Creating a Great Fantasy World

As part of the Contextual Studies area of our course we were asked to create a well researched presentation "Creating Coherent Game Worlds". The brief is deliberately vague in order to explore a variety of topics within this area, from the pedantically specific to the frustratingly vague. I decided to take a more literal view of the brief. I chose to look at how great fantasy worlds are created.

First let me define a fantasy world. It is a world that is made up and completely fictional. It is based neither in faith or science, although many would argue that the former is a form of fantasy. This would exclude worlds like that of Star Trek (Roddenberry, 1966) and Blade Runner (Scott, 1982) since they are loose interpretation or even hopes of what lies in store for the human race and is based around technology or research that actually exists. I would also say that a fantasy world can exist within an interpretation or perspective of the real world, the world of Harry Potter (Rowling, 1995) does this. I also want to point out that fantasy is now mistakenly defined as a world in a medieval type era with dragons, elves, dwarves and goblins. These are just reinterpretations of Tolkien's universe. Not to say they do not have their own original elements and are not unique worlds in their own right, but i do not think they are great. They follow a "tried and true" formula based on how Tolkien created his world, Middle Earth, and, although it works, any creator of an original world not based on Tolkiens' is usually using a different skill set and approach.
Now, how am I defining a "great" fantasy world? What right do I have to do that? How dare I! Well for the sake of the presentation I am defining a "Great Fantasy World" as a world that has been brought into the trans-media and has been enjoyed in one form or another by millions of people.
Although the presentation must relate to games in some way, it is more than a little difficult finding out how the creators of the game actually came up with the elaborate fictions behind the game. This is partially because they are rarely created by one person, and partially because games developers are often very secretive about their methods. So despite some serious searching, I found that there is no reference to how the world Tamriel from the Elder Scrolls series (Bethesda, 1994) was made. As such I have looked at how worlds from other media have been created and, I believe, the same essential process applies. I will try to prove this through a practical experiment later on.
I have chosen four worlds, along with their sole creators, to examine. I chose:

• The world of Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• Middle Earth  by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Pandora by James Cameron*
• The Star Wars Universe by George Lucas

With these artists and worlds in mind I decided to figure out what they all have that could explain their success. A formula of sorts. I found that they all seemed to share a few specific traits. Although a lack of information at some points leads me to make occasional leaps of faith, I do think there could be something to this. I want to go through the traits one by one and give examples from the four selected worlds.

*It could, quite rightly, be argued that Avatar  is at least partly Science Fiction. This is true, but Pandora itself is completely fictional. In fact it is astromically unlikely that life on another planet will be anywhere near as close to our own planet that I feel justified in saying that Pandora is a fantasy world created for the sole purpose of telling the story. Nothing native to the planet itself is based on a scientific prediction of the future. 
Personal Major Purpose (The Drive)
This is the creator's own personal reason for creating the world. This is, perhaps, the most important of all of the traits as it is likely, without this, the other traits wouldn't exist. This is the drive that drives the individual to create the world. Although these are often channeled into the next trait (The Representation), in order to give the idea structure and marketability. When it is a team responsible for the worlds creation, as it usually would be in games, this could easily be translated into a philosophy that all or most of the team is happy to take on. Although, even if a team leader isn't chosen, one person usually naturally assumes this role. This person tends to act as a conductor of the vision. I would imagine they have their own drives for this. Many of the better worlds are driven by a sort of nostalgia. I desire to bring back something they experienced, often as children.
Examples of this principle can be found as follows:

• Tolkien was very keen in creating a mythology for England since most of ours were lost in the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman invasions. He was very fond of Scandinavian folklore and wanted England to have it's own, complete with heroic sagas. His saga was Lord of the Rings (Tolkien, 1954).
• Rowling seems evidently to be trying to redeem her childhood, with all of the things she didn't have as a child. This can be seen partially through the over use of good father figures in the Harry Potter potter novels (Rowling, 1995) due to a lack of a good father figure.
• As opposed to Rowling, Cameron seems to have more of a drive to recreate his childhood, or elements of it, as it was. He was very fond of science fiction and the study of nature from a very young age and wanted to recreate that feeling of curiosity and wonder in his recent CG marvel, Avatar (Cameron, 2009).
• George Lucas was often quoted as saying he was "creating the films he wanted to see". He wanted to see a contemporary Flash Gordon-esque space adventure that he enjoyed watching when he was younger in the Star Wars saga (Lucas, 1977).

