Sandbox - Tumblr Posts
I don't know if this is a hot or cold take but
every game should have a practice or sandbox mode.
This mostly applies to shooters and fighting games but I think that in every game there should be a game-mode or section or whatever, somewhere to just play with all the things that the game has to offer.
There are a couple cases where a practice\sandbox mode isn't needed, however.
#1: the game isn't very competitive\is already pretty much a sandbox.
When I say this, I mean things like Animal Crossing or Legend of Zelda.
#2: You have to earn it
This is something like Dark Souls or, again, Legend of Zelda, an open world where you can do almost anything you want... if you beat it.
#3: That's the point
These are things like rougelikes or... well pretty much just rougelikes come to mind.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
Auto resolve hurts 🥲
Traditional Landscape - Landscape
To all friends, family, and loved ones - a ghetto-ish-ly recorded duet (with me on harmony) on top of Dave Barnes' lovely song, Home.Â
I haven't found the time or spirit this year to properly gift the people in my life, but my humble confession is: all of you, as hearts where God rests His spirit and gifts His beloved creation, have become my home in one way or another. Have an amazing remainder of the year, a Christmastime/holiday season full of gratitude for family and loved ones, and a blessed next year!
Love, Sharon.
outlining my sandbox
Hello friends!
I hope you all are doing well! I’m doing meh. –__– The third week of the fall semester has just drawn to a close and classes are picking up. I enjoy everything I’m doing, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I’m doing a lot of different things. One of the things I’m really looking forward to when I graduate is that I can cut down on the variety of responsibilities. I’ll just be doing one job (hopefully) instead of trying to balance various courses. But enough about that, y’all aren’t here for that. Y’all are here for the writing updates, so let's get into it! ᕱ__ᕱ
Sadly, things have not picked up a lot since last week and I haven’t actually done any writing for world-building development. But, I did do some research into the elements of worldbuilding and took some notes. Even though it wasn't the most fun thing to do, I felt it was pretty important. I needed to create some sort of structure for myself (even if it is very loose) so that I know what I should be thinking about, how I should be creating my world, and what I should be including.
Worldbuilding, especially the type that I’m doing in which I am creating a whole new universe from scratch, is super expansive and very intimidating (which is why I’ve been dragging my feet about it lol). It's like looking out at an empty beach full of sand and knowing you have to build a sandcastle, but there is so much sand everywhere that you don't even know where to start. Where is the best place to build it? How big should it be? How detailed? Should you include towers or just a base? How are you going to do this with just your bare hands and a big empty beach? You know there are tools around here somewhere to help, but where the heck are they?!
But now, after I've spent time looking around and gathering some tools, I've at least outlined a sandbox and can dig in to just crafting stuff and experimenting, while making sure I’m in the bounds of what I actually need to be creating and that everything I am creating fits together.
Here’s some of the tools I've gather, in no particular order of importance:
ASK YOURSELF QUESTIONS!! To build a consistent world that works, regardless of if it’s fantasy or not, you have to constantly be asking questions. Okay this works this way in your world. Why? What changes because of it? What else needs to change for it to be this way? How does it affect the story or the characters?Â
It is very helpful to use the real world as a base for developing your world and its characteristics. What is the same? What is different? Why?Â
A lot of elements will overlap in fantasy worldbuilding as they do in the real world. It’s okay! Just keep in mind which elements will affect what and will be affected by what when you are creative. Ex. When you change the climate of an area, that affects what animals and plants can live there and how life looks for the peoples who live there.Â
THE WORLD IS NOT THE STORY! Make sure that when it comes to crafting your story after you are done worldbuilding that you create something set in the world not about the world. (Unless that is the goal, I guess?)
And here is the outline of element's that need developed:
Geography & Environment (What does the world physically look like? Are there multiple climates? What is the typical weather? Is the passage of time different? What plants and animals exist? Where?)Â
Cultures & People Groups (Are humans the only intelligent life or are there other peoples? What do their cultures look like? What is specific and unique to each? What do they know about each other? Are there different holidays for different cultures? Are there different languages? What does education look like? What are the myths/legends/folkstories of each culture?)
Government & Politics (How are the governments structured? Are there different countries or sovereign nations? What laws exist and how are they enforced?)
Daily Life (What does daily life look like for these cultures? Especially for the main characters? Are there any customs that are normal in this world?)
History & Social Conflicts (What is the world’s history? How did they get to the present time in your story? Are there tensions between peoples? Governments? Religions? Groups or Organizations?)
Technology (What technology does this world have access to? Is it spread evenly throughout the world? Or do some peoples have access to more advanced technologies?)
Magic (What does the magic system look like? What can magic do? What can’t it do? What shouldn’t it do?)
Religions/Philosophies (What religions exist? If multiple, are there tensions between them? Are there deities? Are they connected to the magic system? What moral standards are there? Are any holidays tied to religion? Are there important religious texts?)
Economy & Trade (What sort of economic system does the world operate under? What currencies exist? Who trades with who? Who doesn’t trade with who and why?)
Origins (What is the origin of this world? Is it tied to religion? Are there creation myths? What are the scientific laws? Are they different from real life? How so, and why?)
Like I said before, and I will say again in the future, worldbuilding is a lot. It’s a lot, a lot. But having some sort of jumping off point and a list of things to keep in mind as I go is certainly going to help me get into the sand and get messy because now I know where the edges of my sandbox are, a vague idea of what I need to build, and have gained some tools to help me out.Â
Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to build this thing. ᕱ__ᕱ
Until next time, friends! And don’t forget– dot your j’s and cross your t’s!!
~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷
PS. Below is a list of resources I looked at while researching this week!
