Another Humanity

How to Create a World in a Year? Outline

Start Small, Start Now

  • Create a small World Map.
  • If you have 1 already, redraw it.
  • Not from scratch, just optimize it.
  • Enhance consistency.
  • Review, remind parts of the World you may have forgotten.
  • Create a small story for each part of the World.
  • Start with a City.
  • Draw the main Landmarks.
  • Draw the Characters.
  • Populate your City with species & Organizations.
  • Think about Daily life & Major Issues.
  • You’ve got a world.

Create Templates

  • Creating reusable objects is the best way to be efficient.
  • Your efficiency will allow you to produce more projects.
  • More projects will allow you to train more.
  • More training will lead you to faster results.
  • Faster results will give you more motivation to continue.

Balance Comfort & Discomfort

  • Try things you are not comfortable with.
  • It will bring more Diversity to your World.
  • It allows the Public to identify to your Characters, Settings, Environments & Stories more easily.
    • As there are more options
  • It allows you to grow faster & become more resilient.
  • Discover new characters you didn’t know you’d enjoy.
  • Discover new settings you didn’t know you’d enjoy.

Build a Team

  • 2 person is a team.
  • 4-5 would be optimal.
  • Find out what each person is passionate about.
  • Give everyone the Lead in a specific field (story, graphics, gameplay, music).
  • Ask your team mate what would excite them to do in their field.
  • Ask them to rank each field in term of interest
    • Storyteller : 1 story, 3 graphics, 2 gameplay, 4 music
    • Musician : 4 story, 2 graphics, 3 gameplay, 1 music
    • Game Designer : 2 story, 4 graphics, 1 gameplay, 3 music
  • After each new project switch role.
  • Progressively help them to take an interest in the other fields.
  • Ask everyone for a list of Topics.
  • 12 Topics would be enough.
  • But the more you have the better.
  • These topics will serve as a basis for your Stories.
  • If you have a team of 4 each team member will be in charge of 3 Stories a Year.

Environments

  • Over Clouds?
  • Underwater?
  • Underground?
  • Deep Space?
  • Try as many Environments as you can.
  • You’ve got 12 months.
  • It doesn’t mean you have to write a full-fledged story for each of them.
  • Experimentation will allow you to try unsuspected stories.
  • Being in a team will push you to work on consistency.
  • Starting with the Environment gives you a Canvas.
  • You need a Planet/City to put your characters in.
  • Which Landscapes will you use?
  • existing
  • your own
  • Which Landmarks will you use?
  • existing
  • your own
  • How will your Cities be?
  • existing
  • your own

Characters

  • Create 12 characters
  • Goals
  • Strengths
  • Weaknesses
  • Quirks
  • Classes/Jobs
  • Develop a Relationships Map.
  • Draw as 1 circle/characters.
  • Link them.
  • Indicate the nature of the link.
  • This will also help you develop Dialogue templates.

Species

  • Humanoids
  • Existing… Humans?
  • Try not to use to many Humanoids.
  • 4-5 Humanoid species would be enough.
  • The important part here is that Humanoid is Humanoid in Behavior mostly.
  • If you create an Insectoid Species and gives them Human emotions, that’s not really interesting.
    • Except if your story is about Xenophobia, the Human distanciation, and paradoxes regarding Cruelty & Compassion, as is the case is many Alien stories…
  • How your own species will be?
  • Non Humanoids
  • Existing.
  • You could use Reptiles, Birds & other Mammals.
  • That’s the typical choices.
  • Here something too anthropomorphic would dampen the Diversity.
  • Exacerbating the Characters of each Species helps create Diversity.
    • Do not hesitate to Exaggerate.
  • Your own.
  • What else could you do?
  • Fish aren’t that common.
  • Real Fishes, not mermaids/merfolks.
  • Things that look like fish entirely.
  • But they may speak.
  • Mollusks, aren’t very popular either.
  • Flying Mollusks or Lava Mollusks would be something to try.
  • Reptiles are popular, but not amphibians.
  • Animals
  • You could use existing animals.
  • Unusual animals.
  • Variant of popular animals.
  • Make people ride Donkeys instead of Horses.
  • Should you make your own hybrids?
  • Merging 2 animals together to create something unnatural could be thematically intersting.
  • Vegetals
  • Do you need plants?
  • You may need them to characterize Cities & People.
  • Should your create own?
  • It is helps the story.
  • But plants are generally even less known than animals so finding surprising ones shouldn’t be difficult.
  • Others?
  • You can then create Animals-Vegetals hybrids.
  • As well as Mineral beings.
  • Can you create Non-existing Beings?
  • How should they be shaped?
  • How should they Behave?

