How to Sell Gaming Guides Online

1. 📚 Your Gaming Knowledge Could Become a Product

If you’ve spent hundreds or thousands of hours playing a game, you’ve probably accumulated a ridiculous amount of information without really thinking about it.

You know which weapons are worth using.

Which resources are actually important.

Where beginners usually go wrong.

Which boss looks terrifying but becomes considerably less terrifying once you realise you can stand approximately three metres to the left.

That knowledge might feel normal to you.

To another player, it could save hours of frustration.

And that’s where gaming guides can become digital products.

🎮 Think About What You Already Know

Gaming knowledge can build up gradually.

After enough time playing, you might know:

• 🗺️ Maps and locations
• ⚔️ Builds and loadouts
• 🧠 Strategies
• 🐉 Boss mechanics
• 📈 Progression routes
• 💰 In-game economies
• 🧩 Character combinations
• 🛠️ Crafting systems
• 🏆 Competitive tactics
• 🎯 Achievement requirements
• 🔧 Settings and optimisation

You probably didn’t learn all of that in one afternoon.

You learned through:

Playing

↓

Failing

↓

Trying Something Else

↓

Failing Slightly Differently

↓

Eventually Figuring It Out

That accumulated experience can have value because somebody else hasn’t gone through the same process yet.

💡 Knowledge Becomes More Valuable When It Solves Something

Knowing 400 random facts about a game doesn’t automatically create a sellable guide.

The opportunity appears when your knowledge helps another player achieve something.

Maybe you can help them:

• Progress faster
• Build a stronger character
• Find difficult resources
• Understand a complicated system
• Beat a particular boss
• Improve their ranked gameplay
• Complete achievements
• Avoid expensive mistakes
• Choose the right equipment

That’s where knowledge becomes useful.

A simple way to think about it is:

🎮 Gaming Knowledge

↓

😩 Player Problem

↓

💡 Useful Solution

↓

📚 Gaming Guide

🌱 What Feels Obvious to You Might Not Be Obvious to a Beginner

Experienced players often underestimate what they know.

After 1,000 hours in a game, you might think:

“Everybody knows that.”

They don’t.

Someone bought the game yesterday.

They’ve opened the inventory.

There are 14 currencies.

Six crafting systems.

Three upgrade menus.

A mysterious glowing stone everyone online keeps talking about.

And apparently they’re supposed to know what all of this means.

Your experience can shorten that learning curve.

🏆 Advanced Knowledge Can Have Value Too

Beginners aren’t the only possible audience.

Experienced players can also want highly specific information.

For example:

• Competitive strategies
• Advanced builds
• End-game progression
• Raid preparation
• Optimised farming routes
• Character matchups
• Economy strategies
• Specialist achievement guides

The more advanced the audience, the more important your own expertise becomes.

If you’re selling an advanced competitive guide, customers will reasonably expect you to know what you’re talking about.

📦 You Need to Package the Knowledge

This is the important difference between knowing something and selling something.

You might currently have the information scattered across:

• Your memory
• Screenshots
• Notes
• Bookmarks
• Spreadsheets
• Discord messages
• Random text files called build-new-final-actually-final.txt

A digital product organises that knowledge into something another player can easily use.

That might become:

• A PDF
• A checklist
• A spreadsheet
• A map
• A visual reference
• A collection of resources
• A bundle containing several formats

The broader guide to making money selling digital gaming products explores how gaming knowledge and creativity can become different types of downloadable products.

Here, we’re focusing specifically on turning that knowledge into gaming guides people may actually want to buy.

🚀 Start With One Thing You Know Well

Don’t begin by trying to write:

The Ultimate 700-Page Complete Guide to Everything That Has Ever Happened in World of Warcraft

Start smaller.

Think:

One Game

One Type of Player

One Problem

One Useful Guide

That’s enough.

Because before deciding what guide to create, it helps to understand exactly what a gaming guide can be.

2. 🎮 What Is a Gaming Guide?

When people hear “gaming guide”, they often picture a giant PDF explaining every mechanic in a game.

That can be a gaming guide.

But it’s only one possibility.

A gaming guide is really an organised resource designed to help a player understand, achieve or complete something within a game.

The format can vary enormously.

📄 A Gaming Guide Could Be a PDF

PDFs are one of the most obvious formats.

They work well for:

• Beginner guides
• Strategy guides
• Build guides
• Progression guides
• Boss guides
• Achievement guides

They can combine:

Text + Screenshots + Tables + Checklists + Visuals

into one downloadable resource.

They’re also easy for customers to save and refer back to while playing.

📋 It Could Be a Checklist

Sometimes the most useful guide isn’t 80 pages long.

Imagine someone trying to complete every achievement in a game.

A structured checklist showing:

• Achievement
• Requirement
• Location
• Difficulty
• Missable status
• Completion status

could be more useful than a traditional ebook.

The value comes from helping the player keep track of what they’re doing.

📊 It Could Be a Spreadsheet

Spreadsheets can work particularly well for games involving:

• Resources
• Trading
• Character builds
• Progression
• Crafting
• Collectibles
• Economies
• Statistics

A spreadsheet might calculate something automatically or simply organise complicated information in a way that’s easy to filter and track.

Yes.

The humble spreadsheet has somehow found its way into gaming.

Excel remains undefeated.

🗺️ It Could Be a Visual Guide

Some information is much easier to understand visually.

For example:

• Resource locations
• Boss positions
• Farming routes
• Hidden areas
• Building layouts
• Puzzle solutions
• Progression routes

A visual map with clear annotations might solve the player’s problem faster than five pages of explanation.

📦 It Could Combine Several Formats

A more substantial gaming guide might include:

📄 Main PDF Guide

📋 Progression Checklist

🗺️ Resource Map

📊 Build Spreadsheet

Now the customer isn’t simply receiving an ebook.

They’re receiving a collection of resources designed around one gaming objective.

🧠 A Paid Gaming Guide Is Different From an Article

A blog article might answer a particular question.

For example:

What Is the Best Beginner Build in Elden Ring?

A paid gaming guide can go further.

It might provide:

• Several builds
• Progression paths
• Equipment locations
• Upgrade priorities
• Common mistakes
• Screenshots
• Quick-reference pages
• Checklists

The guide creates a more complete resource around the customer’s problem.

🎥 It’s Different From a YouTube Video Too

Videos are fantastic for showing gameplay.

But they aren’t always convenient for reference.

Nobody enjoys scrubbing through a 28-minute video thinking:

“He mentioned the item location somewhere around 17 minutes…”

A well-designed guide lets the player jump directly to the information they need.

That’s one of the advantages of downloadable gaming resources.

🧑‍🏫 And It’s Different From Gaming Coaching

With coaching, the customer usually pays for your time and personalised feedback.

With a gaming guide, you create the resource once and potentially sell the same product to multiple customers.

Gaming Coaching

→ Your knowledge delivered personally.

Gaming Guide

→ Your knowledge packaged into a reusable product.

That distinction can make guides more scalable.

But there’s an obvious question.

If Google, YouTube, Reddit, Discord and gaming wikis already contain mountains of free information…

why would anybody pay for yours?

3. 💰 Why Would Gamers Pay for a Guide When Free Information Exists?

This is probably the biggest objection to selling gaming guides.

And it’s a reasonable one.

Gaming information is everywhere.

Search almost any question and you’ll probably find:

• YouTube videos
• Reddit threads
• Wikis
• Forum posts
• Blog articles
• Discord discussions
• Social clips

Sometimes you’ll find all six before you’ve finished typing the question.

So why pay?

Because access to information isn’t the same as having the information organised in the most useful way.

⏱️ Gamers Can Pay to Save Time

Imagine you’re trying to find the best progression route through a complicated game.

You could:

1. Watch four YouTube videos
2. Read seven Reddit threads
3. Open three wiki pages
4. Compare conflicting recommendations
5. Discover one guide was written before a major update
6. Spend another hour figuring out which information is still accurate

Or you could open one well-organised resource that gives you the answer.

Convenience has value.

🧠 Organisation Can Be the Product

The information itself doesn’t always need to be secret.

Sometimes the value is in how you’ve:

• Researched it
• Tested it
• Organised it
• Explained it
• Visualised it
• Updated it

Think:

Scattered Free Information

↓

Research + Experience + Organisation

↓

Clear Gaming Resource

That transformation can be worth paying for.

🎯 Specific Guides Can Solve Specific Problems

Broad information is easy to find.

Specific, structured solutions can be harder.

Compare:

“Elden Ring Tips”

with:

Elden Ring Beginner Strength Build – Complete Level 1-100 Progression Guide

The second promises a much clearer outcome.

The customer knows:

• Who it’s for
• What build it covers
• What stage of the game it addresses
• What they’ll be able to do with it

Specificity can create value.

📚 Depth Can Matter

A free article might cover the basics.

A paid guide could go deeper with:

• Detailed explanations
• Multiple strategies
• Screenshots
• Tables
• Build variations
• Checklists
• Maps
• Troubleshooting
• Quick-reference pages

The goal isn’t to make the guide longer simply so you can say:

120 PAGES!

Nobody wants 120 pages when the useful information could have been explained in 25.

Depth means useful completeness, not padding.

🗺️ Good Presentation Makes Information Easier to Use

Imagine two resources contain exactly the same information.

One is a 3,000-word wall of text.

The other uses:

• Headings
• Screenshots
• Tables
• Maps
• Checklists
• Clear steps

Which would you rather have open beside you while playing?

Presentation affects usefulness.

🔄 Keeping Information Current Can Add Value

Gaming information becomes outdated quickly.

A weapon gets nerfed.

A character gets reworked.

A crafting recipe changes.

A new season launches.

Suddenly the “ULTIMATE 2024 META GUIDE” isn’t feeling particularly ultimate anymore.

A guide that’s clearly:

• Updated
• Versioned
• Tested
• Maintained

can provide additional confidence.

We’ll look much more closely at updates later because they’re one of the biggest challenges of selling gaming information.

💡 You’re Not Competing With Every Free Resource

This is important.

Your customer doesn’t need to believe:

“There is absolutely no free information about this anywhere on the internet.”

They need to believe:

“This product will make solving my problem easier than finding and organising everything myself.”

That’s a much more achievable standard.

The value equation is:

Useful Information + Organisation + Convenience + Experience = Product Value

Free information isn’t necessarily your enemy.

In many cases, it proves people are actively looking for answers.

Your job is to find a gaming problem worth solving particularly well.

4. 🔥 What Types of Gaming Guides Can You Sell?

Once you stop thinking of a gaming guide as one enormous ebook, the possibilities become much broader.

Different games create different problems.

And different problems create different guide opportunities.

