Download or read book On Writing and Worldbuilding written by Timothy Hickson and published by . This book was released on 2023-11-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Planet Construction Kit written by Mark Rosenfelder and published by . This book was released on 2010-10 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A companion volume to the Language Construction Kit, this book explains everything you need to know about creating your own world with its own geology, creatures, cultures, religions, technology, and styles of war- plus how to create maps, illustrations and 3-D models. An essential whether you're writing science fiction or fantasy, designing RPGs, creating movies or video games, or remodeling a spare asteroid.

Download or read book Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding written by Wolfgang Baur and published by . This book was released on 2012-12 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Essential Elements for Building a World Roleplaying games and fantasy fiction are filled with rich and fascinating worlds: the Forgotten Realms, Glorantha, Narnia, R'lyeh, Middle-Earth, Barsoom, and so many more. It took startling leaps of imagination as well as careful thought and planning to create places like these: places that readers and players want to come back to again and again. Now, eleven of adventure gaming's top designers come together to share their insights into building worlds that gamers will never forget. Learn the secrets of designing a pantheon, creating a setting that provokes conflict, determining which historical details are necessary, and so much more. Take that creative leap, and create dazzling worlds of your own! Essays by Wolfgang Baur, Keith Baker, Monte Cook, Jeff Grubb, Scott Hungerford, David "Zeb" Cook, Chris Pramas, Jonathan Roberts, Michael A. Stackpole, Steve Winter, with an introduction by Ken Scholes. NOMINATED FOR TWO ENNIE AWARDS: Best Writing and Best RPG-Related Book Praise for Prior Kobold Design Guides "Highly recommended for gaming nerds everywhere." --CityBookReview.com "If you're an aspiring pro this book is a must. If you're a rules hacker like me, this stuff is solid gold." --Berin Kinsman, UncleBear Media "A fantastic collection ... A solid 5 star rating." --Joshua Guillion, AdventureAWeek.com "An amazing collection ... from some of the best designers and writers creating role-playing game material today." --Brian Fitzpatrick, BlogCritics.org

Download or read book Collaborative Worldbuilding for Writers and Gamers written by Trent Hergenrader and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The digital technologies of the 21st century are reshaping how we experience storytelling. More than ever before, storylines from the world's most popular narratives cross from the pages of books to the movie theatre, to our television screens and in comic books series. Plots intersect and intertwine, allowing audiences many different entry points to the narratives. In this sometimes bewildering array of stories across media, one thing binds them together: their large-scale fictional world. Collaborative Worldbuilding for Writers and Gamers describes how writers can co-create vast worlds for use as common settings for their own stories. Using the worlds of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, A Game of Thrones, and Dungeons & Dragons as models, this book guides readers through a step-by-step process of building sprawling fictional worlds complete with competing social forces that have complex histories and yet are always evolving. It also shows readers how to populate a catalog with hundreds of unique people, places, and things that grow organically from their world, which become a rich repository of story making potential. The companion website collaborativeworldbuilding.com features links to online resources, past worldbuilding projects, and an innovative card system designed to work with this book.

Download or read book Worldbuilding For Fantasy Fans And Authors written by M D Presley and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-08 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Worlds can exist without stories, but fantasy stories cannot exist without a vibrant and enthralling world. But what makes a good fantasy world? Be you a top-down planner, a bottom-up pantser, or a fantasy fan experiencing the worldbuilding from the inside-out, this comprehensive guide has you covered. Adopting a "tools not rules" approach, you will discover dozens of worldbuilding strategies, including: Ineffective, effective, and inspired worldbuilding. Designing comprehensive magic systems. The four Cs of worldbuilding and how to use them. The ins and outs of immersion. Enhancing the audience experience with fantasy conceits. Also featuring: Case studies from famous worldbuilders. Map design 101. Survey results showing what audiences want. Answers to these questions and more were once scattered throughout the realms, but have finally been compiled and synthesized for fantasy fans and authors alike.

Download or read book The Language Construction Kit written by Mark Rosenfelder and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to creating realistic languages for RPGs, fantasy and science fiction, movies or video games, or international communication... or just an unusual way to learn about how languages work.

Download or read book Your Best Game Ever written by Monte Cook and published by . This book was released on 2019-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Collaborative Worldbuilding for Video Games written by Kaitlin Tremblay and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2023-03-08 with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a theoretical and practical deep dive into the craft of worldbuilding for video games, with an explicit focus on how different job disciplines contribute to worldbuilding. In addition to providing lenses for recognizing the various components in creating fictional and digital worlds, the author positions worldbuilding as a reciprocal and dynamic process, a process which acknowledges that worldbuilding is both created by and instrumental in the design of narrative, gameplay, art, audio, and more. Collaborative Worldbuilding for Video Games encourages mutual respect and collaboration among teams and provides game writers and narrative designers tools for effectively incorporating other job roles into their own worldbuilding practice and vice versa. Features: Provides in-depth exploration of worldbuilding via respective job disciplines Deep dives and case studies into a variety of games, both AAA and indie Includes boxed articles for deeper interrogation and exploration of key ideas Contains templates and checklists for practical tips on worldbuilding

