Last updated on Mar 20, 2024

How do you create lore and build worlds for your games?

Creating lore and building worlds for your games can be a rewarding and challenging process. Lore is the background information that enriches your game's story, characters, and setting. Worldbuilding is the act of designing and developing your game's environment, culture, history, and logic. Both are essential for creating immersive and engaging games that draw players in and make them care. In this article, you will learn some tips and techniques for creating lore and building worlds for your games, based on some examples from popular games.

1 Start with a core idea

The first step to creating lore and building worlds is to have a core idea that defines your game's genre, theme, and tone. This can be a single word, a sentence, a question, or a concept that sparks your imagination and guides your creative vision. For example, the core idea of Fallout is "What if the world was destroyed by a nuclear war in the 1950s?". The core idea of BioShock is "What if a utopian society based on objectivism collapsed under its own contradictions?". The core idea of The Elder Scrolls is "What if a fantasy world had a rich and complex history and mythology?". Your core idea should be original, intriguing, and flexible enough to allow for further exploration and development.

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Jacob Anzalone

Freelance Game Designer
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In the distant future, an intelligent alien collective has completely eradicated the human race, sparing only a single human brain. This brain is then utilized to create a race of humanoid robots interconnected through a hive mind and tasked with building a colony for their alien overlords. What if one of these robotic servants became self-aware of their situation, fought against their captors, and ultimately managed to break free?

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Muwaffaq Imam

Helping professionals to master Generative AI through comprehensive training| PM of Software Engineering department & Senior Instructor at Innopolis University | Ph.D. student doing on a thesis in Gen-AI
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Just look at how Fromsoftware is doing the lore. They are the best of all when coming to game design. and their recoreds can prove this!

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Karim Casado Martínez

A Game Studio Future Founder | Current Marketing Manager at Vandemoortele | Ex Gallina Blanca | A Game Design learner
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I'm building a new studio and the project convinced two guys to work with me for the prototype, for "free". The original Idea started as a plain description of the world I wanted to build and it got SO MUCH BETTER when we put it the "What if" formula: "what if the villagers of this world need to survive?"

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2 Research and draw inspiration

The next step to creating lore and building worlds is to research and draw inspiration from various sources, such as history, mythology, science, art, literature, and other media. Research can help you ground your game's lore and world in realism, consistency, and plausibility. Inspiration can help you add flavor, diversity, and creativity to your game's lore and world. For example, the lore and world of Assassin's Creed are inspired by historical events, locations, and figures, but also incorporate elements of science fiction, conspiracy theories, and secret societies. The lore and world of Mass Effect are inspired by classic science fiction tropes, but also incorporate elements of biology, sociology, and philosophy.

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Jacob Anzalone

Freelance Game Designer
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This hive mind scenario was practical from actual bee colonies and other science fiction works. The humanoid servant robotics would mainly be synthetic beings that have no expression and are driven off of essential functions.

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3 Develop your lore and world iteratively

The third step to creating lore and building worlds is to develop your lore and world iteratively, meaning that you start with a basic outline and then add more details and layers as you go along. This can help you avoid getting overwhelmed or stuck by trying to create everything at once. It can also help you adapt your lore and world to your game's mechanics, gameplay, and narrative. For example, the lore and world of The Witcher are developed iteratively, starting with the books by Andrzej Sapkowski, then expanding with the games by CD Projekt Red, and then further evolving with the Netflix series. The lore and world of The Witcher are constantly updated and refined to suit different media and audiences.

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Tim Wood 🔜Devcom

I Recruit for Game Studios. Recruitment Expert. TTRPG Creative Director, Writer & Narrative Designer - Also a Knight - Managing Director at Write Finder Headhunting
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I freelance Narrative Design on the side. One thing I like to use, and that I also find super fun, is that not everything needs to be explained. Whether it's a custom in your world. A type of item/weapon or even a major historical event. The imagination of the consumer/player/reader can sometimes be better than anything you come up with. A bit like not seeing the monster in a horror film. It works for all storytelling mediums. Google the "Cow Tools" narrative concept to read about it in more detail.

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4 Use tools and methods to organize your lore and world

The fourth step to creating lore and building worlds is to use tools and methods to organize your lore and world in a coherent and accessible way. This can help you keep track of your ideas, avoid inconsistencies and contradictions, as well as communicate your lore and world to your team and players. Mind maps are visual diagrams that show the connections and relationships between different aspects of your lore and world, while wikis are online databases that store and display your information in an easy-to-navigate format. Timelines are chronological sequences that show the key events of your lore and world history, while maps are graphical representations that illustrate the geography of your lore and world. All of these tools can be incredibly useful for organizing your ideas and communicating them to others.

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Vladimir Zhdanov

Localization Expert
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Properly organized lore will also contribute to your internal teams. Coming from a localization background, I have witnessed multiple times how in-house localization teams are struggling to find accurate information on the IP they are working on, having to constantly rely on questioning colleagues or browsing through fan-made Wikipedia-style databases. Put some effort and allocate resources to keep your lore database consistent, this will improve the overall efficiency of your team.

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5 Test and refine your lore and world

The fifth step to creating lore and building worlds is to test and refine your lore and world based on feedback, analysis, and evaluation. This can help you improve the quality, clarity, and appeal of your lore and world. To do this, you should play your game to experience it from the perspective of a player and identify any issues, gaps, or opportunities for improvement. Additionally, ask questions to challenge your lore and world assumptions, logic, and consistency. Furthermore, seek input and opinions from your team, testers, or audience to get feedback on their praise, criticism, and suggestions. Finally, implement any necessary or desired modifications or additions to your lore and world while ensuring they are aligned with your core idea and vision.

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6 Share and celebrate your lore and world

The final step to creating lore and building worlds is to share and celebrate your lore and world with your players and your community. This can help you promote your game, engage your audience, and reward your fans. You can provide lore and world content, such as books, comics, podcasts, videos, or art. To encourage exploration of your lore and world, design gameplay features like quests, dialogues, journals, codexes, or secrets. Additionally, you can enable and empower players to create their own lore and world content through mods, fan fiction, fan art, or cosplay.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Bill Fisher
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I tend to build strategy games. In titles of this nature, one thing we try to do is to make the world believable and consistent, so players know what to do and intuitively recognize ways of solving problems. Our best games are ones where the world and your actions "just make sense". In some games, we've also had success delving deeply into scientifically accurate representations of the world. For example, in one game we build an extremely sophisticated galaxy generator that started with a star's position on the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram and used that to create the star and a plausible set of planets with specific characteristics that then drove which races would/could occupy them. Once properly balanced, this created its own narratives.

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How do you create lore and build worlds for your games?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Start with a core idea

2 Research and draw inspiration

3 Develop your lore and world iteratively

4 Use tools and methods to organize your lore and world

5 Test and refine your lore and world

6 Share and celebrate your lore and world

7 Here’s what else to consider

Gaming Industry

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How do you create lore and build worlds for your games?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Start with a core idea

2 Research and draw inspiration

3 Develop your lore and world iteratively

4 Use tools and methods to organize your lore and world

5 Test and refine your lore and world

6 Share and celebrate your lore and world

7 Here’s what else to consider

Gaming Industry

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