🌱 Beginner Guides

New players often have the most questions.

A beginner guide might cover:

• Core mechanics
• Early-game priorities
• Equipment
• Progression
• Common mistakes
• Important terminology
• First objectives

The goal is to reduce the initial confusion.

A strong beginner guide answers:

“What do I actually need to know to start playing this properly?”

without forcing someone to read the game’s entire wiki.

⚔️ Builds and Loadout Guides

Games involving characters, equipment, abilities or weapons can create opportunities for build guides.

Examples include:

• Character builds
• Weapon loadouts
• Skill trees
• Equipment combinations
• Class builds
• Team compositions

These guides work particularly well when players face lots of choices and aren’t sure what works together.

🏆 Competitive Guides

Competitive players may want help with:

• Ranking up
• Positioning
• Matchups
• Map strategy
• Team composition
• Roles
• Game sense
• Decision-making

These guides generally require stronger expertise.

If you’re teaching advanced competitive strategy, your credibility matters.

🐉 Boss and Raid Guides

Difficult encounters create obvious player problems.

A guide might explain:

• Preparation
• Required equipment
• Boss mechanics
• Attack patterns
• Team roles
• Positioning
• Phase changes
• Common mistakes

Visuals can be particularly useful here.

Sometimes one annotated image explains positioning better than three paragraphs.

📈 Progression Guides

Some games leave players wondering:

“What am I supposed to do next?”

Progression guides can create a clear route.

For example:

Start

↓

Early Equipment

↓

First Major Objective

↓

Upgrade

↓

Next Area

↓

Mid-Game Build

↓

End-Game Preparation

This can be especially valuable in large open-world, survival or RPG-style games.

🗺️ Maps and Location Guides

Location-based resources can help players find:

• Collectibles
• Resources
• Bosses
• Hidden areas
• NPCs
• Equipment
• Quest items
• Farming locations

These can work as standalone products or as part of a larger guide.

💰 Economy and Trading Guides

Games with player economies can create another type of specialist guide.

Topics might include:

• Trading basics
• Resource values
• Crafting economics
• Market systems
• Farming strategies
• Inventory management

Be particularly careful with games where real-money trading or other commercial activity may be restricted.

The guide should stay within the game’s rules.

🏅 Achievement and Completion Guides

Completion-focused players love structure.

A guide could include:

• Achievement requirements
• Trophy requirements
• Collectibles
• Missable objectives
• Completion order
• Checklists

This is where a downloadable checklist can become particularly useful.

Nothing says commitment quite like turning entertainment into a spreadsheet with 287 tick boxes.

🛠️ Settings and Optimisation Guides

Some gaming guides can focus less on gameplay strategy and more on setup.

For example:

• Controller settings
• Graphics settings
• Performance optimisation
• Keybinds
• Sensitivity
• Interface configuration

These work best when you have genuine experience testing the recommendations rather than simply copying somebody else’s settings.

📋 Quick-Reference Guides

Not every product needs to be a full guide.

Quick-reference products might include:

• Item charts
• Crafting references
• Character matchups
• Resource tables
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Ability combinations
• Raid checklists

These can be inexpensive standalone products or useful bonuses within larger guides.

📦 One Topic Can Create Several Products

Suppose you specialise in one RPG.

You could eventually create:

🌱 Beginner Guide

↓

⚔️ Build Guide

↓

🗺️ Progression Guide

↓

🐉 Boss Guide

↓

📋 Completion Checklist

↓

📦 Complete Guide Bundle

You don’t need to create the entire range immediately.

Start with the problem that appears strongest.

Because “What guide could I make?” isn’t quite the right question.

The better question is:

“What gaming problem could I solve?”

5. 🎯 Choose a Specific Problem Your Guide Will Solve

One of the easiest mistakes when creating a gaming guide is starting too broadly.

You know a lot about a game.

So you decide to write:

The Complete Ultimate Guide to Fortnite

Okay.

For whom?

Beginners?

Competitive players?

Builders?

Zero Build players?

Returning players?

Which problem does it solve?

What would make someone buy it?

Suddenly “complete” doesn’t sound particularly clear.

🎮 Start With the Game

Choose something you genuinely understand.

Maybe it’s:

• Fortnite
• Minecraft
• Valorant
• Elden Ring
• World of Warcraft
• Rocket League

The specific game doesn’t matter for the framework.

What matters is what you know about it.

Let’s use:

🎮 Elden Ring

That’s the starting point.

Not the product.

👤 Add a Specific Player

Who needs your knowledge?

Perhaps:

New Elden Ring Player

Now we’re getting somewhere.

Their problems are likely very different from someone who’s completed the game six times.

😩 Identify Their Problem

Maybe the beginner is confused about:

• Builds
• Stats
• Weapons
• Progression
• Where to go
• Upgrade systems

Choose one.

For example:

“I don’t know how to create a good Strength build.”

Now we have a real problem.

📚 Turn the Problem Into a Guide

The idea becomes:

🎮 Elden Ring

↓

👤 Beginner Player

↓

😩 Confused About Strength Builds

↓

📚 Beginner Strength Build Guide

That’s dramatically clearer than:

“Elden Ring Guide.”

🎯 Make the Outcome Obvious

The strongest guide ideas help someone achieve something recognisable.

For example:

Weak:
Valorant Strategy Guide

Stronger:
Beginner Valorant Ranked Guide

Even Clearer:
Beginner Valorant Ranked Guide – From Placement Matches to Improving Your First Rank

Or:

Weak:
Minecraft Guide

Stronger:
Minecraft Survival Guide

Even Clearer:
Minecraft First 10 Days Survival Guide – What to Build, Gather and Upgrade

The customer can immediately picture what the guide will help them do.

🔍 Look for Pain, Confusion or Repetition

Useful guide opportunities often appear around things players find:

• Confusing
• Difficult
• Time-consuming
• Easy to get wrong
• Hard to remember
• Poorly explained

Ask:

Where do players repeatedly get stuck?

That’s often much more useful than asking:

“What could I write 50 pages about?”

🧠 Don’t Solve Ten Problems at Once

Suppose players struggle with:

• Builds
• Bosses
• Crafting
• Farming
• Achievements

You don’t necessarily need to put everything into one product.

Those could become five separate guides.

Or perhaps three guides and eventually one bundle.

Specific products can be easier to:

• Create
• Explain
• Price
• Update
• Market

They also give you room to build a product range later.

💡 Use the Problem Test

Before committing to an idea, complete this sentence:

“This guide helps __________ to __________.”

For example:

“This guide helps new Elden Ring players create and progress a Strength build without wasting upgrade resources.”

That’s clear.

Compare it with:

“This guide helps gamers learn about Elden Ring.”

Too broad.

If you can’t explain the customer and outcome in one sentence, the idea probably needs narrowing.

🚀 Problem First, Product Second

The process should look like:

🎮 Choose a Game

↓

👤 Choose a Player

↓

😩 Find a Problem

↓

🎯 Define the Outcome

↓

📚 Create the Guide

Not:

📚 Write 80 Pages

↓

🤔 Wonder Who Might Buy It

The first approach gives the product a reason to exist before you spend days or weeks creating it.

But identifying a problem is only the beginning.

Next, we need to get much more specific about who the guide is actually for.

6. 👤 Decide Who Your Gaming Guide Is For

You’ve identified a gaming problem worth solving.

Now you need to decide exactly who has that problem.

This matters because two players can play the same game and need completely different information.

A beginner opening the game for the first time doesn’t need the same guide as someone preparing for high-level competitive play.

Trying to write for both can leave you with a product that isn’t quite right for either.

🌱 Beginner Players

Beginners can be a particularly strong audience because they naturally have lots of questions.

They may need help understanding:

• Core mechanics
• Terminology
• Progression
• Equipment
• Builds
• Maps
• Game modes
• Resources
• Common mistakes

Your job isn’t to show them everything you know.

It’s to explain what they need to know next.

That’s an important difference.

Someone who’s been playing for 20 minutes probably doesn’t need a detailed explanation of an end-game mechanic they’ll encounter 80 hours later.

Give them information at the point it becomes useful.

🎮 Intermediate Players

Intermediate players understand the basics.

Their problems are often more specific.

They might want to:

• Improve a build
• Progress more efficiently
• Understand advanced mechanics
• Complete harder content
• Improve ranked performance
• Find better equipment
• Optimise resource use

These players can be interesting customers because they’ve already invested time in the game and know exactly where they’re struggling.

🏆 Advanced Players

Advanced players can be harder to impress.

They already know a lot.

If you’re selling them information, it needs to provide genuine value.

That might mean:

• Advanced strategies
• High-level competitive analysis
• Specialist builds
• Detailed optimisation
• Difficult achievement routes
• End-game content
• Complex calculations

Your expertise matters significantly more here.

If your guide is called:

Advanced Competitive Strategy for Top-Ranked Players

and you’re still discovering which button opens the map, there may be a slight credibility issue.

🎯 You Can Narrow by Goal

Skill level isn’t the only way to define your audience.

You could create guides for players who want to:

• Rank up
• Complete achievements
• Build a particular character
• Find every collectible
• Make in-game currency
• Beat a difficult raid
• Improve performance
• Build something
• Complete the game efficiently

The goal can sometimes define the customer better than their experience level.

🕹️ You Can Narrow by Role or Playstyle

Some games create highly specialised audiences.

For example:

Valorant

→ Controller players

→ Duelists

→ Support-focused players

or:

World of Warcraft

→ Tanks

→ Healers

→ DPS players

or:

Minecraft

→ Builders

→ Survival players

→ Redstone players

→ Server owners

A specialist guide can speak directly to one of these groups.

🔥 Specific Doesn’t Mean Tiny

Creators sometimes worry that narrowing the audience will eliminate potential customers.

But compare:

“Gaming guide for Fortnite players.”

with:

“Zero Build Ranked Guide for Intermediate Fortnite Players.”

The second targets fewer people.

But the right person is much more likely to think:

“That’s for me.”

That’s the goal.

🧠 Build Around the Customer’s Knowledge

Once you know who you’re writing for, adjust:

• Language
• Explanations
• Examples
• Screenshots
• Terminology
• Difficulty
• Assumed knowledge

A beginner guide might explain what an abbreviation means.

An advanced guide may reasonably assume the reader already knows it.

Don’t make experienced players sit through Gaming 101.

And don’t make beginners Google every second sentence just to understand your guide.

🎯 Complete This Sentence

Before moving forward, you should be able to say:

“This guide is for __________ who want to __________.”

For example:

“This guide is for beginner Minecraft survival players who want a clear progression path through their first 10 in-game days.”

