Create A World Wiki

Gameplay and World Building


Introduction[]

Sometimes world builders forget that they are building for a game. It is easy for a creator to let the joys of making something original overwhelm their focus on providing for an audience. Creators can forget that, if they take their project seriously, they are also responsible for making their world into a really great gameplay environment. Building worlds for The Sims 3 is a form of level design, and with that in mind it demands similar values from creators - they must give serious thought to the flow and fun of the gameplay for users.

The creator can ask themself a series of questions such as:

How long does it take to get from one place to another? Too long?
What kind of atmosphere does this place evoke? How is a user affected by the sounds and sights?
Is the world thematically consistent?
Is the world cluttered? Too empty?
Do the weather patterns make sense for this world (eg, should I learn to make it overcast more often)?
Does the lighting seem appropriate to the world (eg, soft lighting for a fairy world, or dark for a vampiric one)?
Would this world benefit from a different water colour (eg, swamp brown, or lava orange)?
Can I add additional gameplay elements to this world somehow?

Creators should be able to answer and address all of these questions and more.

[Under construction... More soon]