[GameCareerGuide is happy to present its second excerpt from David Perry on Game Design: A Brainstorming Toolbox. This excerpt containspart of the game's chapter on Worlds -- the full text of which is available in the book, and which is designed to help you understand, plan, and design the world your game takes place in.]
Are you tired of playing games with "Iceworld" or "Fireworld"? Why do developers keep reaching for the same environments? What other kinds of worlds are there? As a mental exercise, pick a story you love -- say, The Godfather -- then imagine it in one of the worlds discussed in this chapter. Fantasy, for example -- how could you change the story if you were released from the rules that a realistic world requires? The movie The Matrix did that with the story of the Messiah, for example.
In this chapter:
- What Is a World?
- Types of Worlds
- Perception of Freedom
- Ways to Make a World Feel Alive and Real
- Randomness
- Cause and Effect
- Continuity
- NPCs
- Animation and Effects
- Lighting
- What Is Reality? (Common Reality Distortions)
- Dangerous Places
- Places to Get Lost In
- Environmental Effects on Locations
- Good Places to Attack or Defend
- Moving or Transient Locations
- Weather Types and Phenomena
- Location Surfaces
- Location Sizes
- Money and Commerce
- Politics
- Creating Your World
WHAT IS A WORLD?
What constitutes a world? In game terms, it is the entire environment in which players have their experiences.
The Terrain. The terrain of a world can be anything. It can be as vast as space or as contained as a single building, or even a single room. Wherever the game takes place, that is the game world. It can be mountainous, flat, a water world, a volcanic inferno, or any combination you can imagine. It can be under the ground, above the ground, in space, or a combination of each. It may consist of dozens of separate and distinct areas, or it may be more or less homogeneous throughout.
The Rules. Determining the rules that govern a world is one of the most important jobs, because the rules will determine behavior and gameplay. For instance, most worlds assume a more or less earth-like environment -- breathable air, gravity, basic cause-and-effect physics, and so on. However, worlds don't have to have the same rules. To create a unique game experience, one place to start is with the rules. Obviously, many fantasy games use earthlike rules, but add a component of magic that is outside our modern world view. Can you take that concept further? What about a world where the logic and rules of cartoons prevail, but everything else is normal? So, you might be able to manifest a gigantic hammer out of nowhere to hit someone, and he would flatten like a pancake. Maybe the only rule in that world would be that it be funny. The hammer would be there, and you would have to do something funny with it. Or maybe the rule change would affect only one aspect of what we know as reality. For instance, imagine that you created a world where all the water was caustic and would destroy anything that touched it. How would that suggest different stories and different puzzles, challenges, and experiences? What would happen if the planetary poles suddenly shifted, and north was south and vice versa?
The Sentient and Non-Sentient Creatures. Who and what populate your world? What purpose or role do they play in the game? Many games use some imagination in creating visually distinct enemies, but spend little time considering NPC characters that might be different from the usual shopkeepers, guards, warriors, and general populace. How could you create some different characters? Likewise, what non-sentient creatures inhabit your world? What do they look like? How do they interact with each other, with the other races, and with the player's character? What function, if any, do they serve in the game?
The Flora. Are there plants? If so, what are they? Do they serve any function in the game, other than decoration? Are they sentient? Are they usable for food or materials? Are some of them dangerous? How do you deal with them in the game? Do they change with the seasons or with night and day? Do they grow as the game progresses? Are they made of something other than normal plant matter, such as crystals or stone?
Political and Environmental Systems. The world you create in a game is more than just the set you create and the flora and fauna you add to it. The world is also the interconnected elements -- the way the various elements interact in the world. This can include the ecology of the world -- what eats what and what factors limit overpopulation, for instance. And who controls the world? What kinds of governments (if any) exist? Who is feuding or at war with whom? Who rules? Who rebels? Who allies? Who is trustworthy? Who is not?
Creating the elements of the situation involves an understanding of the overall relationships of every important element of the game. It helps to know the past -- what led up to the current situation. It also helps to understand how different characters and groups feel about each other character/group. If you think of your game world as a system, you can see what affects the system and how. What stabilizes the system? What destabilizes it? Finally, add the player's character. How does the player's character change or affect the system? What is the player character's role in this world?
Value Systems. In addition to the various political systems, there are systems of values. What is money? What do people use for trade or commerce? What are the belief systems and moral/ethical values that govern the world you are creating? Are there some universally held beliefs among the entities of your game? Are they in some ways different from those held by modern people? What views do the entities of your game have on:
- Family relationships
- Violence
- Love
- Life and death
- Sexuality
- Fairness
- Power
- Medicine
- Money and ownership
- Magic
- Trust and respect
- Technology
- Honesty and integrity
- Outsiders
- Conflict
- Humor (what kind, if any?)
What other values might the residents of your world have?
Before creating a game, consider whether you have made absolute assumptions about these and other value systems. How might a game be more interesting if some of these views were different from modern norms? Certainly if a game is set in the past or the future, beliefs might be different. When you are creating a world, you should be aware of what values are common, what values are regional or unique to a specific ideological group in your world, and what values your main characters have. Also consider whether the player's character starts out with some specific value system or ideology. Might those values change during the course of the game, based on the player's decisions and actions?
Culture. Are there some very specific cultural behaviors among the inhabitants of the worlds you are creating? For instance, are there actions an ordinary person from the United States might take that would be considered insulting or scandalous in your world? Are there simple gestures that might have unexpected meaning? To what extent do you want to create a unique culture with unique expectations and behavior? How does the culture reflect the value systems of the group? Sometimes cultures can be designed from the history of a single group of people, such as merchants who started a trading post that over time became a city. What other groups could become the foundation for an entire culture?