Now you know:

Who you’re helping.

What they want.

That’s enough to start investigating whether they actually need the product you’re considering.

7. 🔍 Find Gaming Problems Players Actually Need Help With

You might have an idea for an amazing gaming guide.

Unfortunately, customers aren’t required to agree with you.

Before spending two weeks creating it, look for evidence that players are actually experiencing the problem.

The internet gives you plenty of places to investigate.

🔎 Look at What Players Search For

Search engines can reveal the questions people repeatedly ask.

Try searching phrases around your game and see what appears.

Look at:

• Search suggestions
• Related searches
• Common questions
• Existing guides
• Forum results
• Video results

If lots of content exists around a topic, that doesn’t automatically mean you should avoid it.

It may indicate strong interest.

The question becomes whether you can create something meaningfully useful within that topic.

💬 Read Gaming Communities

Gaming communities can be incredibly useful for product research.

Look at:

• Reddit
• Discord
• Game forums
• Steam communities
• Facebook groups
• Guild communities
• Other game-specific spaces

You’re looking for repeated questions.

Things like:

“What should I upgrade first?”

“What’s the best beginner build?”

“How do I find this resource?”

“What should I do before starting this raid?”

“Why does my build keep failing?”

Repeated confusion is useful information.

🎥 Read YouTube Comments

Gaming videos can reveal what the video didn’t answer.

A creator posts a build guide.

The comments ask:

“Does this still work after the update?”

“What should beginners use instead?”

“Can you show the full progression?”

“Where do I get these items?”

“What if I haven’t unlocked that yet?”

Those questions can reveal gaps.

The existing content solves part of the problem.

The audience tells you what’s still missing.

⭐ Read Reviews of Existing Products

If paid guides already exist, customer reviews can be especially useful.

Positive reviews tell you what buyers value.

Negative reviews can reveal weaknesses.

Maybe customers complain that a guide is:

• Outdated
• Poorly organised
• Too basic
• Missing screenshots
• Hard to navigate
• Incomplete
• Written for the wrong skill level

Don’t copy the competitor.

Use the feedback to understand what customers expect from the product category.

🔄 Look for Repeated Questions

One question is interesting.

Twenty people asking variations of the same question is much more interesting.

Think:

Repeated Question

↓

Repeated Problem

↓

Possible Demand

↓

Potential Guide

For example:

“What should I do during my first week?”

appearing repeatedly in a survival-game community could support:

Complete First 7 Days Survival Progression Guide

😩 Pay Attention to Frustration

Players don’t always phrase problems as questions.

Sometimes they complain.

A post saying:

“I’ve wasted six hours trying to understand this crafting system.”

contains a problem.

So does:

“Why does every guide assume I already have end-game equipment?”

Or:

“All the maps online are impossible to read.”

Frustration can reveal opportunities for better resources.

🧠 Use Your Own Experience Too

Think about what frustrated you when learning the game.

What did you wish existed?

Maybe you created:

• Your own notes
• A spreadsheet
• A checklist
• A map
• A build planner

because the existing resources weren’t good enough.

That’s worth investigating.

You may have already built the beginning of a product for yourself.

⚠️ Research Doesn’t Mean Copy

Looking at existing content is research.

Copying it isn’t.

Your product needs its own:

• Writing
• Structure
• Analysis
• Screenshots where permitted
• Experience
• Visuals
• Organisation

Use research to understand the problem and market, not to reconstruct somebody else’s product with a different cover.

🎯 Build a Shortlist

After researching, you might identify several possibilities:

Problem 1: Beginners don’t understand progression.

Problem 2: Players struggle with build choices.

Problem 3: Existing resource maps are confusing.

Problem 4: Achievement information is scattered.

Great.

Don’t build all four.

Take the strongest idea and validate it more carefully first.

8. 📊 Validate Your Gaming Guide Idea Before You Write It

Finding a problem is encouraging.

But a problem existing doesn’t automatically mean people will pay for your solution.

Validation is about gathering enough evidence to decide whether the guide is worth creating before you do all the work.

You don’t need absolute certainty.

You need better evidence than:

“I reckon people would probably buy this.”

🔍 Check Whether People Already Want the Information

Look for signs of demand.

Are people:

• Searching for the topic?
• Watching videos about it?
• Asking questions?
• Discussing it in communities?
• Buying similar products?
• Downloading related resources?

If nobody appears interested in the problem anywhere, investigate why before building a product around it.

🏪 Look at Existing Products

Competition isn’t automatically bad.

If other people are already selling guides around the topic, that can demonstrate willingness to pay.

Study:

• What they include
• Who they’re for
• How they’re positioned
• Their format
• Their pricing
• Customer reviews
• When they were updated

You’re not looking to duplicate them.

You’re trying to understand the existing market.

🔎 Look for a Gap

A useful product opportunity can sit between:

What Players Want

and:

What Existing Resources Provide

For example, existing products might be:

• Too advanced
• Too broad
• Outdated
• Poorly designed
• Missing visual guidance
• Missing quick-reference resources
• Focused on the wrong platform
• Difficult for beginners

That gap gives your guide a reason to exist.

💡 Define Why Yours Would Be Better or Different

Before creating anything, answer:

“Why would somebody choose my guide?”

Possible answers might include:

🌱 Easier for beginners

🗺️ Better maps

📋 Includes checklists

📊 Includes a tracker

🔄 Updated for the current version

🎯 Focused on one specific outcome

🧠 Based on extensive first-hand experience

If your only answer is:

“Mine will also be a guide.”

keep working on the idea.

📦 Test a Smaller Version

You don’t always need to create the complete product first.

Suppose you’re considering:

Complete 100% Achievement Guide

You could first create:

Missable Achievement Checklist

Then see how people respond.

A smaller product can help you test:

• Interest
• Format
• Pricing
• Customer feedback

before investing much more time.

💬 Ask the Right Questions

If you talk to potential customers, don’t just ask:

“Would you buy this?”

People are often very generous with hypothetical money.

Ask questions such as:

• What’s hardest about this?
• What resources do you currently use?
• What’s missing from them?
• How much time does this problem cost you?
• What would make a guide more useful?
• Have you ever paid for something similar?

Those answers can tell you much more.

💰 Look for Willingness to Pay

Interest and purchasing intent aren’t identical.

A post receiving 500 likes doesn’t necessarily mean 500 people will buy a guide.

Stronger signals can include:

• Existing paid products
• Customers asking for premium resources
• Successful comparable products
• People already paying for adjacent solutions

You’re looking for evidence that the problem has enough value that at least some players may prefer paying for a convenient solution.

🧪 Use a Simple Validation Test

Score your idea against four questions:

1. 🎯 Is the problem clear?

2. 👤 Is the customer clear?

3. 🔍 Is there evidence people care about it?

4. 💡 Can I create something better, easier or meaningfully different?

If you’re answering “not really” to several of those, don’t force it.

Refine the idea.

🔥 A Useful Opportunity Often Looks Like This

Existing Demand

Clear Player Problem

Weakness in Existing Solutions

Your Relevant Experience

=

Stronger Gaming Guide Opportunity

Validation doesn’t guarantee sales.

Nothing does.

But it can stop you spending three weeks lovingly creating the world’s most comprehensive guide to something nobody was looking for.

Once the idea looks promising, there’s another question to address:

Why are you the person who should create it?

9. 🧠 Use Gaming Experience You Actually Have

Gaming guides depend heavily on trust.

The customer is buying information because they expect it to help them.

That makes genuine experience important.

You don’t necessarily need to be the world’s greatest player.

But you should understand the thing you’re explaining.

🎮 Build Around Games You Know

Starting with a game you already understand gives you a major advantage.

You’ve probably already experienced:

• Common mistakes
• Progression problems
• Difficult mechanics
• Bad strategies
• Better strategies
• Updates
• Community debates
• Player frustrations

That experience gives you context.

You’re not simply explaining what happens.

You can explain why it matters.

🧪 Test Your Recommendations

If your guide recommends:

“This is the best early-game farming route.”

have you actually tested it?

If you’re recommending a build:

• Have you used it?
• At what level?
• Against what content?
• What are its weaknesses?
• Does it require specific equipment?
• Does it still work after recent updates?

Practical testing makes your recommendations more useful.

📸 Capture Evidence While You Play

As you test your guide, collect useful material.

That could include:

• Screenshots
• Maps
• Build examples
• Item locations
• Settings
• Results
• Progression stages

This material can later make the guide easier to understand.

It can also help demonstrate that the product comes from real gameplay rather than information stitched together from search results.

💡 Add the Things You Learned the Hard Way

Some of the most useful advice isn’t found in the official documentation.

It’s the stuff you discovered after making mistakes.

For example:

Don’t spend this resource early because you’ll need it later.

or:

This route looks faster but usually takes longer because of these enemies.

or:

This build is powerful once complete but frustrating for the first 20 levels.

Those practical observations are where experience can add real value.

🧠 Explain Why, Not Just What

Weak advice:

“Use Weapon X.”

Better advice:

“Use Weapon X during early progression because it’s available before the second major area, requires relatively little investment and works well with the stats you’re already building.”

Now the player understands the recommendation.

That makes the guide more useful and gives them information they can apply elsewhere.

⚠️ Be Honest About What You Don’t Know

You don’t need to pretend you’re an expert in every aspect of the game.

If your experience is primarily:

PvE

don’t suddenly write an advanced:

Top-Level PvP Strategy Guide

because it looks commercially attractive.

Stay within areas where you can genuinely contribute.

You can always research and develop new expertise over time.

🔄 Separate Experience From Opinion

Gaming communities love debating what is “best”.

Best weapon.

Best build.

Best character.

Best strategy.

Sometimes there genuinely is a measurable answer.

Other times there are trade-offs.

Explain them.

Instead of:

“This is objectively the best build.”

you might say:

“This build prioritises damage and fast progression, but gives up some survivability compared with the alternative below.”

That’s more useful and more credible.

📚 Don’t Repackage Other People’s Work

You can research existing resources.

You can learn from community discussions.

You can verify facts using official information.

But your guide needs to be your own work.

Don’t copy:

• Other guides
• Wiki text
• Maps
• Screenshots
• Artwork
• Tables
• Videos
• Paid resources

and put them into a new PDF.

Beyond copyright concerns, that gives customers very little reason to buy your product.

🎯 Your Experience Should Improve the Product

The goal isn’t to repeatedly tell customers:

“I have 3,000 hours in this game.”

It’s to make those 3,000 hours visible through:

• Better advice
• Clearer explanations
• Useful shortcuts
• Real examples
• Tested strategies
• Better organisation

Your experience is the ingredient.

The guide is the finished product.