Organizations

  • Are there Vertical Hierarchies?
  • Are there Horizontal Hierarchies?
  • How is Labor divided?
  • How many Classes/Jobs are there?
  • How many Ranks are there?
  • How is Team dynamics depicted?
  • Is there a Loyalty system?
  • Are there Engagement Procedures?
  • Are there external members?
  • Are there outcasts?
  • Do you need to manage large groups of people?
  • How are the Organizations linked to each other?
  • Do they oppose each other?
  • Do they assist each other?
  • Is 1 person the head of multiple organizations?
  • Is she the Public Hand?

Stories

  • 1 Story per Month
  • 12 Stories should be enough to populate your World.
  • You don’t have to write 12 full Books, just 12 Stories.
  • 12 Stories can mean 12 different Main Characters.
  • If you wish to do so.
  • Or you could reuse the same Main Character every 3 month.
  • Reusing the same Characters creates Continuity, Relatability & Familiarity.
  • Make a Trilogy
  • A Trilogy allows the Public to stay longer with Characters.
  • That’s your 1st attempt at creating Direct Consistency.
  • All your stories should be linked if they happen in the same world.
  • However, you will not have to procure a sens of Direct Consistency if they do not follow each other directly.
  • Trilogies train your Consistency without being too straining.
  • Make a Campaign/Saga
  • If you want to try it on the 1st year, you’ll grow even faster.
  • Sagas are 5+ Stories long.
  • If you go for 6 Stories
  • Put the emphasis on a specific Group of Character, a Setting, an Event.
  • Think about Daily life.
  • How are the Streets of this city?
  • How are the Markets of this city?
  • How are the Jobs of this city?
  • How are the Parks of this city?
  • What is considered Entertainment?
  • Crisis, Wars & Major Issues.
  • An Historical summary of your World could be useful.
  • Indicate the major events chronologically.

Genres

  • Rewrite the same Story in another Genre.
  • Change the Target Emotion.
  • Expose the Public to new Situations.
  • Expose the Public to new Angles of a same Crisis.
  • Action-Adventure maybe overused.
  • If you decide to write Action-Adventure, add substantial elements of Drama, Comedy & Horror.
  • If you go for Action, make pure Action.
  • Focus on the Anger, the Courage, the Brutality.
  • If you go for Action, try to be as original as Concise & Focused, even if you have to sacrifice some consistency.
  • If you go for Adventure, make pure Adventure.
  • Focus on the Excitement, the Bliss, the Escapism.
  • If you go for Adventure, try to be as Original & Outlandish as possible, even if you have to sacrifice some consistency.
  • Drama & Horror are often overlooked.
  • These Genres work best together.
  • Most Drama lacks Intensity.
  • Most Horror lacks Meaning.
  • The Complementarity will push you to be measured & multi-layered when writing these stories.
  • Comedy may be the hardest genre to begin with.
  • If you are going for comedy, draw your scenes.
  • That works for other genres as well, but it is essential for comedy.
  • People want to laugh.
  • It is why we know this genre better than others, instinctively.

Settings

  • Popular Settings.
  • High Fantasy.
  • Traditional Science-Fiction.
  • Western.
  • US/UK Mystery.
  • If you happen to go through Usual Settings introduce unusual Characters, unusual Environments, new Events & Crisis.
  • All that matters is that you go for the Unusual.
  • Unusual Settings.
  • A Retirement Home.
  • A single Country House.
  • A Beach.
  • A cliff by the Sea.
  • Calm settings are not really popular.
  • Mundane settings are not popular either.
  • But there are people in these places.
  • And if you have people, can create crisis & dissention.

Games

  • Turn your Stories into Games.
  • When you start a new Story dress a list of Rules.
  • Simple rules which will allow you & the Public to understand your Stories/Gameplay more easily.
  • Start with 10 rules.
  • You can change the rules for each new story or use the same 10 for every story.
  • Rules gives the rhythm of the story.
  • They indicate what can happen, what is unlikely & when it will occur.
  • Play more Games.
  • Try new games.
  • Puzzles
    • Rubik’s Cubes & variants
    • 3d Puzzles/Maquettes/Scale Models
  • Card Games.
    • Well, there’s almost only Magic & Yu-Gi-Oh, so…
  • Board Games.
    • Table Top RPGs
    • Classic Games (Battleship, Monopoly, Clue?)
    • Ancient Games (Mahjong, Go)
  • Video Games (Outside the Genre you’re usually in).
    • Challenging Games (Ikaruga, Godhand)
    • Co-op Games (Metal Slug/Cuphead, Portal 2/Pikmin 2)
    • Adventure Games (any pure adventure game, not Action-Adventure)
  • Look for Games with Stories you enjoy.
  • Look for Games with Graphics you enjoy.
  • Look for Games with Music you enjoy.

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