For anyone who hasn't been following, we're currently looking at narrative structures and how it applies to gaming; but more importantly, we're looking at every aspect of story telling, fleshing it out, and helping you along your way to compiling the best tale to push through the game you've worked so hard to code.

In the previous instalment, we took a gander at the actual structure of a story – the series of events that happen from beginning, middle and to the end. Now we have a pretty stable idea of where our story is going to take us and what is going to happen along the way; but now we need to go a bit deeper and make sense of the world that this story takes place in.

The way the world works

The world deals with WHERE the story takes place in the game

The world you exist in is one of the biggest determining forces that shape the story of your life; it determines the people that exist in the world, the way that they speak, the history that shapes their current circumstances and the places that they visit. A story can be replicated and repeated, but as long as it takes place in a unique a world each time, the results will be completely different.

To break it down into easier parts to understand, we'll look at the world's geography, economy, history, politics and finally, science!

Geography

The first and most obvious aspect of the world you create is how it will look. Note that 'world' doesn't necessarily equate to 'planet', but rather to the environment in which the story takes place. Basically you need to think about the physicality of everything; landscapes, cities, monuments, ruins and the like. Think water worlds, space stations, jungles, metropolitan cities filled with skyscrapers – any place that shapes the world and the characters that the story follows.

Economy

While not applicable to many games in itself, the economy is an important factor to the world (and may even serve as motivations for some story arcs). Mainly, however, this component of the world is usually reserved for the story's placement in time (you'll be familiar with 'old' setting using gold and 'future' settings using credits, for instance).

History

What came before the story serves as explanation for where your characters are coming from. From war-torn countries looking for revenge against oppressors of the past; to explanations for geographical features such as craters (meteorite? crashed ship?). All of these things determine where your world is at in the present.

Politics

For those who don't know, politics isn't exactly Obama-esque rallying to the core; in fact, it has more to do with the people in the world and how they operate in relation to their world. In this instance, we'll consider their appearance to be a part of that as well. How people (if they are people) look, and interact, is all determined by the aforementioned components of the world – but this in itself, impacts on the story you're trying to tell.

Science

Contrary to popular belief, the story that you're trying to tell doesn't have to comply with the rules of physics as we understand them. In fact, you're free to create a whole new set of rules if you feel like it. Breathing underwater? No problem. Shooting flames from your palms? Any day! The science of your world is up to you, but remember, the rules you create should make sense according to the world they take place in.

Now that we've got a brief break down of the world, let's see how it's applied.