Making a map behave like a place: lessons from a cultivation game devlog

A devlog on DEV Community by IdleCultivation, who is making the free browser game Myriad Immortal Sect, has some ideas that translate well to worldbuilding in general. The author felt the overworld worked but still looked like a character sliding over a backdrop, and describes four changes that made it feel like a place.

First, interaction range became a stat. The distance for gathering herbs or talking to people used to be a fixed constant; now it derives from a cultivation attribute, so stronger characters can reach farther. Second, beasts now roam within their territories instead of sitting at spawn points, so the land between sects feels occupied. Third, navigation points rather than guides: an in-world lamp indicates direction, and players still read the terrain themselves.

The fourth idea is the one I liked most. Flight unlocks partway through the game, but the first version had everyone fly on a sword, so all six sects looked the same. Now each sect has its own method. A disciple of the Medicine King Valley flies on a glowing cauldron, for instance. Flight has rules too: a sect's great shield blocks walking but can be flown over, and staying airborne drains energy.

The takeaway is that a sense of place comes from behavior, from what responds to you and what moves when you are not watching, rather than from visual tricks. For anyone inventing a world for fiction or a tabletop game, that is a useful reminder to ask how each culture and region acts differently, not only how it looks.

Source: DEV Community