I had my progress presentation yesterday on Thursday where I delivered my PowerPoint of what my idea is as well as what i’ve done (which is mentioned in the post before this)
Overall the feedback was good but there was some confusion over the dissertation which was fair enough as i’m not that 100% on it either, perhaps a shift is needed away from the mechanics side and more to the limitations and processes of actually worldbuilding for games
On the dissertation
- -Is it really about mechanics? Maybe more about limitations of the game and how it affects worldbuilding rather than mechanics itself
- -Focus more on the worldbuilding aspect? How does the history, social constructs, culture etc at the time period influence the world i’m making?
- -How do I implement and cultivate historical interactions in the world -> this goes essentially to: how do I set up an interesting and tense introduction when the players start
On the EU4 mod idea
- -Good idea to narrow scope to making a fleshed up vertical slice (equivalent of Europe size in EU4 than the entire world)
- -Very dense presentation (for a dense game!) but good that there’s actual quantifiable progress rather than just theory and ideas
Random notes and next steps
- -Look into Video Games Set in the Middle Ages Academic Article by Cesar San Nicolas Romera
- -Do some actual research on Europe in 1444 to see what the political mood is and how it can influence my setting’s political mood + maybe see how fuedal systems work (I mean I already know but a post explaining it will help) – Lorent in my world has a lot of vassals and is a powerful decentralized realm
- -Look into Narrative Designer processes, reach out to them possible
- -Get more Academic Resources from Abertay Library (eg, search Worldbuilding)
- -EU4 taught more about geography and history than reading books ever did: can it translate to teaching someone about my world?
- -On Limitations affecting Worldbuilding, the game is about owning provinces and filling out your map borders with your color – you have to consider making the map look good visually so this will influence the setting meaning “Lorent owns this now so the borders look better, or Lorent’s name shows up better on the map, etc” (though bordergore was realistic so…)
Here’s a link to my PowerPoint: