2 Review you will want to write exactly this, and to bulk it out a little more you could write something like ‘Splatoon 2 Review – Lot’s of Colours, A Lot Less Fun’ if it wasn’t the type of game you were hoping for.

Opening paragraph

Your first paragraph needs to be an introduction, so maybe three or four lines describing what the game is actually about. Check out my Assassin’s Creed Odyssey review as an example.

Using subheadings

After your first paragraph you’ll want to use your first subheading. For reference, your main title will always be a Heading 1, subsequent points should be a Heading 2, then you could use various Headings 3’s to break up your content if you are low on images. Subheadings make the story much easier to follow. You can choose your heading just below the title section of the new post window.

Sourcing, namingĀ  and using images

I find the best images to use are screenshots you’ve taken throughout your game, bear in mind you don’t need to have played the whole game to write a review, even an hour or two may suffice. If you’re stuck for images, you’ll want to be careful as you cannot use images from other websites as there could be a copyright issue. Instead I try and use igdb.com who get all of their images directly from developers so you’re allowed to use them. Instead of heading straight there though, I find it easier to type my game into Google, followed by press kit igdb, if the website has images for your chosen game this will be the first page that comes up. You can then go in, right-click and select save picture as.

This is where you will need to name your image correctly, you will want to name it as follows Rise-of-The-Tomb-raider-review (as an example) and then save it to your computer.

Below the title area of your editor you’ll see an ‘add media’ button, click this and then click ‘upload files’ where you can drag and drop all your images from your computer to upload on the site. Tick the ones you want and they will appear in your text, they should resize accordingly and then you can click and drag them to your desired place. Please ensure images appear below text (not aligned to the left or the right).

Setting a featured image

It’s important to set a featured image for it to appear at the header area of your review, as well as show a thumbnail on social media (Facebook and Twitter). You can set a featured image by selecting the option on the right of your editor and then either uploading a new or selecting a pre-existing image. Ensure you click the ‘set featured image’ button to complete this.

Choosing a hub and a category

If you’re writing a review then you will need to look to the category pane on the right side of your editor, select the reviews checkbox along with which platforms your review is for i.e. Xbox One reviews as well as clicking the parent review option.

You will also need to select an option listed under Hub Association which is located under the page options pane. Start typing the name of your game and select the relevant option. Please let us know if a game is not listed that you wish to review.

Once you’re finished

If you think you’re ready for the world to gasp at your written masterpiece, click the submit for review button at the top right of your screen, we’ll take a look, amend as necessary and get it published. If there’s any areas for improvement we can help you out.

Written by
I've been a gamer ever since I was old enough to hold a controller, early 90's to be exact. My first console was a NES, with my favourite games ranging from Super Mario to Duck Hunt. Fast forward almost 30 years and I'm now a PS4, PC and Switch player. My ideal genres are RPG and RTS titles, so Assassin's Creed, Kingdom Hearts, Viv 6 and Two Point Hospital are included in my mix.

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