4 Amazing Stories with Soft Worldbuilding [ Lovecraft | Hollow Knight | Nier | Dark Souls ]

Remember to vote! WANT ON WRITING AND WORLDBUILDING VOLUME I?tinyurl.com/y5mwpyyj
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0:00 Soft worldbuilding!
0:50 On Writing and Worldbuilding Vol II! VOTE FOR A COVER
1:53 What is 'hard' worldbuilding?
2:50 What is 'soft' worldbuilding?
3:58 Cthulhu and Lovecraft
10:00 Hollow Knight!
13:15 Nier: Automata
17:00 Dark Souls
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Tim Hickson
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Tim

[@HelloFutureMe]

Which cover concept are YOU voting for? *On Writing and Worldbuilding: Volume II* at last! *CORRECTION* I mention there's no drainage in the City of Tears. There's the Royal Waterways, sorry! I just think it's beautiful how Hollow Knight uses the unknown and unexplained in creating its world. ~ Tim

[@QuiteBearish]

Definitely the second one with the broken arch. That one really does it for me. I want to know more about what happened there.

[@turma8eac]

Option 1 Both are great but something about option 1 just resonated with me

[@caedo7090]

I'm so glad you've finally brought Hollow knight justice! And no problem you forgot waterways, the game is massive, but I may have not been playing close attention, but how do I vote again?

[@moonblossom9433]

I prefer option 2 I like the color scheme better, it feels more magical and mysterious, although I'll say this about option 1 just the simple fact that it has the person standing there might make it a better choice for a book about story telling, to me it makes it feel more like it's a part of a story not just a pretty picture, it makes me wonder about the adventure that person is on.

[@darrenflavelle1845]

Option 2!

[@lonelylilith6669]

"What do Lovecraft, Hollow Knight, Nier Automata and Dark Souls have in common?" Answer: Existential dread and stress.

[@gabrieldossantos1116]

I mean... Yeah. So in order to do a soft world building I need to pump up a lot of existencial dread. That surely will work well with my angel romance lmfao

[@jazzar23]

@@gabrieldossantos1116 While I see your joking, I feel it's probably fair to say it's more like "If i want to create a sense of existential dread a soft worldbuilt setting lends itself well to that"

[@gabrieldossantos1116]

@@jazzar23 Yeah, agreed. Dark Souls and Hollow Night always made feel that, like I'm lost in a strange world that doesn't even care if I'm there. In dark souls you literally has to figure out thing on your own, no one tells you what you're supposed to do, which areas you're supposed to explore first, what do you need to do to unlock a certain path. You feel lost. And that works so damn well with the whole "ruined world" thing.

[@lonelylilith6669]

One of the things I feel add to existential dread is the feeling of powerlessness. It doesn't have to be some ancient god, it could be an illness slowly claiming you that you can't do anything about or slowly starving to death, having to watch yourself turn to skin and bones.

[@Deadflower20xx]

@@lonelylilith6669 It's funny because the games where you feel most powerless, like Silent Hill or Resident Evil, you actually are a pretty important character in the grand scheme of the story. And then in games like Dark Souls and Nier you feel like an unstoppable badass by the end but in the story you're basically a tiny cog in some kind of endless cycle.

[@edwardreed67]

Lovecraft: "It was indescribable!" Also Lovecraft: *spends 2 pages describing it.*

[@lonelylilith6669]

Correction: 10 pages because that man describes a lot-

[@dracosfire7247]

@@lonelylilith6669 The guy described more than Tolkien

[@lonelylilith6669]

@@dracosfire7247 It was so indescribable, it took about 37 pages to get his point across.

[@TheCardq]

I htink the point was that teh multi page description was ultimately inadequate. Not that I've read any of hit works.

[@elpretender1357]

Modern creepypastas keep doing that crap to this day and I absolutely hate it.

[@Pearlem]

I believe yoko taro has said he doesn’t care about plot or cohesiveness when he writes a story. He gets an idea for an emotional beat and he builds everything around how to get to it.