And before you start writing that product, it’s worth designing its structure properly.

10. 🗺️ Plan Your Gaming Guide Before You Start Writing

You’ve chosen the game.

You know the customer.

You’ve identified the problem.

You’ve validated the idea.

You’re ready to open a blank document and start typing.

Not quite.

A little planning now can save an enormous amount of rewriting later.

🎯 Start With the Outcome

Before planning chapters or pages, write down:

“What should the customer be able to do after using this guide?”

For example:

Build and progress a beginner Strength character from the start of Elden Ring through level 100.

That’s your destination.

Every major part of the guide should help the reader get there.

🧠 Work Backwards From the Player’s Journey

Think about the steps the customer needs to take.

For example:

🎯 Goal: Build a beginner Strength character

The guide might need:

1. Understanding the Build

↓

2. Starting Class

↓

3. Early Stats

↓

4. First Weapons

↓

5. Upgrade Priorities

↓

6. Early-Game Progression

↓

7. Mid-Game Equipment

↓

8. Level 50 Build

↓

9. Level 75 Build

↓

10. Level 100 Build

↓

11. Common Mistakes

Now the guide follows the customer’s actual progression.

📚 Create the Structure Before the Content

Build an outline.

For a general strategy guide, that might look like:

Introduction

What You’ll Need

Setup

Core Strategy

Step-by-Step Process

Common Problems

Alternative Approaches

Advanced Tips

Quick Reference

Checklist

You don’t have to use that exact structure.

The point is to know where the information belongs before you create it.

🔍 Identify Information You Still Need

Planning can expose gaps in your knowledge.

Maybe you realise you need to:

• Test another build
• Verify an item location
• Compare two strategies
• Capture screenshots
• Check an update
• Confirm platform differences

Good.

It’s much better to discover that now than halfway through designing the final PDF.

Create a research list and work through it.

🖼️ Plan the Visuals Too

Don’t write 60 pages and then think:

“I suppose I should add some pictures.”

Identify where visuals would genuinely help.

For example:

Boss Strategy

→ Arena diagram

Resource Route

→ Annotated map

Build Guide

→ Equipment screenshot

Progression Guide

→ Flowchart

Achievement Guide

→ Checklist

Visuals should solve communication problems, not simply decorate empty space.

📋 Decide Where Quick References Belong

Think about information the player might need while actively playing.

Could it become:

• A checklist?
• A table?
• A one-page summary?
• A map?
• A progression chart?

For example, a 40-page build guide might end with:

⚔️ Strength Build – One-Page Quick Reference

Now the customer can use the detailed guide to learn and the summary page while playing.

🚫 Remove Anything That Doesn’t Serve the Outcome

This is where planning can stop your guide becoming unnecessarily huge.

Ask of each planned section:

“Does the customer need this to achieve the guide’s promised outcome?”

If not, consider removing it.

You don’t need to demonstrate everything you know.

You’re solving a problem.

📏 Don’t Choose the Page Count First

Avoid deciding:

“I’m going to make a 100-page gaming guide.”

before you’ve planned the content.

The guide should be as long as it needs to be.

Maybe that’s:

• 15 pages
• 40 pages
• 100 pages
• A five-page checklist

Customers aren’t buying kilograms of PDF.

They’re buying usefulness.

🛠️ Create a Simple Production Plan

Once your outline is ready, your workflow might look like:

🎯 Define the Outcome

↓

🗺️ Create the Outline

↓

🔍 Identify Research Gaps

↓

🎮 Test in Game

↓

📸 Capture Visuals

↓

✍️ Write the Content

↓

📋 Create Quick References

↓

🧪 Test the Guide

Now you have a production plan rather than a blank document.

And with the structure in place, it’s finally time to tackle the part most people immediately jump to:

actually writing the gaming guide.

11. ✍️ How to Write a Gaming Guide People Can Actually Use

A gaming guide isn’t successful because it sounds clever.

It’s successful because the reader can use it while playing.

That should influence everything from sentence length to screenshots, headings and page structure.

🎯 Write for the Player’s Situation

Think about when the customer will use the guide.

They might be:

• Mid-boss fight
• Choosing a build
• Looking for an item
• Planning progression
• Checking a crafting recipe
• Preparing for ranked matches
• Trying to remember what to do next

They’re probably not sitting in a leather armchair with a cup of tea analysing your prose.

They want answers quickly.

📚 Break Information Into Clear Sections

Use headings generously.

Instead of one enormous section called:

Everything You Need to Know About Progression

break it into something like:

🌱 Early Game

⚔️ First Major Upgrade

🗺️ Mid-Game Progression

🏆 End-Game Preparation

Clear structure helps readers jump directly to the part they need.

✂️ Keep Paragraphs Short

Walls of text are difficult enough on a desktop.

They’re even worse when someone has your guide open on a second monitor, tablet or phone while gaming.

Keep paragraphs focused.

One idea at a time.

Use bullets, tables or visual callouts when they make information easier to scan.

🎮 Give Specific Instructions

Compare:

“Make sure your build is strong enough before fighting the boss.”

with:

“Before entering the boss arena, upgrade your main weapon to at least +6 and prioritise Vigor if your health is still below the recommended range.”

The second tells the reader what to do.

Useful gaming guides should reduce uncertainty.

🧠 Explain the Reason Behind Important Advice

Instructions become more useful when the reader understands why they matter.

For example:

Prioritise this resource early because later upgrades require much larger quantities and farming it becomes significantly slower.

Now the customer isn’t simply following instructions blindly.

They understand the decision.

That makes the information easier to apply elsewhere.

🪜 Use Step-by-Step Instructions Where Appropriate

Some gaming tasks are easier to follow sequentially.

For example:

1️⃣ Travel to the northern checkpoint

2️⃣ Enter through the eastern gate

3️⃣ Ignore the first staircase

4️⃣ Take the corridor behind the merchant

5️⃣ Defeat the elite enemy

6️⃣ Collect the item from the chest

That’s considerably easier to follow than hiding the same instructions inside three paragraphs.

⚠️ Highlight Important Warnings

If something is:

• Missable
• Expensive
• Permanent
• Difficult to reverse
• Version-dependent
• Easy to misunderstand

make it obvious.

For example:

⚠️ Don’t Spend This Resource Yet

Then explain why.

A reader shouldn’t discover three pages later that the item they casually used was required for the build the guide is teaching them.

📊 Use Tables for Comparisons

Tables can make choices much easier to understand.

For example:

Use tables where there is a genuine comparison.

Don’t put ordinary paragraphs into tables just because spreadsheets make everything feel official.

🧩 Include Examples

Abstract advice becomes clearer with examples.

Instead of:

“Choose equipment that matches your role.”

show:

Tank Build Example

• High defence armour
• Shield
• Health-focused upgrades
• Crowd-control ability

Now the reader can see what the principle looks like in practice.

💬 Write Like a Gamer Helping Another Gamer

Your guide doesn’t need to sound like technical documentation.

Be clear and natural.

You can still use:

• Light humour
• Personality
• Short observations
• Practical warnings

Just don’t let the personality bury the answer.

If someone wants to know where the boss is, don’t make them survive six jokes before reaching the location.

🔥 Prioritise Usefulness Over Word Count

A good guide isn’t judged by how many words you managed to fit into it.

Ask:

“Can the reader find the answer quickly and use it successfully?”

If yes, you’re doing the important part right.

And sometimes the fastest way to communicate that answer isn’t with words at all.

12. 🖼️ Use Screenshots, Maps and Visuals Effectively

Gaming is visual.

So naturally, gaming guides can benefit enormously from good visuals.

A screenshot can show something instantly that might otherwise take several paragraphs to explain.

But visuals need a purpose.

📸 Use Screenshots to Show Exactly What You Mean

Screenshots can help demonstrate:

• Item locations
• Menu settings
• Character builds
• Map positions
• Equipment
• Quest objectives
• Interface elements
• Boss arenas

For example:

“The entrance is behind the ruined tower.”

becomes much clearer when the reader can see the actual tower.

🗺️ Maps Can Be Extremely Valuable

Maps work particularly well for:

• Collectibles
• Resource routes
• Hidden areas
• Boss locations
• Farming paths
• Quest progression
• Achievement routes

A good map doesn’t need to contain every location in the entire game.

Sometimes a focused map showing exactly the route covered by your guide is more useful.

✏️ Annotate Visuals

Don’t simply dump a screenshot onto the page and expect the customer to interpret it.

Add:

• Arrows
• Labels
• Numbers
• Highlighted areas
• Simple captions

For example:

1. Start here

2. Follow this path

3. Avoid this area

4. Item location

Now the image becomes instructional.

🎯 One Visual Should Answer One Question

Try giving each visual a clear job.

For example:

Screenshot 1

→ Shows where the quest starts.

Map 1

→ Shows the farming route.

Diagram 1

→ Shows boss positioning.

That’s better than one giant image covered in 47 arrows, 19 labels and enough visual information to qualify as air traffic control.

📊 Use Diagrams Where Screenshots Aren’t Enough

Some concepts are easier to explain with simplified diagrams.

For example:

Tank

↓

Boss

↓

DPS

with positioning around an encounter.

Or:

Resource A + Resource B

↓

Craft Item

↓

Upgrade Weapon

A diagram can remove unnecessary detail and focus purely on the mechanic.

🧱 Build Guides Benefit From Layouts

If your gaming guide covers building, base design or level creation, consider:

• Top-down layouts
• Floor plans
• Block counts
• Material lists
• Build stages

For example:

Stage 1: Foundation

Stage 2: Walls

Stage 3: Roof

Stage 4: Interior

That can make complex builds much easier to reproduce.

🖥️ Make Sure Images Are Readable

A screenshot isn’t useful if important information is microscopic.

Check:

• Resolution
• Cropping
• Text size
• Contrast
• Labels
• Mobile readability

If the customer needs to zoom to 800% to understand your arrow, make the visual clearer.

⚠️ Be Careful With Copyright and Game Assets

Game screenshots, maps, artwork and other assets can be subject to copyright and publisher rules.

Don’t assume every image found online is free to reuse.

Where possible:

• Create your own screenshots
• Create your own annotations
• Create original diagrams
• Check publisher policies
• Avoid copying another creator’s maps or visuals

We’ll cover copyright and game rules more thoroughly later.

🎮 Capture Visuals While Testing the Guide

An efficient workflow is to collect images while you’re playing and testing.

For example:

Testing Build

↓

Capture Equipment Screen

↓

Test Boss

↓

Capture Positioning

↓

Check Farming Route

↓

Capture Map

This saves you from finishing the entire guide and then having to replay 30 hours because you forgot one screenshot.

