Some games concentrate on flashy graphics, intense gameplay, or intriguing features to draw in players and provide entertainment. However, the best games also have an additional aspect – something that keeps people playing, makes them want to explore, and heightens their in-game experience. This is worldbuilding. Games like Dragon Age: Origins, the Fallout series, Bloodborne, and the God of War series are all excellent examples of worldbuilding, and this article discusses what it is and what elements go into it and provides a first-hand case study.
What is worldbuilding in games?
For many games and genres, worldbuilding isn’t a thing. For example, with online casinos, people aren’t interested in worldbuilding. They play a game of 21 or roulette, and they don’t need a backstory. Online casinos have games of chance and it’s only video slots that may feature a little worldbuilding. For example, games like the Rich Wilde slots series have recurring characters.
However, worldbuilding is essential for RPG games, MMORPGs, RTS games, and even some shooters. It’s the process of developing the world that the game is based in and giving it life. The aim is to make the game seem more true to a real scenario—with a developed history, conflicts, and characters—so that a player’s gameplay and actions have more meaning.
What elements go into great worldbuilding?
So, how does the art of worldbuilding work and what are the integral elements? When looking at games like Fallout: New Vegas and Elden Ring, they have four core components – the world map, story, lore and characters.
World map
Worldbuilding needs a detailed and visually appealing world map. It doesn’t necessarily have to be huge, but the different areas the player can explore should be different, compelling and detailed. The best games have sprawling maps where players can explore entire regions with hundreds of settlements and geographical features.
Story
Every great game that excels at worldbuilding has a story. The storyline must interact with the surrounding world, and the characters, locations, and factions should be influenced by and intertwined with it. For example, in the Fallout games, the basic story is that the world has been nuked into oblivion, and a new range of factions and civilizations have emerged in the wasteland thereafter.
Lore
Lore and story are different. Lore is the greater history and mythos of the world – it involves the past, and how the world has come to be in the state, it is now. Successful worldbuilding includes a deep lore that explains how things work, why people do what they do, and what has transpired up to the point at which a player’s character is placed into the story.
Characters
Lastly, good worldbuilding needs a wealth of developed characters – either playable or NPCs. The best worldbuilding has hundreds of characters that have backstories and who players can interact with. They end up empathizing with them, helping them with quests or even murdering them – characters are those who populate the world and give it substance and interactivity.
Fallout 76 – a case study of amazing worldbuilding
People have played the multiplayer Fallout 76 a lot and always find the worldbuilding in this game amazing. Indeed, it’s what the Fallout series is known for, and it’s incredible how much effort Bethesda has put into the appearance of the desolate wastelands of post-apocalyptic America.
Several different interplaying aspects of this make the game so much fun to play. Firstly, the scale of the game world – players essentially get to explore an entire region of America (Appalachia). There are so many destinations to uncover, each of which has a different design, underlying theme, and characters.
Secondly, there are the varying storylines and quests, as well as the overarching story of the game. It’s difficult to explain, but as people play, there is so much happening, from different factions scheming and warring to individual towns and cities trying to find a life in the wasteland. Everything feels alive.
Thirdly, there is the development of the NPCs. Fallout games are populated with NPCs, but they are not just generic NPCs with a few lines of dialogue. Most of them have backstories that players can learn about, and most of them can help players in the quests. It’s weird, but people often find themselves caring about these characters and getting invested in their well-being (or demise!), and that’s when you know a game has amazing worldbuilding.
For an immersive gaming experience, worldbuilding is vital
Worldbuilding is fantastic, and it contributes to a player’s gaming experience. Many probably don’t even realize it is a thing when playing immersive games like Elden Ring, the Fallout series, and the Witcher games.
However, this is what the best game developers like Bethesda and CD Projekt do, and it’s why their games have amazing playability and are some of the best-selling of all time. Worldbuilding makes everything feel alive – as if players are playing in a living, breathing world that is steeped in lore, history and intrigue. It makes people forget they are playing a video game and instead gives them an immersive experience and hours of entertainment.