[@beefedcorn]

THIGHS

[@Stryfe52]

@@beefedcorn HIGH HEELS

[@yaruyaru]

@@Stryfe52 AND A LOT OF TEARS

[@xxedgy_outsiderxx9978]

love that way to write

[@Z.O.M.G]

Man he should have written a book or directed an animated series instead of a game. I didn't finish Nier, I quit because the gameplay was really boring and not that satisfying in my opinion (and because the hacking minigame controls are broken on PC). I imagine he could have emphisised the story if he didn't have to also make a game around it

[@Romalac]

"[The City of Tears] has no clear drainage system." The Royal Waterways, which are shown to drain at least partly into the Fungal Wastes: "You wound me, sir." In seriousness, Hollow Knight's worldbuilding is definitely overall soft, but I think it's _harder_ than many soft systems, which is likely what draws me to it as a hard worldbuilder.

[@HelloFutureMe]

Yep sorry that was a mistake of mine! Though I was told they were sewers, technically, so my brain missed them. I do agree it's still soft - they have a cunning use of the unknown and unexplained. ~ Tim

[@zackrose2035]

@@brainderp808 The fact that it isn't explicitly told to us is why it's soft, someone had to piece it together and theorize.

[@lemonlordminecraft]

@@brainderp808 Did you watch the video lmao?

[@yeahkeen2905]

@@brainderp808 us knowing the story of Hollow Knight doesn’t mean it’s worldbuilding isn’t soft. That’s not how worldbuilding works. As long as information about the world is given in vague ways it’s soft. That’s Hollow Knight to a tee.

[@vizthex]

fuck man, Hollow Knight is so fucking good. god I need Silksong so badly.

[@metro6567]

"If you're immersed in a world, chances are someone else will be as well." Now there's some encouragement for any budding fantasy authors if ever I've heard it. Comment for the algorithm!!

[@princessthyemis]

Holy cow I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT!!!! I struggle with worldbuilding because I think I "have to" make it hard even though I love soft worldbuilding waaaay more. That's SO encouraging!!!!!

[@lonestarr1490]

@@princessthyemis Well, no one prevents you from knowing everything about your world. You just don't have to tell everything you know ;) I mean, that's part of the fascination, isn't it? Reading or experiencing a story that, every now and then, hints on something deeper, something more profound. And if those hints add up without contradicting each other, the puzzling might feel even more rewarding.

[@iwthewave3710]

@@princessthyemis Same. I love soft worldbuilding more, but I usually tend to do hard worldbuilding... idk why

[@scroletyper8286]

#foral

[@representativejoints1188]

Support

[@leakypeach6250]

Actually an interesting tidbit is that NieR: Automata's worldbuilding is soft, but a lot of the things that don't make sense are explained in side content. For example, the human structures that shouldn't exist or whose consistency doesn't make sense (i.e. the Medieval ruins or the city of apartment complexes) were built by androids after the events of NieR: Replicant. After realizing that humanity's extinction was now inevitable, the remaining androids (like Devola and Popola) looked for meaning elsewhere. One of those was to start a "restoration" service of sorts where they built human architecture (from history) to the best of their ability.

[@HelloFutureMe]

Now this is interesting! I missed that. Feel a bit dumb now, but I do agree it's still soft worldbuilding. The games still have a cunning use of the unknown, unrealistic, or unexplained, and often include things in their world just to make their stories hit harder. Yoko Taro is really brilliant with it. ~ Tim

[@leakypeach6250]

@@HelloFutureMe Don't worry about missing it lol. By side content, I mean Taro's tendency to put relevant lore in things as obscure as stage plays, orchestra performances, guide books, and untranslated novels. I legitimately don't know where this specific information came from, but a channel named BrandoSP makes heavily researched lore summaries for the NieR universe (including the mobile game). It's pretty interesting stuff, but basically anything that wasn't explained in the games can probably be found in external media.