Public Minor Purpose (The Representation)
This is the world's primary purpose, before translation into other media. This is both the media it is initially represented in itself and something that they want to translate to the audience. This could be a perspective on morality, a simple message or even just an experience. This is how the artist(s) want the audience to see their world.
Examples could be as follows:

• Tolkien wanted a heroic saga, which he felt was lacking in contemporary culture. He wrote this as Lord of the Rings, which he filled with his own messages and experience that formed his view of good and evil. The book even contains very strong and obvious environmental messages. 
• Rowling wanted to, and succeeded in, creating a world children could get completely and utterly lost in. A world they felt they could and were a part of. Again, there is a definite personal view of good and evil that is apparent in the book. A view that is perhaps a little more contemporary than the Tolkien's.
• Cameron has stated that he wanted to push the limits of special effects technology and artistic achievement to the limits with Avatar. Cameron also has quite obvious messages about environmentalism and the preservation of culture built into the film.
• Lucas, similar to Tolkien, look heavily to mythology and religious stories from all cultures to adopt a Joseph Campbell-like "Hero's Journey" that would appeal to a huge range of audiences. It holds almost Buddhist principles of losing your sense of self for the good of others and purity of the mind.

 The Building Blocks (The Passion)
This is usually the personal passions and pursuits of the artist creating the world. When creating a world of usually large proportions, the parts of the world that will be the greatest in depth will naturally be the parts that the creator has the most interest in. This is, after all, their world, no matter how much hardcore fans may try to adopt it as their own. This could be anything from painting to a love of warm woolen mittens. The creators also often use their own experiences to form the world's moral system, an often under appreciated part of any game world.
Examples of this include:

• Many of the languages of Middle Earth were created long before Middle Earth existed. Tolkien had always loved languages and often made his own. He would often, in fact, create the names first, often from Old English or Flemish origin, and then build a story around it. Tolkien also based Hobbits off of the rustic people of Oxfordshire. This was his interpretation of what is good and pure in the world, somewhat Amish as it may be. Tolkien also put many of his experiences of the war and love of nature from childhood into his world. The fires of industry, run by powerful destructive leaders who are both charismatic and illusive, burning down the forests is not a hard message to translate.
• As opposed to Tolkien, who often created landscapes with more character than the characters, Rowling had an obvious love of people and their personalities despite her introverted nature. All of the figures in her books are all unique and believable. They make you feel exactly as you she would want you to. This is because they were all based off of people she knew or people she would liked to have known.  She also had a love of classic and contemporary literature. Including works like the Illiad (Homer, 1260 - 1240bc), The Wind in the Willows (Grahame, 1908) and the Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis, 1950). 
• Cameron took much of his inspiration from his love of science and nature he had as a child and pursued as an adult. Between the making of the Titanic (Cameron, 1997) and Avatar, Cameron spent time experience the space program in Russia and in submersibles looking at the deep sea floor for new, weird and wonderful forms of life; many of which must have inspired the world of Avatar. Cameron also has a love of special effects and film-making (surprisingly...). This is what ultimately led him to "push the boundaries" to create Avatar.
• Lucas shows a great love of films. One of the most notable influences is from Japanese director Kurosawa. Kurosawa's film "The Hidden Fortress" we find that the plot is remarkably similar to Star Wars and two mischievous characters that very clearly influenced C3PO and R2D2. We also find the old Flash Gordon films to be a big influence on Lucas. 