Download or read book Cinema as a Worldbuilding Machine in the Digital Era written by Alain Boillat and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-03 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This essay examines the primacy of worldbuilding in the age of CGI, transmedia practices and "high concept" fiction by studying the principles that govern the creation of a multiverse in a wide range of film and TV productions. Emphasis is placed on Hollywood sci-fi movies and their on-screen representation of imaginary machines that mirror the film medium, following in the tradition of Philip K. Dick's writings and the cyberpunk culture. A typology of worlds is established, as well as a number of analytical tools for assessing the impact of the coexistence of two or more worlds on the narrative structure, the style (uses of color, editing practices), the generic affiliation (or hybridity), the seriality and the discourse produced by a given film (particularly in fictions linked to post-9/11 fantasies). Among the various titles examined, the reader is offered a detailed analysis of the Resident Evil film series, Total Recall and its remake, Dark City, the Matrix trilogy, Avatar, Source Code and other time-loop films, TRON and its sequel, Christopher Nolan's Tenet, and several TV shows – most notably HBO's Westworld, but also Sliders, Lost, Fringe and Counterpart.

Download or read book Ultima and Worldbuilding in the Computer Role Playing Game written by Carly A. Kocurek and published by Amherst College Press. This book was released on 2024-04-09 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ultima and World-Building in the Computer Role-Playing Game is the first scholarly book to focus exclusively on the long-running Ultima series of computer role-playing games (RPG) and to assess its lasting impact on the RPG genre and video game industry. Through archival and popular media sources, examinations of fan communities, and the game itself, this book historicizes the games and their authors. By attending to the salient moments and sites of game creation throughout the series’ storied past, authors Carly A. Kocurek and Matthew Thomas Payne detail the creative choices and structural forces that brought Ultima’s celebrated brand of role-playing to fruition. This book first considers the contributions of series founder and lead designer, Richard Garriott, examining how his fame and notoriety as a pioneering computer game auteur shaped Ultima’s reception and paved the way for the evolution of the series. Next, the authors retrace the steps that Garriott took in fusing analog, tabletop role-playing with his self-taught lessons in computer programming. Close textual analyses of Ultima I outline how its gameplay elements offered a foundational framework for subsequent innovations in design and storytelling. Moving beyond the game itself, the authors assess how marketing materials and physical collectibles amplified its immersive hold and how the series’ legions of fans have preserved the series. Game designers, long-time gamers, and fans will enjoy digging into the games’ production history and mechanics while media studies and game scholars will find Ultima and World-Building in the Computer Role-Playing Game a useful extension of inquiry into authorship, media history, and the role of fantasy in computer game design.

Download or read book Visual Worldbuilding in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons Watchmen written by Dominik Seufer and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2023-12-07 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bachelor Thesis from the year 2023 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,3, University of Stuttgart (Institut für Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literaturen), course: American Superhero Comics, language: English, abstract: The bachelor thesis "Visual Worldbuilding in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen" takes a close look at graphic novel's visual motifs, visual settings, real-world references. It examines how they enhance the story's characters, plot development, and major themes. It furthermore analyzes the graphic novel's high level of detail and meticulous world-building through text and visuals. From the Avengers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe through The Boys on Amazon Prime Video to the DC League of Super-Pets – today, superheroes in any shape or form rule the entertainment industry. Throughout the past few years, movie programs and box offices around the world have been dominated by superhero movies, countless seasons of superhero TV series have been binged by millions every week, and innumerable superhero-related merchandise items have been sold to children and adults alike. Unfazed by a predominantly digitalized world, even the superhero comic book and graphic novel industry has been steadily growing and is projected to continue doing so ("Comic Book Sales"). Historically, there is one comic that is considered to have set the tone and pave the way for the genre's development and status of today: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen – a twelve-issue limited series published monthly by DC Comics between 1986 and 1987 and merged later into a single graphic novel in 1987. According to the BBC, the release of Watchmen was the "moment comic books grew up" and when the public's views on the art form "changed" (Barber). Watchmen's status as a revolutionary piece of literature is further perpetuated in TIME magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923. There, Watchmen sticks out as the stand-alone graphic novel being listed among literary classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Animal Farm, and Lord of the Flies (Grossman). In any case, Watchmen's spot on the list is justified because the graphic novel is not a classic good-versus-evil, superhero-versus-villain comic story but rather a hybridity of genres that includes characteristics such as those of a murder mystery and detective story while incorporating elements of science fiction, dystopian fiction, and psychological realism. Moreover, writer Alan Moore created 'superhero' characters that are not impeccable, morally upright, and two-dimensional, but rather three-dimensional characters with flawed personalities and personal problems.