[@blarblablarblar]

The separation is an important aspect, no? It works for those who are curious, and is unnecessary for anyone who chooses to simply accept things as presented.

[@dafaqu694]

@@blarblablarblar yes just like trivia, someone whose curious would like to know, but it's not quite necessary knowledge

[@idminister]

@@HelloFutureMe Another thing about videogames in general, is that would should always give a suspension of disbelief with regards to distance. Worlds are scaled because void/dead/negative space whilst realistic is boring for players. That is video game worlds work under compressed space. Even if a game uses zones which may represent great distance between them, a zone itself may represent distances between internal points of interest lore wise as being large even if on the map presented to the player they are rather close. Also have you experienced the story of FFXIV Feelsbringers? (shadowbringers)

[@strategicgamingwithaacorns2874]

"Uncanny Valley" [shows pic of Mark Zuckerberg] We see what you did there.

[@OneGhastlyGhoul]

Followed by "Ghouls" appearing right next to his head.

[@thomasmeta9500]

I can legit talk about the world of Dark Souls for hours, it's than incredible. Haven't confirmed, but apparently the director stated his reason for not being specific was that he grew up reading english novels he mostly understood, and had to fill in some details with his mind, which was a great experience he wanted to give to others

[@dafaqu694]

Wow I didn't know this, And is there any reasons for him to choose British accents? Or it's just sound cool to him so he decided to put British accent in most of his souls games?

[@thomasmeta9500]

@@dafaqu694 I honestly cant exactly remember where I hear it from, but hey, if that is the reason why there are so many british accents, could ya blame him?

[@dafaqu694]

@@thomasmeta9500 well I love British accent, so yeah I really love that part of the games

[@Calebgoblin]

Giving soft worldbuilding the representation and respect it deserves? Master has given us Bread

[@HelloFutureMe]

Eat well, my child. ~ Tim

[@kelasgre2830]

You can say that again! Softworldbuilding tends to be very underappreciated and even downplayed/attacked. I remember once seeing this criticism of a person's story where he was basically destroyed because the worldbuilding wasn't "consistent" to the historical period he was referencing. I mean, it's as if some people don't understand that the lack of a direct explanation doesn't mean the nonexistence of one.

[@princessthyemis]

Yesss! I LOOOOVE soft worldbuilding!!! Sanderson is nice but this deserves equal attention!!!

[@Romalac]

@@kelasgre2830 Interesting. I'm a hard worldbuilder, and I consistently come across the opposite issue, with people I talk to instinctively jumping to explanations being unnecessary and not needing to bother with the fine details. Unfortunately, with the way my mind and method works, _I_ need those things to feel satisfied with what I've made, and even if I don't end up telling the audience everything, I want what I *do* tell them to be consistent, and people I talk to seem baffled by that mindset. TL;DR- in my experience, hard worldbuilding is the unappreciated type.

[@DanielLopez-ob9jz]

@@Romalac it very much so depends on the crowd you're looking to please. People who read novels, especially fantasy are all over the description heavy stuff, whereas people who like stories in games tend to like soft worldbuilding better. Personally speaking I can appreciate both and am on a middleground for this one. If you want something to feel fantastical, I feel like you don't need to specifically need to explain everything for it to exist, explaining it in a sense can make said thing too familiar to a reader and no longer fantastical. there are things you definitely need to explain for stories as well. So there's definitely a fine line where you can do too much and too little imo.

[@josieundecided]

Rain World has to be one of the best examples of soft worldbuilding. Everything is designed to make you feel small, to make you feel just as helpless to the whims of nature as Lovecraft. Your only goal is to survive. And then as the game goes on and you explored the teeming, overgrown ruins of machines and subsystems the game shifts from a feeling of pure survival to a religious experience, grappling with themes of rebirth, of neverending cycles, of an unwanted eternity. It's such a good game, I wish it saw more screen time than it has.

[@robbieking4070]

I feel the same way about Subnautica.

