Hi!
In today's video, I share a way to think about worldbuilding from the player's point of view.
If you ever find yourself in a writer's room or a big brainstorming session with the team, you want to be ready to contribute - and one of the best ways you can do that is to ask questions with the player in mind.
At the end of the day, there is a big difference between how we BUILD worlds and how the players EXPERIENCE worlds. Understanding (and bridging) that difference is one way to take your worldbuilding skills from good to great.
Here's an approach that has helped me, and I hope it helps you, too.
Watch the video for the "I'm riffing" version, or check out the transcript below for more-organized thoughts. :) This is an excellent example of "first draft versus final draft"!
Today I want to talk about worldbuilding.
Specifically, I want to talk about the difference between how we create worlds and how we experience worlds. This is really for game writers who want to stay connected with the player experience, as far as discovering a world goes, and how we can make sure that everything in our world fits together.
So I want to use some real-world examples. Because I've been traveling and thinking about this quite a bit.
When we enter a world, we move from small to big.
So let me explain what I mean.
Let's say we arrive in a new town. We get off the train. Our focus is usually on our immediate environment. "What corner am I standing on? Can I get my suitcase over these cobblestones? Do I still have my phone?" We are thinking about very small, pratcial things. At this point, we're not necessarily taking in the scenery, especially if we're in the middle of a crowd, lugging our suitcases, and trying not to trip over our own two feet.
That mirrors the experience we have with games. When we first start playing a game, we are also heads-down and focused on the practical things like the control scheme. How do I move? How do I turn left and right? How do I look around? These are the fundamentals that we have to master in order to navigate this new space that we're in.
Once we have our bearings about us, we can lift our heads and think,.“What's going on here? - Oh look, there's a cafe - Wait. There are three cafes there. What the…Oh, look, there's a tram...Okay, watch out that our suitcases don't trip over the tracks...Look at that lady's outfit!" We have more brainspace; we're not consumed with the practicalities, we can start to pay attention to other things.
It's similar in video games. Once we learn the control scheme, we can start paying attention to the world around us. “Can I open this door?” Or “What's in this loot box?” Or “Who's that chasing me? Who's that crazy person coming at me out of the elevator?”
Our world gets bigger. We're still interested in practicalities, but we're getting some hints about what this world is all about. Where is the trouble; where is the treasure?
And then, finally, once we've had a chance to take in the world immediately around us, we can begin to think about the Big Picture. Maybe beyond the cafes, we spot a castle at the end of the bay. And a massive clock tower. What? How did we miss that? The castle and the clock tower are huge in the world - but they aren't huge to US - they're small things in the distance. Incredibly important to the world, but not incredibly important to us.
The same experience can happen in a game. Once we've mastered the control scheme and the menu, we can shift your attention from the small to the big. We can get into the world, at last.
When we enter a world, we start small and go big. We don't get off a train, admire the castle in the distance, and then get run over by a taxi because we didn't realize we were standing in the street.
It's the same in games. You have to learn how to move. You've got to orient yourself. THEN you can start exploring.
What’s interesting is that when we create worlds, we take the opposite approach.
We often start big. We say, “Okay, we're going to make a world, and it's going to be set in the Middle Ages, right in the middle of a war.” These are very big-picture ideas. And then we go from big to medium; we start populating the specific town we're creating. And then we get into the small: the moment-by-moment experience of the player.
That's a fine way to build a world. We just want to make sure that everything works together; it all feels like it's a piece. The big and the small need to work together.
Often in games, world-building duties are shared across departments. In the narrative department, the writers will develop plenty of big-picture concepts. And then, at some point, once we go from the big things into the small stuff. Those small things are often assigned to different people on the team. For example, game designers create the systems that must operate within that world. Level designers are placing dialogue in their maps. Lots of people are involved.
And so how do you make sure all that work stays consistent?
VALUES.
Spend time thinking about what was essential to the people who built this world. Why does this place exist? What's important to these people here? And let those values, for lack of a better word, inform all your decisions from big to small.
We can spot some values at work in our castle town. First of all, people value being together in this place. That's why there are three cafes on one block. Social time is IMPORTANT to people in this world. They don't go home after work and lock the door. They want to be out and about. They want to be together.
Something else is that this world used to feel dangerous in a certain kind of way. There's a castle at the bay to protect against pirates. Which means they felt like their town, their community, was something worth protecting.
That tells you something about the mindset of the people who built this town. That castle is a reminder of how the world used to be versus how it is now.
These cafes and that castle are not the same thing - but they resonate. They don't feel separate from each other. They are both about COMMUNITY. One is an evolution of the other.
When you're working on YOUR world, just keep asking "How does all this fit together?"
Asking the question, “Why are things this way?” and having good answers is the key to keeping your world-building work on track. That’s true whether you’re coming up with ideas on your own or collaborating with other people on the team. Keep asking, “Why is the world this way?” and let the answers come.
I hope this was helpful. See you next time.
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Susan’s first job as a game writer was for “a slumber party game - for girls!” She’s gone on to work on over 25 projects, including award-winning titles in the BioShock, Far Cry and Tomb Raider franchises. Titles in her portfolio have sold over 30 million copies and generated over $500 million in sales. She is an adjunct professor at UT Austin, where she teaches a course on writing for games. A long time ago, she founded the Game Narrative Summit at GDC. Now, she partners with studios, publishers, and writers to help teams ship great games with great stories. She is dedicated to supporting creatives in the games industry so that they can do their best work.