Download or read book The Game Narrative Toolbox written by Tobias Heussner and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2015-06-05 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to create compelling game storylines. Four experienced narrative designers from different genres of game development have banded together to create this all-inclusive guide on what it's like to work as a writer and narrative designer in the videogame industry. From concept to final testing, The Game Narrative Toolbox walks readers through what role a narrative designer plays on a development team and what the requirements are at every stage of development. Drawing on real experiences, authors Tobias Heussner, Toiya Finley, Ann Lemay, and Jennifer Hepler provide invaluable advice for writing compelling player-centered stories and effective dialogue trees in order to help readers make the switch from prose- or screen- writing to interactive. Accompanying every chapter are exercises that allow the reader to develop their own documentation, outlines, and game-dialogue samples for use in applying for industry jobs or developing independent projects. This first installment of Focal Press's Game Design Workshops series is a must-have for individuals looking to create captivating storylines for games.

Download or read book World Builders on World Building written by Mark J.P. Wolf and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With contributions from a distinguished group of world-builders, including academics, writers, and designers, this anthology of essays describes the process and discusses the nature of subcreation and the construction of worlds. From Oz to MUD, Walden to Rockall, all the worlds featured in this volume share one thing in common: they began in someone’s imagination, grew from there, and became worlds built with the assistance of multiple authors and a variety of different ideas and media, including designs, imagery, sound, music, stories, and more. The book examines this development, with examples and discussions pertaining to the process and the final product of the building of imaginary worlds, including some transmedial worlds. World-Builders on World-Building is a fascinating deep dive into the practical problems of world-building as well as its theoretical aspects. It is ideal for students, scholars, and even practitioners interested in media studies, game studies, subcreation studies, franchise studies, transmedia studies, and pop culture.

Download or read book Patricia A McKillip and the Art of Fantasy World Building written by Audrey Isabel Taylor and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From wondrous fairy-lands to nightmarish hellscapes, the elements that make fantasy worlds come alive also invite their exploration. This first book-length study of critically acclaimed novelist Patricia A. McKillip's lyrical other-worlds analyzes her characters, environments and legends and their interplay with genre expectations. The author gives long overdue critical attention to McKillip's work and demonstrates how a broader understanding of world-building enables a deeper appreciation of her fantasies.

Download or read book World Building and the Early Modern Imagination written by A. Kavey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-09-27 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The early modern period was rife with attempts to re-imagine the world and the human place within it. This volume looks at natural philosophers, playwrights, historians, and other figures in the period 1500-1700 as a means of accessing the plethora of world models that circulated in Europe during this era.

Download or read book How to Map Your World written by A Trevena and published by Maythorne Press. This book was released on 2023-04-17 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Want to create a fantasy landscape that feels real and immersive? Need help drafting a map that enriches the experience of your world? How to Map Your World breaks the process down into easy-to-follow steps. By completing a series of creative prompts, this book will show you how to map out an engaging world full of stories and adventure. This workbook will help you to: - Lay out your world in a way that complements your story - Use hints and plot hooks in your map to entice your readers - Find surprise stories and inspiration in your landscape - Draw an attractive world map that reinforces your worldbuilding Work your way through the creation of a map that hooks and intrigues your readers, leading them deep into the world of your story. Learn simple methods for drawing landscape details from mountains to coastlines, and how to put them together in a finished world map. Get How to Map Your World today, and become the cartographer of your own world.

Download or read book Storytelling Futures written by Egbert van Wyngaarden and published by epubli. This book was released on 2023-10-25 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's "Code Red" for humanity. How do the media respond to that? This book is for anyone who's interested in using storytelling and media with the aim to shape desirable futures for humanity and all other forms of life on Earth. We're facing a host of serious, global, complex, entangled problems. Nuclear weapons, runaway technology, indestructible waste, resource depletion, overpopulation, pandemics, radicalization, species extinction, ecosystem loss, climate change. It's breathtaking, life-threatening and truly existential. How can anyone look such challenges in the eye without feeling desperate? If humans are the cause of these problems, being as inventive and ambitious as we are, we can also solve them. It's being tried, with some positive effects. But that is not enough. The obstacle seems to be less of a practical nature than a matter of awareness. It's our collective incapacity to feel and act according to what is genuinely beneficial for us and the world we're part of. Humanity lacks a vision of what a livable future – pluralistic livable futures – could look like. There are hardly any convincing, aspirational myths for people to root for. More often than not, stories about tomorrow are dystopias. In the hour of danger our imagination fails us. This is not accidental. It's critical. There is no longer any doubt that we'll only be able to survive on this planet if we radically change our way of life, our economies, our societies. To achieve this, stories and media need to lead the way. We must get better at working with probable, possible and desirable futures. This would be a useful skill for anyone. It's a duty for all those who shape and create realities in the media. As journalists, writers, filmmakers, game designers or XR-creators we can present what we care about to many different audiences. We reach people. We touch them. Our projects can be starting points for collective sensemaking and inspire citizens to become agents of change.