[@firox6559]

I agree! I especially love how (outside of a few button prompts/menus and like 3 npc's) there is no readable text in the game. I'm amazed how much you can learn from so few words, relying entirely on the gorgeous environments. Definitely one of my favorite games for its visuals and atmosphere.

[@Guacamakis]

Absolutely! Rain World is one of my favorite games ever made, I think it's brilliant, if not a bit frustrating at times (that's kind of the point tho so...)

[@iselwyr5411]

It's good to see Rain World get some love, your comment made me smile friend. Thank you for it!

[@DaydreamOrca]

I love that Rain world puts you on the weaker part of the food chain and that predator encounters are completely overpowered, but there is a beautiful zen. In the ruins of Ancient South East Asian civilizations we can see a similar zen. Tigers roll around as monkeys play around the ruins and rain world captures this same balance. A monkey loses its grip and sometimes falls into the tigers jaws and other times it's slips away. Accepting death as a normal occurrence in your runs will allow you to progress when wasting your time avoiding predators will only close the weather cycle down upon you harder bringing apocalyptic rain. The environment is also closely tied to biology, and by killing an apex predator in a location you risk something more deadly claiming the territory.

[@eyupylmaz9813]

Describes hard worldbuilding, uses scenes from LOTR and says "The most famous example you're probably familiar with is Game of Thrones." Why must you hurt me, in this way?

[@carlosroo5460]

It's tough love.

[@tonyknighton4019]

Ouch indeed.

[@FrshChees91]

He probably wanted to use an example of something that did it well and then flushed it down the toilet.

[@nathancarter8239]

"What do Lovecraft, Hollow Knight, NieR:Automota and Dark Souls all have in common?" Depressing as shit, bro. Next question.

[@whatever2045]

Big shout-out to Hollow Knight. Such an amazing game from story, music and gameplay perspectives! It just does everything correctly.

[@soopjoos5952]

Definitely my favorite game ever. I beat it to 112%. Only thing I have left is P5

[@barbecuesos6242]

Same, I picked the game up last summer and it's probs the most immersive game I've ever played

[@Ismael-kc3ry]

How has it been 4 years since it came out?

[@michellesteimle9969]

I was really hoping he would talk about Hollow Knight in his abandoned places vid but maybe he was saving it for this. 😀

[@legrandliseurtri7495]

Speaking of HK, I'm trying to figure out how to get the mod installer to work. The thing is, when I tried it, ''mods'' appeared in the option menu of the game, but when you clicked on it, the section was empty. It didn't matter how many mods I installed, none of them appeared in the option menu or ingame. It really frustrates me. If one of you know this problem or know who could solve it, please help me.

[@Faranya]

You mention, in the bit about At the Mountains of Madness, how Lovecraft does get into ascribing concrete social aspects about the old ones, and I always read that as a 'bait and switch' technique. He sets up the old ones as inscrutable, alien things, but as the narrator progresses he comes to learn these specific bits of familiar information. That there was a social order, that there was a civilization as he would understand a civilization to be. The narrator and the audience can empathize, to an extent, with the thing that was once utterly alien. That makes the end, when an even more malignant and unknowable force is revealed, all the more impactful because it rejects the carefully cultivated safety the narrator has been clinging to throughout the story. The old one might be frightening, but at least it could be understood as a person; the real cosmic threat can not.

[@HelloFutureMe]

That's a very interesting interpretation! I didn't take it that way, but I can see one might. ~ Tim

[@CossackGene]

This is my interpretation as well. Also an interpretation that makes the racism underpinning the story clear, because what destroyed the somewhat sympathetic and familiar (and also grand and powerful) civilization of the great old ones was an uprising of the beings they kept as slaves (depicted as unknowable, mind-bendingly horrifying and malicious).

[@georgethompson1460]

@@CossackGene Or genetically engineered life-forms closer to the thing than anything else, oh and the deep ones got some too.

[@graphite7898]

I just wanted to say, as a Fantasy Author, that I am blown away by how motivating this video was. I'm constantly hit with roadblock in my writing, that being if something even makes sense to be in the world/story despite how interesting I find it, a constant cycle of adding and cutting from my work. Now I feel oddly influenced to just say "fuck it" for some of my world's elements, whether they make any real sense or have a justification for their existence doesn't always matter, as long as my world building can maintain a consistent story, I've succeeded.

[@storyofthegrim1894]

What did you write?

[@Msoulwing]

"These stories are explicitly and rampantly racist." They sure are (well, not all of them), and it's *hilarious* to read. It juxtaposes the horror with little bits of "wow, someone *actually thought* this?" Seriously though, read Lovecraft. The man may have been a supreme weirdo, but his influence on literature cannot be understated.

[@dkcsi9256]

The ones that aren’t racist just end up being classist

[@grundlewizard1775]

I've honestly always thought it was kinda strange how much attention it's given, like at the beginning of this video. I mean yeah, odds are he wasn't a great guy, he _had_ to have been weird, but he was also _born in the late 1800s._ His parents and grandparents, teachers and critics were born even earlier. _What_ kind of progressive ideas did people _expect_ he had exactly?

[@elpretender1357]

@@grundlewizard1775 Exactly my thoughts. For me Lovecraft's racism makes the experience even more unique and memorable. It is no longer "just horror", it now has something that makes it uncommon, distinct. For example, if I read a story that deals with cosmic horror but is set in North Corea I would likely get the same feeling: This is not just A cosmic horror story, is THAT cosmic horror story.

[@legrandliseurtri7495]

@@grundlewizard1775 You can find writers from this time who weren't such huge racist tho. Like, sure, you can probably expect occasionnal backward ideas, but lovecraft was definitively not the norm.

[@singmeunder]

@@grundlewizard1775 to be fair, Lovecraft was like… supremely more racist than the average racist person then. He was paranoid and hated anything other than people who were exactly like him.

[@Vok250]

Dark souls is such a well thought out game. Even the mechanical details of how it draws distant objects is designed to feed the soft world building. The great distances and size are embellished by the way they designed the maps and draw distance tricks.

[@tristanspindler7767]

I would honestly encourage everyone, who is interested in soft worldbuilding to look into the deep rabbithole, that is the Dark Souls lore. Even if you don't intent on playing the game for yourself.

[@thefebo8987]

without dark souls no hollow knight

[@xuanathan]

The hard worldbuilding comes into practice when all the areas collide in ways you could have never imagined. The parish leading all the way back down to that dubious archway in firelink, or Ceaseless Discharge being visible from the Tomb of the Giants. Soft worldbuilding comes into play when you traverse an area literally called depths, only to reach a town located far below, only to venture even lower down a tree which seems to go down forever, only to reach a nightmarish beach with a vast and infinite black ocean with massive trees growing from the bottom.

[@EHyde-ir9gb]

@@xuanathan I feel like a person finding ash lake is the dark souls equivalent of an astronaut being far enough away from earth to see the curve. Sure you may have known about it. Maybe you didn't. But seeing it puts in an undeniable manner the start reality of the world. Seeing Ash lake, you realize just how small you really are.

[@dylanenriguehuntington2908]

As an avid darksouls player, I have mixed feelings about it, everyone tells you to play it without a guide and dare to get lost, but when I did I didn't really have fun, same with hollowknight really. I had much more fun with it once I looked up a guide and figured out the obscure mechanics of the game, how to read the menus, and that you are supposed to head into the undead parish and sewers, before heading over to darkroot garden. I'm not sure if this is a me problem or a game design problem, I guess it's my fault cause everyone else's experiences with these games are fine but idk.

[@GiulianaBruna]

"I don't care how it works, I want the aesthetic. "

[@user-ms6sy2yd7f]

Sky: Children of the Light is a game that (imo) nails experiential consistency. From what I remember, theres almost no text in the game for a defined “story,” but the unique atmosphere of each region in the game all comes together to let the players form a nebulous idea of what happened to the setting and the characters. Totally recommend it!