💡 Visuals Should Make the Guide Faster to Use

The goal isn’t:

“This PDF contains 73 images.”

The goal is:

“These images help the customer understand the guide faster.”

If the screenshot doesn’t improve clarity, it may not need to be there.

The same principle applies to one of the most useful additions you can make to a gaming guide:

quick-reference resources.

13. 📋 Add Checklists, Cheat Sheets and Quick-Reference Pages

A customer might read your full guide once.

But they could use a good checklist or quick-reference page dozens of times.

That’s why these resources can add disproportionate value to a gaming product.

✅ Turn Repetitive Tasks Into Checklists

Gaming often involves keeping track of things.

For example:

• Collectibles
• Achievements
• Bosses
• Crafting materials
• Upgrades
• Quest steps
• Raid preparation
• Daily activities

A checklist lets the player see exactly what’s done and what remains.

For example:

Raid Preparation Checklist

☐ Repair equipment

☐ Restock consumables

☐ Equip resistance item

☐ Confirm team roles

☐ Activate required quest

☐ Check inventory space

Simple.

Useful.

Reusable.

📄 Create One-Page Cheat Sheets

A longer guide can include a condensed summary.

For example:

Beginner Build – One-Page Quick Reference

It might show:

• Stats
• Equipment
• Skills
• Upgrade order
• Key items
• Important locations

The customer can learn from the full guide and keep the one-page summary open while playing.

🗺️ Create Route Summaries

Progression or farming guides can benefit from simplified route sheets.

For example:

Start

↓

Location A

↓

Collect Item

↓

Location B

↓

Upgrade

↓

Boss

This gives the customer the entire route without needing to reread the full explanation.

📊 Build Trackers

Some guides benefit from progress tracking.

A tracker might include:

This works particularly well for:

• Achievements
• Completion guides
• Collectibles
• Progression
• Crafting
• Builds

🎯 Design Around Actual Gameplay

Ask:

“What information would the customer repeatedly need while playing?”

That’s your quick-reference opportunity.

For a competitive guide:

• Callouts
• Matchups
• Ability combinations

For a survival guide:

• Crafting recipes
• Resource priorities
• Progression milestones

For a build guide:

• Stats
• Equipment
• Upgrade order

💰 Quick References Can Increase Product Value

A product described as:

40-Page Beginner Guide

might sound useful.

But:

40-Page Beginner Guide + Progression Checklist + Build Cheat Sheet + Resource Map

feels more complete.

You haven’t necessarily added enormous amounts of content.

You’ve packaged the information in multiple useful ways.

⚠️ Avoid Fake Bonuses

Don’t create meaningless extras simply to inflate the product description.

For example:

BONUS #1: Cover page

BONUS #2: Table of contents

BONUS #3: Page numbers

Those aren’t bonuses.

That’s a functioning document.

Add resources because they genuinely make the product easier to use.

📦 A Good Bundle Could Look Like This

For example:

📚 Main Guide

Detailed explanations and strategy.

📋 Checklist

Tracks progress.

🗺️ Map

Shows important locations.

📄 Quick Reference

Summarises key information.

Each format has a different purpose.

That makes the overall product more useful than simply repeating the same information four times.

🚀 Think Beyond the Traditional Ebook

Gaming guides don’t need to look like books.

In fact, sometimes the most valuable part of the product is the resource the customer keeps beside them while playing.

That’s why choosing the right product format matters.

14. 📦 Choose the Best Format for Your Gaming Guide

PDF is probably the first format that comes to mind when creating a gaming guide.

And often it’s a good choice.

But not every gaming problem is best solved with a traditional document.

Choose the format based on how the customer needs to use the information.

📄 PDF Guides

PDFs work well for:

• Strategy
• Explanations
• Tutorials
• Progression guides
• Build guides
• Beginner resources

Advantages include:

• Easy to download
• Works across many devices
• Supports text and images
• Easy to organise into chapters
• Can include links and tables

For many products, PDF will be the main format.

📊 Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets work better when the customer needs to:

• Track information
• Calculate values
• Filter data
• Compare builds
• Manage inventories
• Monitor progress

Examples:

Character Build Calculator

Achievement Tracker

Crafting Resource Planner

Trading Tracker

A spreadsheet is less glamorous than an illustrated ebook.

It can also be vastly more useful.

📋 Checklists

Checklists are ideal for tasks involving completion.

For example:

• Trophy guides
• Collectibles
• Quest chains
• Raid preparation
• Progression
• Daily objectives

They can be standalone products or included with a larger guide.

🗺️ Visual Guides

Some guides may rely heavily on:

• Maps
• Diagrams
• Build layouts
• Routes
• Locations

In these cases, the product could be primarily visual rather than text-heavy.

For example:

Complete Resource Location Map Pack

doesn’t need 50 pages explaining what the map already shows clearly.

📦 Bundles

Sometimes the strongest format is a combination.

For example:

📄 30-Page Progression Guide

📋 Progression Checklist

📊 Equipment Tracker

🗺️ Resource Map

Now the customer gets different resources for different parts of the same problem.

🎯 Match the Format to the Problem

Use this basic idea:

The format should make the information easier to use.

🖥️ Think About Device Use

Ask where the customer is likely to view the guide.

Maybe:

• Desktop
• Second monitor
• Tablet
• Phone

A 12-column spreadsheet designed for a 32-inch monitor may be miserable on a phone.

Similarly, tiny screenshots in a PDF can be hard to use on smaller screens.

Test the product in realistic conditions.

📱 Mobile-Friendly Can Matter

Many players may check guides from their phones.

That means:

• Larger text
• Shorter tables
• Clear headings
• Readable visuals
• Simple navigation

can improve the experience considerably.

Nobody wants to pinch-zoom across page 27 while being attacked by a boss.

🧠 Don’t Choose a Format Just Because It’s Easy for You

Maybe you love spreadsheets.

That doesn’t mean every customer wants their boss guide delivered as FinalBossStrategy.xlsx.

Start with the customer’s problem.

Then choose the format that solves it best.

Once you’ve chosen that format, presentation becomes the next piece.

Because a useful guide should also look like a product somebody feels comfortable paying for.

15. 🎨 Make Your Gaming Guide Look Professional

You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to create a good gaming guide.

But the final product should look intentional.

Customers are paying for something organised, useful and easier to use than scattered free information.

Presentation helps communicate that.

📚 Create a Clear Visual Hierarchy

Readers should instantly recognise:

• Main sections
• Subsections
• Important warnings
• Tips
• Tables
• Checklists

Use consistent:

• Heading sizes
• Fonts
• Spacing
• Icons
• Layout

Don’t make every page look like it was created by a different person during a different decade.

🎨 Keep the Design Consistent

Choose a simple visual system.

For example:

H1

Large chapter heading

H2

Main topic

H3

Specific subtopic

💡 Tip

Useful shortcut

⚠️ Warning

Important mistake to avoid

Then use that system throughout the guide.

Consistency helps readers learn how the document works.

📖 Use a Table of Contents

For anything beyond a very short guide, include a contents page.

If possible, make it clickable.

A customer shouldn’t have to scroll through 60 pages searching for:

“Where was the crafting section again?”

Navigation is part of usability.

🔢 Add Page Numbers

Simple.

Useful.

Surprisingly easy to forget.

Page numbers also make it easier to reference information:

“Check the equipment table on page 18.”

✏️ Choose Readable Fonts

Your guide isn’t the place to unleash your collection of 47 decorative gaming fonts.

Use clear type for body text.

You can add personality to:

• Titles
• Covers
• Callouts

But the main content needs to remain easy to read.

If your medieval fantasy font turns the letter S into something resembling a wounded dragon, maybe don’t use it for six paragraphs.

🌬️ Give the Content Space

Don’t cram every inch of every page.

Whitespace improves readability.

Use:

• Margins
• Paragraph spacing
• Section spacing
• Clear separation around visuals

A professional guide should feel structured rather than crowded.

🖼️ Keep Visuals Consistent Too

If you’re using:

• Screenshots
• Maps
• Diagrams
• Tables

try to give them a consistent presentation.

For example:

• Similar border treatment
• Consistent captions
• Similar annotation style
• Standard image widths

This makes the guide feel like one complete product.

🎯 Design for Scanning

Players may not read every sentence.

Help them find important information quickly.

Use:

• Bold text
• Bullets
• Icons
• Short headings
• Tables
• Numbered instructions

But don’t bold half the page.

If everything is highlighted, nothing is highlighted.

📦 Create a Proper Cover

A strong cover can help the guide feel like a finished product.

It should communicate:

• Game or topic
• Guide title
• Main outcome
• Version where relevant

For example:

Beginner Strength Build Guide
Level 1-100 Progression, Weapons, Stats and Upgrade Path

Much clearer than:

Dan’s Elden Ring Notes

Even if that’s technically how the project started.

⚖️ Useful Beats Beautiful

Don’t lose sight of the purpose.

A beautifully designed guide with weak information is still a weak product.

And an incredibly useful guide doesn’t need movie-poster production values.

Aim for:

Useful Content

Clear Organisation

Professional Presentation

=

Stronger Gaming Product

🧪 Export It and Actually Use It

Before considering the design finished:

• Open the final file
• Click the links
• Check the contents page
• View it on different screens
• Zoom in and out
• Check image quality
• Look for broken layouts
• Make sure no text is cut off

Your editable file looking perfect doesn’t matter if the exported customer version has somehow moved an entire table onto page 43 by itself.

The customer only sees the final product.

Make that version count.

And once the guide looks finished, there’s one important step left before putting a price on it:

testing whether it actually works.

11. ✍️ How to Write a Gaming Guide People Can Actually Use

A gaming guide isn’t successful because it sounds clever.

It’s successful because the reader can use it while playing.

That should influence everything from sentence length to screenshots, headings and page structure.

🎯 Write for the Player’s Situation

Think about when the customer will use the guide.

They might be:

• Mid-boss fight
• Choosing a build
• Looking for an item
• Planning progression
• Checking a crafting recipe
• Preparing for ranked matches
• Trying to remember what to do next

They’re probably not sitting in a leather armchair with a cup of tea analysing your prose.

They want answers quickly.

📚 Break Information Into Clear Sections

Use headings generously.

Instead of one enormous section called:

Everything You Need to Know About Progression

break it into something like:

🌱 Early Game

⚔️ First Major Upgrade

🗺️ Mid-Game Progression

🏆 End-Game Preparation

Clear structure helps readers jump directly to the part they need.

✂️ Keep Paragraphs Short

Walls of text are difficult enough on a desktop.

They’re even worse when someone has your guide open on a second monitor, tablet or phone while gaming.

Keep paragraphs focused.

