World Creation Tutorial

No matter what kind of artist you are, your characters and stories have to take place in some sort of world.  While being an artist of your own creations, you also take the role of "God" of your respective universe.  You create everything that exists and you control everything with your own will.  If you want it done, it shall be done.

Creating a world can be a rather daunting task.  The idea of forging something so large out of nothing but your mind can seem overwhelming.  However, it is also rewarding, especially in the long run.  Constructing the foundations of your world will help you in the future as you plan out scenarios for your characters and their own stories.

Here is a quick tutorial that will help you get started.  The following is my preferred method, but you may do these in any order that which you are most comfortable with.

Step One: The Basics

As you begin to think out your world, you should be asking yourself a list of questions to make sure you have everything covered.  Write these questions down on a piece of paper or in a word processor.  Even if the question is completely random, go ahead and add it.  It could actually be of use in the future.  If it doesn't assist you, then it is just a matter of simply taking it off the list.

Naturally, the first question should refer to what kind of world you want to make.  Think on this for a while and make sure you choose a world that you know you'll enjoy creating.  You will also want to make sure that it is appropriate for what you are wanting to do with the characters and stories that will take place.

Here are some example questions:

What is the time period?
What is the state of society?
Is the environment habitable?
Who lives here?
Are there any conflicts that are occurring?
How advanced is technology?

Every list will be different, but use that as an opportunity to find questions that you might not have thought of.  Discuss your thoughts with a group of friends that might be interested.  Such discussions will likely help add more questions for you to answer to bring more clarity to your goals.

You don't have to answer every question immediately.  Just make sure that you at least have the basics figured out before proceeding.  The other questions can be answered as you develop the world and any important plotlines.  The more questions and answers you have, the better your world will be in the end.

Step Two: Filling it with Life

Unless your ideas call for it, there isn't much reason to leave the world void of life.  From simple wildlife, to a complex alien society, there is much that can be done.  While you can use creatures that currently exist in today's world, you may also make everything unique to your world!

Let's start with wildlife.  Is there any to be seen?  If not, you can skip this part.  However, if you do want wild animals in the area, then make a list of what animals live in this particular area.  You don't have to be specific in terms of population, but knowing what creatures live here does give the world more variety to it.  If possible, add any details that might be important for them, especially if they are of your own creation.  What these details are can vary and really depends on your ultimate goal for the world you are constructing.  Sometimes they may not even be needed.  It all depends on what role the creatures may serve.

How you establish a civilization is up to you.  A good start would be to look at society today and base your area around that.  You can also get ideas for what to do from other forms of entertainment that give detailed representations of how the characters live.  Even history books can provided more than enough inspiration.  However, if you are going to have unique characters, stories and events taking place in the world, then it would only be fair to make sure that the civilization is unique too.

The following are just some things to consider when establishing a society.  Your list can be different, depending on your own ideas and inspiration.

-The species of the citizens living in it (You are free to use multiple species in the same society)
-Population (You don't need a specific number, but it doesn't hurt to have a good estimate)
-Technology
-How the people may act around other societies
-Resources and how they are used
-Economy and common jobs
-Government
-Types of homes
-The history leading up to the current time you establish in the world
-Lifestyle
-Religion and beliefs
-Military power

There is plenty to go over when it comes to making a society.  However, it can be a very fun process.  You may even find yourself spending more time on establishing it than you do in creating the world itself.  There is nothing wrong with that.  If you are going to only focus on a particular part of the world, then it makes sense to focus more of your creative effort into creating the society that lives there.

If you do need to establish a desolate environment that holds minimal life, then do so.  Good examples of this can found in games like the Fallout series.  They manage to create a wasteland that practically lacks any life, but succeeds with the story behind it and how society exists in the present day.

Absolute barren wastelands or uninhabitable locales should have a reason for why they are in their condition, be it natural or caused by living beings.  Normally a good, detailed history of the area is sufficient for explaining the area's current state.

Your ideas for how this society may exist can change as you develop the environment that they live in.  Keep a comprehensive list of notes so that you may change anything as it is needed.

Step Three: Start with Square One

If you start with every possible thing that your world can possibly contain, then you are going to be overwhelmed and lose interest almost immediately.  Let's just start on a small chunk of land and work from there.  Something like a town or a small city would be a good start, depending on what you have planned for your inhabitants.

It will help you if you already have a character and story/biography to go along with it.  Start with where the character is born or lives.  If you established a story, you should already have an idea of locations where major plot events occur.  Make note of possible locations.  These can always be changed as you chart other important landmarks.  Even if it is something as blank as a pristine section of nature, detailing these important items will be crucial to successful world creation.