[@tommcmillan4933]

Something I found weird (in a good way) about Sky is that everything is in ruins so you feel like you've stumbled upon a long-dead civilisation, yet the amount of 'life' some areas have, and the very real presence of other players makes it feel inhabited and far from ruin at the same time

[@tylerleblanc5697]

Wasn’t that made by the same people that made journey? They’re amazing at soft world building

[@t3sc0.]

Awh yeah I love this game so much :D

[@shoepixie]

Are you talking about Child of Light? With the beautiful hand painted animation?

[@justsomenerd284]

I did not need to be reminded how amazing Hollow Knight, now I can't stop thinking about the fact that Silksong isn't here yet

[@MainelyMandy]

Ladyknightthebrave has this saying that goes something like "Don't worry about it; it's Tuesday." I feel like that might be how I see soft world building. Does it need to be perfect? Nah, it's Tuesday, it's fine. Let's just move on.

[@princessthyemis]

Oooooo, I like that!!

[@truthwatcher2096]

Hollow Knight's theme makes me feel so nostalgic, I wish I could forget the game and experience it for the first time again

[@betea1742]

That's probably how Quirrel felt. Kind of.

[@milkwater1204]

I felt a twang of pain at the beginning after the question "were they all made by great people". This is by no means a disrespect, since Lovecraft was by no means someone to look up to for most of his life; however, he lived a short life full of darkness and despite that he reconciled his past evils. If you read his letters (of which there are literally thousands), you learn that towards the end of his life he had reinvestigated his prejudices and realised that he was wrong. If only he had lived longer, he perhaps would be remembered more fondly.

[@enriquegd2977]

a very poor question by Hello. Simplistic, cheap and out of place

[@Ballin4Vengeance]

Character development

[@jayreese8522]

@@enriquegd2977 Nah. We only have what we do. Lovecraft wasn't a good person, and relatively brief moments of introspection doesn't make that different until you can actually do something to amend your horrid behavior. He died a bad person who was realizing that what he did was bad. Since fantasy and media is a good lens for is examining our people, this isn't unlike the BBEG of a story bleeding out and realizing "hm maybe I shouldn't have tried to take over the universe". So, no. Tim was 100% correct. He was a bad guy. And no amount of apologetics waxing about how much you don't like that people don't remember assholes fondly will change that. The only sophomoric viewpoint here is that your contribution to art can somehow absolve you completely of being a horrible person to be around. If this is what you believe? I'm begging you: grow up.

[@milkwater1204]

@@jayreese8522 Lovecraft wrote several books before he died with themes amending his views. Mountains of Madness depicts the alien race in a sympathetic, tragic way: "They were men!" In The Walls of Eryx is even anti-colonial and pro-native.

[@JacobGrim]

@@jayreese8522 I think dying without the chance to change it is punishment enough, or even just dying itself

[@drummerofawe]

Seeing you talk about Hollow Knight makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside

[@TheCivildecay]

Same with Nier:Automata. Actually all 3 games are in my top 5

[@milospollonia1121]

That thumbnail ist just... **chef's kiss**

[@HelloFutureMe]

THANK YOU I WAS VERY PROUD OF IT ~ Tim

[@havewissmart9602]

@@HelloFutureMe I really liked it. Good one mate 👍👍

[@anamee7121]

When i hear soft world building, I immediately think of the game Journey. Same can go for Abzu. In journey, not a single word is spoken, you can interpret ruins and paintings as you wish and ultimately, it makes you feel so many things while also (in my case) reflect on themes I never thought of before. Thank for your hardwork! I’ld go for option 1 for the cover 😌

[@Zivilin]

Also Flower. Good to hear Journey mentioned though. 😌

[@LeoSienna]

Toy story's living Toys, sharing their lives, experiences, feelings, problems and life purpose with us is one of the best examples of very soft worldbuilding, it's way too unbelievable even for kids, yet we do not give a shhh, we just love the movies

[@Theredpearl3113]

I think the real answer to the opening question is that they're all soul crushingly depressing

[@Liatriss]

shadow of the colossus is a personal favorite soft world building.