One idea at a time.

Use bullets, tables or visual callouts when they make information easier to scan.

🎮 Give Specific Instructions

Compare:

“Make sure your build is strong enough before fighting the boss.”

with:

“Before entering the boss arena, upgrade your main weapon to at least +6 and prioritise Vigor if your health is still below the recommended range.”

The second tells the reader what to do.

Useful gaming guides should reduce uncertainty.

🧠 Explain the Reason Behind Important Advice

Instructions become more useful when the reader understands why they matter.

For example:

Prioritise this resource early because later upgrades require much larger quantities and farming it becomes significantly slower.

Now the customer isn’t simply following instructions blindly.

They understand the decision.

That makes the information easier to apply elsewhere.

🪜 Use Step-by-Step Instructions Where Appropriate

Some gaming tasks are easier to follow sequentially.

For example:

1️⃣ Travel to the northern checkpoint

2️⃣ Enter through the eastern gate

3️⃣ Ignore the first staircase

4️⃣ Take the corridor behind the merchant

5️⃣ Defeat the elite enemy

6️⃣ Collect the item from the chest

That’s considerably easier to follow than hiding the same instructions inside three paragraphs.

⚠️ Highlight Important Warnings

If something is:

• Missable
• Expensive
• Permanent
• Difficult to reverse
• Version-dependent
• Easy to misunderstand

make it obvious.

For example:

⚠️ Don’t Spend This Resource Yet

Then explain why.

A reader shouldn’t discover three pages later that the item they casually used was required for the build the guide is teaching them.

📊 Use Tables for Comparisons

Tables can make choices much easier to understand.

For example:

Use tables where there is a genuine comparison.

Don’t put ordinary paragraphs into tables just because spreadsheets make everything feel official.

🧩 Include Examples

Abstract advice becomes clearer with examples.

Instead of:

“Choose equipment that matches your role.”

show:

Tank Build Example

• High defence armour
• Shield
• Health-focused upgrades
• Crowd-control ability

Now the reader can see what the principle looks like in practice.

💬 Write Like a Gamer Helping Another Gamer

Your guide doesn’t need to sound like technical documentation.

Be clear and natural.

You can still use:

• Light humour
• Personality
• Short observations
• Practical warnings

Just don’t let the personality bury the answer.

If someone wants to know where the boss is, don’t make them survive six jokes before reaching the location.

🔥 Prioritise Usefulness Over Word Count

A good guide isn’t judged by how many words you managed to fit into it.

Ask:

“Can the reader find the answer quickly and use it successfully?”

If yes, you’re doing the important part right.

And sometimes the fastest way to communicate that answer isn’t with words at all.

12. 🖼️ Use Screenshots, Maps and Visuals Effectively

Gaming is visual.

So naturally, gaming guides can benefit enormously from good visuals.

A screenshot can show something instantly that might otherwise take several paragraphs to explain.

But visuals need a purpose.

📸 Use Screenshots to Show Exactly What You Mean

Screenshots can help demonstrate:

• Item locations
• Menu settings
• Character builds
• Map positions
• Equipment
• Quest objectives
• Interface elements
• Boss arenas

For example:

“The entrance is behind the ruined tower.”

becomes much clearer when the reader can see the actual tower.

🗺️ Maps Can Be Extremely Valuable

Maps work particularly well for:

• Collectibles
• Resource routes
• Hidden areas
• Boss locations
• Farming paths
• Quest progression
• Achievement routes

A good map doesn’t need to contain every location in the entire game.

Sometimes a focused map showing exactly the route covered by your guide is more useful.

✏️ Annotate Visuals

Don’t simply dump a screenshot onto the page and expect the customer to interpret it.

Add:

• Arrows
• Labels
• Numbers
• Highlighted areas
• Simple captions

For example:

1. Start here

2. Follow this path

3. Avoid this area

4. Item location

Now the image becomes instructional.

🎯 One Visual Should Answer One Question

Try giving each visual a clear job.

For example:

Screenshot 1

→ Shows where the quest starts.

Map 1

→ Shows the farming route.

Diagram 1

→ Shows boss positioning.

That’s better than one giant image covered in 47 arrows, 19 labels and enough visual information to qualify as air traffic control.

📊 Use Diagrams Where Screenshots Aren’t Enough

Some concepts are easier to explain with simplified diagrams.

For example:

Tank

↓

Boss

↓

DPS

with positioning around an encounter.

Or:

Resource A + Resource B

↓

Craft Item

↓

Upgrade Weapon

A diagram can remove unnecessary detail and focus purely on the mechanic.

🧱 Build Guides Benefit From Layouts

If your gaming guide covers building, base design or level creation, consider:

• Top-down layouts
• Floor plans
• Block counts
• Material lists
• Build stages

For example:

Stage 1: Foundation

Stage 2: Walls

Stage 3: Roof

Stage 4: Interior

That can make complex builds much easier to reproduce.

🖥️ Make Sure Images Are Readable

A screenshot isn’t useful if important information is microscopic.

Check:

• Resolution
• Cropping
• Text size
• Contrast
• Labels
• Mobile readability

If the customer needs to zoom to 800% to understand your arrow, make the visual clearer.

⚠️ Be Careful With Copyright and Game Assets

Game screenshots, maps, artwork and other assets can be subject to copyright and publisher rules.

Don’t assume every image found online is free to reuse.

Where possible:

• Create your own screenshots
• Create your own annotations
• Create original diagrams
• Check publisher policies
• Avoid copying another creator’s maps or visuals

We’ll cover copyright and game rules more thoroughly later.

🎮 Capture Visuals While Testing the Guide

An efficient workflow is to collect images while you’re playing and testing.

For example:

Testing Build

↓

Capture Equipment Screen

↓

Test Boss

↓

Capture Positioning

↓

Check Farming Route

↓

Capture Map

This saves you from finishing the entire guide and then having to replay 30 hours because you forgot one screenshot.

💡 Visuals Should Make the Guide Faster to Use

The goal isn’t:

“This PDF contains 73 images.”

The goal is:

“These images help the customer understand the guide faster.”

If the screenshot doesn’t improve clarity, it may not need to be there.

The same principle applies to one of the most useful additions you can make to a gaming guide:

quick-reference resources.

13. 📋 Add Checklists, Cheat Sheets and Quick-Reference Pages

A customer might read your full guide once.

But they could use a good checklist or quick-reference page dozens of times.

That’s why these resources can add disproportionate value to a gaming product.

✅ Turn Repetitive Tasks Into Checklists

Gaming often involves keeping track of things.

For example:

• Collectibles
• Achievements
• Bosses
• Crafting materials
• Upgrades
• Quest steps
• Raid preparation
• Daily activities

A checklist lets the player see exactly what’s done and what remains.

For example:

Raid Preparation Checklist

☐ Repair equipment

☐ Restock consumables

☐ Equip resistance item

☐ Confirm team roles

☐ Activate required quest

☐ Check inventory space

Simple.

Useful.

Reusable.

📄 Create One-Page Cheat Sheets

A longer guide can include a condensed summary.

For example:

Beginner Build – One-Page Quick Reference

It might show:

• Stats
• Equipment
• Skills
• Upgrade order
• Key items
• Important locations

The customer can learn from the full guide and keep the one-page summary open while playing.

🗺️ Create Route Summaries

Progression or farming guides can benefit from simplified route sheets.

For example:

Start

↓

Location A

↓

Collect Item

↓

Location B

↓

Upgrade

↓

Boss

This gives the customer the entire route without needing to reread the full explanation.

📊 Build Trackers

Some guides benefit from progress tracking.

A tracker might include:

This works particularly well for:

• Achievements
• Completion guides
• Collectibles
• Progression
• Crafting
• Builds

🎯 Design Around Actual Gameplay

Ask:

“What information would the customer repeatedly need while playing?”

That’s your quick-reference opportunity.

For a competitive guide:

• Callouts
• Matchups
• Ability combinations

For a survival guide:

• Crafting recipes
• Resource priorities
• Progression milestones

For a build guide:

• Stats
• Equipment
• Upgrade order

💰 Quick References Can Increase Product Value

A product described as:

40-Page Beginner Guide

might sound useful.

But:

40-Page Beginner Guide + Progression Checklist + Build Cheat Sheet + Resource Map

feels more complete.

You haven’t necessarily added enormous amounts of content.

You’ve packaged the information in multiple useful ways.

⚠️ Avoid Fake Bonuses

Don’t create meaningless extras simply to inflate the product description.

For example:

BONUS #1: Cover page

BONUS #2: Table of contents

BONUS #3: Page numbers

Those aren’t bonuses.

That’s a functioning document.

Add resources because they genuinely make the product easier to use.

📦 A Good Bundle Could Look Like This

For example:

📚 Main Guide

Detailed explanations and strategy.

📋 Checklist

Tracks progress.

🗺️ Map

Shows important locations.

📄 Quick Reference

Summarises key information.

Each format has a different purpose.

That makes the overall product more useful than simply repeating the same information four times.

🚀 Think Beyond the Traditional Ebook

Gaming guides don’t need to look like books.

In fact, sometimes the most valuable part of the product is the resource the customer keeps beside them while playing.

That’s why choosing the right product format matters.

14. 📦 Choose the Best Format for Your Gaming Guide

PDF is probably the first format that comes to mind when creating a gaming guide.

And often it’s a good choice.

But not every gaming problem is best solved with a traditional document.

Choose the format based on how the customer needs to use the information.

📄 PDF Guides

PDFs work well for:

• Strategy
• Explanations
• Tutorials
• Progression guides
• Build guides
• Beginner resources

Advantages include:

• Easy to download
• Works across many devices
• Supports text and images
• Easy to organise into chapters
• Can include links and tables

For many products, PDF will be the main format.

📊 Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets work better when the customer needs to:

• Track information
• Calculate values
• Filter data
• Compare builds
• Manage inventories
• Monitor progress

Examples:

Character Build Calculator

Achievement Tracker

Crafting Resource Planner

Trading Tracker

A spreadsheet is less glamorous than an illustrated ebook.

It can also be vastly more useful.

📋 Checklists

Checklists are ideal for tasks involving completion.

For example:

• Trophy guides
• Collectibles
• Quest chains
• Raid preparation
• Progression
• Daily objectives

They can be standalone products or included with a larger guide.

🗺️ Visual Guides

Some guides may rely heavily on:

• Maps
• Diagrams
• Build layouts
• Routes
• Locations

In these cases, the product could be primarily visual rather than text-heavy.

For example:

Complete Resource Location Map Pack

doesn’t need 50 pages explaining what the map already shows clearly.

📦 Bundles

Sometimes the strongest format is a combination.