Step Four: Map it Out

You don't have to be great at drawing to make a decent map for your world.  All you need to do is know how you want to organize the land and note important details about each location.

Drawing the map itself could just be composed of various simple shapes to make out a general area of the regions you want to establish.

Start with the area you just created.  Map it out through any method that you would prefer.  However, if you are doing it on paper, be sure to use a pencil so you can make changes if you feel necessary.  Some have also found using grid paper useful for this, as it can add a touch of precision to the map as well as make distance scaling an easier task.

First make a general border in the shape of the area your beginning region takes place.  Then place important landmarks at points.  From there, continue to fill the area with natural items such as trees, rivers and lakes and man-made structures such as buildings and roads.

For this location, make notes in a separate document that explain why this region is important and what purpose it serves to the world as a whole.  In the description, note the key landmarks or characters that reside and how they may serve for your world and any possible stories.

If you have the talent for making maps, feel free to be as detailed as you want!  The more detail you have, the better realized your world shall be.

If you are really creative and have the time and skill, then you may also use a map editor and its resources within a game to build your idea of the environment.  You could also look at free programs like UDK and Unity to try building your world.  While there is a learning curve to using them, there are plenty of video tutorials on both programs that focus on their tools.  You may also even go as far as trying to create your own resources to import into these programs to fully create the world in your vision.  Normally this will require skills in the use of programs such as 3D Studio Max and Photoshop for example.

Step Five: Once More!

There!  You now have a region that you can call the center of your respective universe.  You can now continue by repeating the previous steps as you much as you want.  Take your time and enjoy the process as you watch your world grow, piece by piece.  Work until you are satisfied with what you have created.

Space and Beyond

What if the starting point isn't actually a solid land mass?  What if it is something like a colony ship that is heading to a planet?

That is perfectly fine.  You can still apply the previous steps to the design of the ship.  I would recommend using a digital drawing program to make a map for the ship though, as you can copy/paste the ship outline for each individual floor that you may have.  Even if the floor doesn't cover the entire area of the ship, at least you can note where in the ship it is.

With the tighter spaces though, you are likely better using symbols or initials to note individual rooms and then describe them on a separate document for reference.

Regarding planets and stars, unless these particular landmarks serves as something important to the story, you can just give them a name and a brief information log about them.  These logs could contain information that includes any noteworthy colonies and their population, their discovery dates, any minerals that the planet might have or whether or not if it is habitable.

If the planet does serve importance for your universe (such as the one mentioned in the colony ship idea), then you can bring some focus into key areas on the planet.  Games like Mass Effect do a good job of focusing a story on just one particular region on the planet.  Map out the area, including where on the planet this area is located at.  Also note things such as climate, the state of the area and any life that might be there.

As for other objects in space such as asteroids, comets, satellites and whatnot, map them as you will.  However, again, if it doesn't serve much importance to story you are making, you can simply give them names and mark locations.

You may also give solar systems names if you wish to do so.  It would also not hurt to mark their relative locations to each other if you plan on using several systems.  Distance and time it would take to reach each system from one another is a nice detail to have, but usually not required.

Use the idea of relativistic space travel at your own discretion and only if you have some idea of how it works.  Otherwise stay with just noting how long it takes a craft to get to its destination from the launch point in earth time.

The Land Tells a Story

Every world has a story to tell.  What is the story of your world?  How did it get in the shape that is now?  What is the future for this world?

If you aren't a writer, then you are likely to skip this step.  I ask that you don't, however.  Even if you are just a visual artist, it would benefit you greatly if you do craft a tale about your world.  Maybe it will actually give you an interest in trying to write a story if you haven't.

You don't have to write a novel about it.  A few paragraphs detailing the history will do the job.  Even better, you could develop a timeline of major events that occur in your world's history.

Don't expect to get it done in a night though.  More ideas will pop up as time passes.  That is perfectly fine.  Let them come and if you like them, jot them down into your history.  You created the world.  You need to share its story.

Finding Inspiration

Lacking ideas on what your world should look like?  That's okay!  There are plenty of sources where you can nab some inspiration and ideas for your own designs.  Browse around all forms of entertainment and see how they portray their original worlds.  You could also look into games that allow you to create your worlds.  Minecraft is a good example of this.  Just throw the game in its creative mode and roam the land.  You don't necessarily have to build anything (you can if you choose), but you could at least try picturing the landscape of your world.  Playing around with map editors can also lead to ideas.

I do hope that you found this tutorial helpful.  Enjoy bringing what your imagination creates to life!  Remember, as an artist, the world is in your hands!