 The Details
 This is crucial for a world to hold attention for long enough to be great over a long period of time and be able to be translated to other media. All of the worlds I have mentioned have a painstaking amount of detail in them that gives the audience a crystal clear image of what that world is like. Even something as simple as a map (an almost essential inclusion to any fantasy world) can give the audience a much clearer view of the world they are or will soon be losing themselves in. Even when the details aren't shown in their completion in the primary media, it often shows that the creator knows them by the casual mention of an element that just sounds right.
Examples:

• Tolkien's keen eye for detail shows most in his maps and appendices. In the Lord of the Rings appendices, Tolkien goes into family trees, alphabets and general histories and meanwhiles that would have otherwise been completely left out of the story. Tolkien spent much of his remaining life working on The Silmarillion, which is still unfinished. This book detailed what happened before and after the Lord of the Rings. Even in its unfinished form, it provides a rich source of information for fans wanting to know more about this deep, amazing and fantastic world. 
• Rowling has literally volume upon volume of information about the Harry Potter world that was never used in the book. The vast majority of which has not been released. She has, however, released several books with a little of this information, such as The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Rowling, 2007), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Rowling 2001) and Quidditch Throught the Ages (Rowling, 2001). A recent resource for some of this information can also be found at Pottermore.com. Her knowledge of the world she created really does show in her books however, even if it's just through a casual book quote that you know is cut from a much larger piece of text. 
•  Although Cameron had a huge team of writers and artists at his side to help him, this does not make his details of Pandora any less important to the audience. In fact, you know that every cg and concept artist will have come up with their own story for each and every plant and animal they spent tens of hours developing. This is obvious in the beauty of the enviroment of Pandora. There is also the Pandorapedia.com which is apparently a simplified version of a much larger tome.
• Lucas, again, did not necessarily write the entire mythology behind the entire Star Wars universe, but that does not make it any less special. Even if what was previously canon is changed or ignored if the film series requires it. The expanded universe is a major part of the Star Wars franchise and has sold many books based on this (sort of) canon made mostly by "licensed" fans. 

The Ground
 The Ground is something, anything that the audience can relate to. This is what really connects them to the world. This can be done with themes, characters, settings or all of the above. Although this is an obvious point that even the most amateur artist will put into their world without thinking, there is a risk that there is a risk of having a world so alien that the audience simply cannot relate. Despite the fact that most people will put in some ground, it still takes skill to have a good ground that really pulls the player into the world.
Examples of such skill are:

•    Despite including many different races to inhabit Middle Earth, they all represent certain types of people and are all easily related to. Tolkien also uses vividly painted descriptions of the landscapes. These make the fantasy elements such as the living trees, the ents, almost a metaphor for a feeling you might get when in a forest. One of the most relatable elements Tolkien uses is his themes. Overcoming evil and temptation, nature over industry and simplicity and adventure isn't always a bad thing. 
• Rowling, quite ingeniously, has a world hidden within our own. She plants the idea that anyone of use may be a wizard, somehow special and seperate from everyone else. This is a great way to pull children into her world. Her characters are superbly written to match people the audience would really love to know or, maybe, already know in a sense. Again, she uses a battle against evil as another ground, something we can all, in some sense, relate to. The "coming of age" element is also especially relevant to her readers since many who read the original book as children will have been young adults by the time the last book came out. 
• Cameron bases almost all of Pandora on some element of the real world. The jungles are very similar in structure to jungles on earth (minus the bio-luminescence). The Na'Vi, the native race to Pandora are also humanoid and have a culture very similar to those we see in certain tribes on earth. Again, Cameron's world preaches environmentalism and the preservation of culture. Nature over Industry.
• Lucas' main characters are main characters are almost exclusively human, those that are not have very human personalities and traits. Although many of the environments are very different to those we might find on earth, such as the Cloud City or the Death Star they are painted or otherwise represented in a way that makes it obvious what it is like and what it feels like to be there. Yet again Lucas's main groundings are in the themes. The films teach selflessness and courage over hatred and anger. Lucas uses the "Hero's Journey" to pull the audience in with a plot structure that has been used for literally thousands of years by cultures all over the world. 

As explained previously, it is extremely difficult to find out the individual motivations of games designers in creating their fantasy worlds. I believe they are solely to create a worlds that works with the game. More and more now games developers hire writers to create these worlds, however, which means they are becoming more and more unique. I think, however, very few have reached this many people and been translated to other media quite as successfully, although many have tried. I think that these methods are just as easily applied to the process of creating worlds for games as any of these other media.