For example:

📄 30-Page Progression Guide

📋 Progression Checklist

📊 Equipment Tracker

🗺️ Resource Map

Now the customer gets different resources for different parts of the same problem.

🎯 Match the Format to the Problem

Use this basic idea:

The format should make the information easier to use.

🖥️ Think About Device Use

Ask where the customer is likely to view the guide.

Maybe:

• Desktop
• Second monitor
• Tablet
• Phone

A 12-column spreadsheet designed for a 32-inch monitor may be miserable on a phone.

Similarly, tiny screenshots in a PDF can be hard to use on smaller screens.

Test the product in realistic conditions.

📱 Mobile-Friendly Can Matter

Many players may check guides from their phones.

That means:

• Larger text
• Shorter tables
• Clear headings
• Readable visuals
• Simple navigation

can improve the experience considerably.

Nobody wants to pinch-zoom across page 27 while being attacked by a boss.

🧠 Don’t Choose a Format Just Because It’s Easy for You

Maybe you love spreadsheets.

That doesn’t mean every customer wants their boss guide delivered as FinalBossStrategy.xlsx.

Start with the customer’s problem.

Then choose the format that solves it best.

Once you’ve chosen that format, presentation becomes the next piece.

Because a useful guide should also look like a product somebody feels comfortable paying for.

15. 🎨 Make Your Gaming Guide Look Professional

You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to create a good gaming guide.

But the final product should look intentional.

Customers are paying for something organised, useful and easier to use than scattered free information.

Presentation helps communicate that.

📚 Create a Clear Visual Hierarchy

Readers should instantly recognise:

• Main sections
• Subsections
• Important warnings
• Tips
• Tables
• Checklists

Use consistent:

• Heading sizes
• Fonts
• Spacing
• Icons
• Layout

Don’t make every page look like it was created by a different person during a different decade.

🎨 Keep the Design Consistent

Choose a simple visual system.

For example:

H1

Large chapter heading

H2

Main topic

H3

Specific subtopic

💡 Tip

Useful shortcut

⚠️ Warning

Important mistake to avoid

Then use that system throughout the guide.

Consistency helps readers learn how the document works.

📖 Use a Table of Contents

For anything beyond a very short guide, include a contents page.

If possible, make it clickable.

A customer shouldn’t have to scroll through 60 pages searching for:

“Where was the crafting section again?”

Navigation is part of usability.

🔢 Add Page Numbers

Simple.

Useful.

Surprisingly easy to forget.

Page numbers also make it easier to reference information:

“Check the equipment table on page 18.”

✏️ Choose Readable Fonts

Your guide isn’t the place to unleash your collection of 47 decorative gaming fonts.

Use clear type for body text.

You can add personality to:

• Titles
• Covers
• Callouts

But the main content needs to remain easy to read.

If your medieval fantasy font turns the letter S into something resembling a wounded dragon, maybe don’t use it for six paragraphs.

🌬️ Give the Content Space

Don’t cram every inch of every page.

Whitespace improves readability.

Use:

• Margins
• Paragraph spacing
• Section spacing
• Clear separation around visuals

A professional guide should feel structured rather than crowded.

🖼️ Keep Visuals Consistent Too

If you’re using:

• Screenshots
• Maps
• Diagrams
• Tables

try to give them a consistent presentation.

For example:

• Similar border treatment
• Consistent captions
• Similar annotation style
• Standard image widths

This makes the guide feel like one complete product.

🎯 Design for Scanning

Players may not read every sentence.

Help them find important information quickly.

Use:

• Bold text
• Bullets
• Icons
• Short headings
• Tables
• Numbered instructions

But don’t bold half the page.

If everything is highlighted, nothing is highlighted.

📦 Create a Proper Cover

A strong cover can help the guide feel like a finished product.

It should communicate:

• Game or topic
• Guide title
• Main outcome
• Version where relevant

For example:

Beginner Strength Build Guide
Level 1-100 Progression, Weapons, Stats and Upgrade Path

Much clearer than:

Dan’s Elden Ring Notes

Even if that’s technically how the project started.

⚖️ Useful Beats Beautiful

Don’t lose sight of the purpose.

A beautifully designed guide with weak information is still a weak product.

And an incredibly useful guide doesn’t need movie-poster production values.

Aim for:

Useful Content

Clear Organisation

Professional Presentation

=

Stronger Gaming Product

🧪 Export It and Actually Use It

Before considering the design finished:

• Open the final file
• Click the links
• Check the contents page
• View it on different screens
• Zoom in and out
• Check image quality
• Look for broken layouts
• Make sure no text is cut off

Your editable file looking perfect doesn’t matter if the exported customer version has somehow moved an entire table onto page 43 by itself.

The customer only sees the final product.

Make that version count.

And once the guide looks finished, there’s one important step left before putting a price on it:

testing whether it actually works.

11. ✍️ How to Write a Gaming Guide People Can Actually Use

A gaming guide isn’t successful because it sounds clever.

It’s successful because the reader can use it while playing.

That should influence everything from sentence length to screenshots, headings and page structure.

🎯 Write for the Player’s Situation

Think about when the customer will use the guide.

They might be:

• Mid-boss fight
• Choosing a build
• Looking for an item
• Planning progression
• Checking a crafting recipe
• Preparing for ranked matches
• Trying to remember what to do next

They’re probably not sitting in a leather armchair with a cup of tea analysing your prose.

They want answers quickly.

📚 Break Information Into Clear Sections

Use headings generously.

Instead of one enormous section called:

Everything You Need to Know About Progression

break it into something like:

🌱 Early Game

⚔️ First Major Upgrade

🗺️ Mid-Game Progression

🏆 End-Game Preparation

Clear structure helps readers jump directly to the part they need.

✂️ Keep Paragraphs Short

Walls of text are difficult enough on a desktop.

They’re even worse when someone has your guide open on a second monitor, tablet or phone while gaming.

Keep paragraphs focused.

One idea at a time.

Use bullets, tables or visual callouts when they make information easier to scan.

🎮 Give Specific Instructions

Compare:

“Make sure your build is strong enough before fighting the boss.”

with:

“Before entering the boss arena, upgrade your main weapon to at least +6 and prioritise Vigor if your health is still below the recommended range.”

The second tells the reader what to do.

Useful gaming guides should reduce uncertainty.

🧠 Explain the Reason Behind Important Advice

Instructions become more useful when the reader understands why they matter.

For example:

Prioritise this resource early because later upgrades require much larger quantities and farming it becomes significantly slower.

Now the customer isn’t simply following instructions blindly.

They understand the decision.

That makes the information easier to apply elsewhere.

🪜 Use Step-by-Step Instructions Where Appropriate

Some gaming tasks are easier to follow sequentially.

For example:

1️⃣ Travel to the northern checkpoint

2️⃣ Enter through the eastern gate

3️⃣ Ignore the first staircase

4️⃣ Take the corridor behind the merchant

5️⃣ Defeat the elite enemy

6️⃣ Collect the item from the chest

That’s considerably easier to follow than hiding the same instructions inside three paragraphs.

⚠️ Highlight Important Warnings

If something is:

• Missable
• Expensive
• Permanent
• Difficult to reverse
• Version-dependent
• Easy to misunderstand

make it obvious.

For example:

⚠️ Don’t Spend This Resource Yet

Then explain why.

A reader shouldn’t discover three pages later that the item they casually used was required for the build the guide is teaching them.

📊 Use Tables for Comparisons

Tables can make choices much easier to understand.

For example:

Use tables where there is a genuine comparison.

Don’t put ordinary paragraphs into tables just because spreadsheets make everything feel official.

🧩 Include Examples

Abstract advice becomes clearer with examples.

Instead of:

“Choose equipment that matches your role.”

show:

Tank Build Example

• High defence armour
• Shield
• Health-focused upgrades
• Crowd-control ability

Now the reader can see what the principle looks like in practice.

💬 Write Like a Gamer Helping Another Gamer

Your guide doesn’t need to sound like technical documentation.

Be clear and natural.

You can still use:

• Light humour
• Personality
• Short observations
• Practical warnings

Just don’t let the personality bury the answer.

If someone wants to know where the boss is, don’t make them survive six jokes before reaching the location.

🔥 Prioritise Usefulness Over Word Count

A good guide isn’t judged by how many words you managed to fit into it.

Ask:

“Can the reader find the answer quickly and use it successfully?”

If yes, you’re doing the important part right.

And sometimes the fastest way to communicate that answer isn’t with words at all.

12. 🖼️ Use Screenshots, Maps and Visuals Effectively

Gaming is visual.

So naturally, gaming guides can benefit enormously from good visuals.

A screenshot can show something instantly that might otherwise take several paragraphs to explain.

But visuals need a purpose.

📸 Use Screenshots to Show Exactly What You Mean

Screenshots can help demonstrate:

• Item locations
• Menu settings
• Character builds
• Map positions
• Equipment
• Quest objectives
• Interface elements
• Boss arenas

For example:

“The entrance is behind the ruined tower.”

becomes much clearer when the reader can see the actual tower.

🗺️ Maps Can Be Extremely Valuable

Maps work particularly well for:

• Collectibles
• Resource routes
• Hidden areas
• Boss locations
• Farming paths
• Quest progression
• Achievement routes

A good map doesn’t need to contain every location in the entire game.

Sometimes a focused map showing exactly the route covered by your guide is more useful.

✏️ Annotate Visuals

Don’t simply dump a screenshot onto the page and expect the customer to interpret it.

Add:

• Arrows
• Labels
• Numbers
• Highlighted areas
• Simple captions

For example:

1. Start here

2. Follow this path

3. Avoid this area

4. Item location

Now the image becomes instructional.

🎯 One Visual Should Answer One Question

Try giving each visual a clear job.

For example:

Screenshot 1

→ Shows where the quest starts.

Map 1

→ Shows the farming route.

Diagram 1

→ Shows boss positioning.

That’s better than one giant image covered in 47 arrows, 19 labels and enough visual information to qualify as air traffic control.

📊 Use Diagrams Where Screenshots Aren’t Enough

Some concepts are easier to explain with simplified diagrams.

For example:

Tank

↓

Boss

↓

DPS

with positioning around an encounter.

Or:

Resource A + Resource B

↓

Craft Item

↓

Upgrade Weapon

A diagram can remove unnecessary detail and focus purely on the mechanic.

🧱 Build Guides Benefit From Layouts

If your gaming guide covers building, base design or level creation, consider:

• Top-down layouts
• Floor plans
• Block counts
• Material lists
• Build stages

For example:

Stage 1: Foundation

Stage 2: Walls

Stage 3: Roof

Stage 4: Interior

That can make complex builds much easier to reproduce.

🖥️ Make Sure Images Are Readable

A screenshot isn’t useful if important information is microscopic.

Check:

• Resolution
• Cropping
• Text size
• Contrast
• Labels
• Mobile readability

If the customer needs to zoom to 800% to understand your arrow, make the visual clearer.

⚠️ Be Careful With Copyright and Game Assets

Game screenshots, maps, artwork and other assets can be subject to copyright and publisher rules.

Don’t assume every image found online is free to reuse.

Where possible:

• Create your own screenshots
• Create your own annotations
• Create original diagrams
• Check publisher policies
• Avoid copying another creator’s maps or visuals

We’ll cover copyright and game rules more thoroughly later.

🎮 Capture Visuals While Testing the Guide

An efficient workflow is to collect images while you’re playing and testing.

For example:

Testing Build

↓

Capture Equipment Screen

↓

Test Boss

↓

Capture Positioning

↓

Check Farming Route

↓

Capture Map

This saves you from finishing the entire guide and then having to replay 30 hours because you forgot one screenshot.

💡 Visuals Should Make the Guide Faster to Use

The goal isn’t:

“This PDF contains 73 images.”

The goal is:

“These images help the customer understand the guide faster.”

If the screenshot doesn’t improve clarity, it may not need to be there.

The same principle applies to one of the most useful additions you can make to a gaming guide:

quick-reference resources.

13. 📋 Add Checklists, Cheat Sheets and Quick-Reference Pages

A customer might read your full guide once.

But they could use a good checklist or quick-reference page dozens of times.

That’s why these resources can add disproportionate value to a gaming product.

✅ Turn Repetitive Tasks Into Checklists

Gaming often involves keeping track of things.

For example:

• Collectibles
• Achievements
• Bosses
• Crafting materials
• Upgrades
• Quest steps
• Raid preparation
• Daily activities

A checklist lets the player see exactly what’s done and what remains.

For example:

Raid Preparation Checklist

☐ Repair equipment

☐ Restock consumables

☐ Equip resistance item

☐ Confirm team roles

☐ Activate required quest

☐ Check inventory space

Simple.

Useful.

Reusable.

📄 Create One-Page Cheat Sheets

A longer guide can include a condensed summary.

For example:

Beginner Build – One-Page Quick Reference

It might show:

• Stats
• Equipment
• Skills
• Upgrade order
• Key items
• Important locations

The customer can learn from the full guide and keep the one-page summary open while playing.

🗺️ Create Route Summaries

Progression or farming guides can benefit from simplified route sheets.

For example:

Start

↓

Location A

↓

Collect Item

↓

Location B

↓

Upgrade

↓

Boss

This gives the customer the entire route without needing to reread the full explanation.

📊 Build Trackers

Some guides benefit from progress tracking.

A tracker might include:

This works particularly well for:

• Achievements
• Completion guides
• Collectibles
• Progression
• Crafting
• Builds

🎯 Design Around Actual Gameplay

Ask:

“What information would the customer repeatedly need while playing?”

That’s your quick-reference opportunity.

For a competitive guide:

• Callouts
• Matchups
• Ability combinations

For a survival guide:

• Crafting recipes
• Resource priorities
• Progression milestones

For a build guide:

• Stats
• Equipment
• Upgrade order

💰 Quick References Can Increase Product Value

A product described as:

40-Page Beginner Guide

might sound useful.

But:

40-Page Beginner Guide + Progression Checklist + Build Cheat Sheet + Resource Map

feels more complete.

You haven’t necessarily added enormous amounts of content.

You’ve packaged the information in multiple useful ways.

⚠️ Avoid Fake Bonuses

Don’t create meaningless extras simply to inflate the product description.

For example:

BONUS #1: Cover page

BONUS #2: Table of contents

BONUS #3: Page numbers

Those aren’t bonuses.

That’s a functioning document.

Add resources because they genuinely make the product easier to use.

📦 A Good Bundle Could Look Like This

For example:

📚 Main Guide

Detailed explanations and strategy.

📋 Checklist

Tracks progress.

🗺️ Map

Shows important locations.

📄 Quick Reference

Summarises key information.

Each format has a different purpose.

That makes the overall product more useful than simply repeating the same information four times.

🚀 Think Beyond the Traditional Ebook

Gaming guides don’t need to look like books.

In fact, sometimes the most valuable part of the product is the resource the customer keeps beside them while playing.

That’s why choosing the right product format matters.

14. 📦 Choose the Best Format for Your Gaming Guide

PDF is probably the first format that comes to mind when creating a gaming guide.

And often it’s a good choice.

But not every gaming problem is best solved with a traditional document.

Choose the format based on how the customer needs to use the information.

📄 PDF Guides

PDFs work well for:

• Strategy
• Explanations
• Tutorials
• Progression guides
• Build guides
• Beginner resources

Advantages include:

• Easy to download
• Works across many devices
• Supports text and images
• Easy to organise into chapters
• Can include links and tables

For many products, PDF will be the main format.

📊 Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets work better when the customer needs to:

• Track information
• Calculate values
• Filter data
• Compare builds
• Manage inventories
• Monitor progress

Examples:

Character Build Calculator

Achievement Tracker

Crafting Resource Planner

Trading Tracker

A spreadsheet is less glamorous than an illustrated ebook.

It can also be vastly more useful.

📋 Checklists

Checklists are ideal for tasks involving completion.

For example:

• Trophy guides
• Collectibles
• Quest chains
• Raid preparation
• Progression
• Daily objectives

They can be standalone products or included with a larger guide.

🗺️ Visual Guides

Some guides may rely heavily on:

• Maps
• Diagrams
• Build layouts
• Routes
• Locations

In these cases, the product could be primarily visual rather than text-heavy.

For example:

Complete Resource Location Map Pack

doesn’t need 50 pages explaining what the map already shows clearly.

📦 Bundles

Sometimes the strongest format is a combination.

For example:

📄 30-Page Progression Guide

📋 Progression Checklist

📊 Equipment Tracker

🗺️ Resource Map

Now the customer gets different resources for different parts of the same problem.

🎯 Match the Format to the Problem

Use this basic idea:

The format should make the information easier to use.

🖥️ Think About Device Use

Ask where the customer is likely to view the guide.

Maybe:

• Desktop
• Second monitor
• Tablet
• Phone

A 12-column spreadsheet designed for a 32-inch monitor may be miserable on a phone.

Similarly, tiny screenshots in a PDF can be hard to use on smaller screens.

Test the product in realistic conditions.

📱 Mobile-Friendly Can Matter

Many players may check guides from their phones.

That means:

• Larger text
• Shorter tables
• Clear headings
• Readable visuals
• Simple navigation

can improve the experience considerably.

Nobody wants to pinch-zoom across page 27 while being attacked by a boss.

🧠 Don’t Choose a Format Just Because It’s Easy for You

Maybe you love spreadsheets.

That doesn’t mean every customer wants their boss guide delivered as FinalBossStrategy.xlsx.

Start with the customer’s problem.

Then choose the format that solves it best.

Once you’ve chosen that format, presentation becomes the next piece.

Because a useful guide should also look like a product somebody feels comfortable paying for.

15. 🎨 Make Your Gaming Guide Look Professional

You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to create a good gaming guide.

But the final product should look intentional.

Customers are paying for something organised, useful and easier to use than scattered free information.

Presentation helps communicate that.

📚 Create a Clear Visual Hierarchy

Readers should instantly recognise:

• Main sections
• Subsections
• Important warnings
• Tips
• Tables
• Checklists

Use consistent:

• Heading sizes
• Fonts
• Spacing
• Icons
• Layout

Don’t make every page look like it was created by a different person during a different decade.

🎨 Keep the Design Consistent

Choose a simple visual system.

For example:

H1

Large chapter heading

H2

Main topic

H3

Specific subtopic

💡 Tip

Useful shortcut

⚠️ Warning

Important mistake to avoid

Then use that system throughout the guide.

Consistency helps readers learn how the document works.

📖 Use a Table of Contents

For anything beyond a very short guide, include a contents page.

If possible, make it clickable.

A customer shouldn’t have to scroll through 60 pages searching for:

“Where was the crafting section again?”

Navigation is part of usability.

🔢 Add Page Numbers

Simple.

Useful.

Surprisingly easy to forget.

Page numbers also make it easier to reference information:

“Check the equipment table on page 18.”

✏️ Choose Readable Fonts

Your guide isn’t the place to unleash your collection of 47 decorative gaming fonts.

Use clear type for body text.

You can add personality to:

• Titles
• Covers
• Callouts

But the main content needs to remain easy to read.

If your medieval fantasy font turns the letter S into something resembling a wounded dragon, maybe don’t use it for six paragraphs.

🌬️ Give the Content Space

Don’t cram every inch of every page.

Whitespace improves readability.

Use:

• Margins
• Paragraph spacing
• Section spacing
• Clear separation around visuals

A professional guide should feel structured rather than crowded.

🖼️ Keep Visuals Consistent Too

If you’re using:

• Screenshots
• Maps
• Diagrams
• Tables

try to give them a consistent presentation.

For example:

• Similar border treatment
• Consistent captions
• Similar annotation style
• Standard image widths

This makes the guide feel like one complete product.

🎯 Design for Scanning

Players may not read every sentence.

Help them find important information quickly.

Use:

• Bold text
• Bullets
• Icons
• Short headings
• Tables
• Numbered instructions

But don’t bold half the page.

If everything is highlighted, nothing is highlighted.

📦 Create a Proper Cover

A strong cover can help the guide feel like a finished product.

It should communicate:

• Game or topic
• Guide title
• Main outcome
• Version where relevant

For example:

Beginner Strength Build Guide
Level 1-100 Progression, Weapons, Stats and Upgrade Path

Much clearer than:

Dan’s Elden Ring Notes

Even if that’s technically how the project started.

⚖️ Useful Beats Beautiful

Don’t lose sight of the purpose.

A beautifully designed guide with weak information is still a weak product.

And an incredibly useful guide doesn’t need movie-poster production values.

Aim for:

Useful Content

Clear Organisation

Professional Presentation

=

Stronger Gaming Product

🧪 Export It and Actually Use It

Before considering the design finished:

• Open the final file
• Click the links
• Check the contents page
• View it on different screens
• Zoom in and out
• Check image quality
• Look for broken layouts
• Make sure no text is cut off

Your editable file looking perfect doesn’t matter if the exported customer version has somehow moved an entire table onto page 43 by itself.

The customer only sees the final product.

Make that version count.

And once the guide looks finished, there’s one important step left before putting a price on it:

testing whether it actually works.