[@HelloFutureMe]

Oh, an INCREDIBLE use of the unknown in that one. Totally is soft worldbuilding. ~ Tim

[@codman4372wx]

I think the best part of nier automata is how independent it is from replicant/gestalt. Sure it has references and characters, and it would probably be best if you played gestalt/replicant first, but it isn't required

[@darreideamos2309]

What made me fall in love with Dark Souls was the unknown. To understand the lore you need to piece it yourself, discover theorise and guess. I did all that I studied the games I watched countless lore videos and created my own ideas. Its like I wasn't just learning the lore. I was discovering and creating it myself. The beauty of soft worldbuilding is that the reader/player is an active participant in creating the lore. It feels way more grandiouse then a world that is described perfectly like GOT. No matter how much you know you always feel the sense of wonder and unknown. Even after years of playing and discovering the lore of dark souls I still discover new things after so much time. If everything was explained the sense of wonder would be lost. The beauty is in the unknown. And Dark Souls is in my opinion the best example of soft worldbuilding ever. Even things like time are not linear and explained. Time is convoluted and there are intentional inconsistencies and repetetive motives. Dark Souls is a masterpiece

[@ElectricSquidEntertainment]

I just bought volume 1 for my wife who recently started a creative writing degree!

[@HelloFutureMe]

Ah thank you! ~ Tim

[@ancientswordrage]

A lot of Lovecraft's imagery, at least of Cthulhu and the like, are based in his fear/hatred of sea food.

[@silfah3194]

Dark Souls has such a special place in my heart. I cant really say why but i have never been as immersed in any other game, book or movie as i was in dark souls.

[@odd-ysseusdoesstuff6347]

I was just world building, and Tim just casually drops a world building vid, I told myself: Master has something to teach us, and I was right, thanks Tim, for being an amazing teacher!

[@boid9761]

Soft worldbuilding has always been my favorite compared to Hard worldbuilding because the amount of dedication people will put out just to connect the dots is astounding I want more of that to be seen

[@boid9761]

@Frenzied Unicorn Productions Hollow Knight does this by making things ambiguous enough to be mysterious, but conceptually solid enough to be well understood, allowing for multiple interpretations to be made and are neither true or false

[@ShadowVincent3]

@Frenzied Unicorn Productions Yeah, the problem with soft worldbuilding is many people use it as a crutch to explain away bad writing. Soft world building isn't the absence of consistency, its relinquishing the need for everything to have an ironclad explanation and just enjoy the journey. There's still a structure, mainly dictated by the themes and emotions of the story. If the elements of the worldbuilding don't fit with that, then no amount of soft building can help it.

[@hilarymajor3983]

Thank you for including a scene from Nausicaa to represent Hayao Miyazaki, that movie never gets enough love. What you said about not having to explain or justify everything in storytelling is part of what works in some fanfiction - you don’t have to justify everything just tell the story you want.

[@Max_G4]

I really appreciate the mention of NieR:Automata, as it is my favorite game of all time and there's only a handful of videos talking about it

[@fleta4112]

@@brainderp808Hollow Knight has NOTHING on Nier Automata.

[@Max_G4]

@@brainderp808 I like NieR's story more, but I haven't played HK enough. Also, Nier is not a jumbled mess of a ton of things Anyways, let's not turn this into some discussion about personal preferences.

[@fleta4112]

@@brainderp808 nier, easy.

[@Nemo.404]

People here fighting and I just fucking love both games with all my heart, both of them with the soulsborne series are my favourite games of all time

[@Max_G4]

@@Nemo.404 Welcome to KZbin comment sections, where things get offtopic and miss the whole point after just 2 answers

[@shimi4364]

Your kitty looks so happy and content it makes me smile!

[@HelloFutureMe]

All she ever wants is cuddles! ~ Tim

[@Sam-de6qx]

Once you play through dark souls and experience the interconnectivity of it, you feel that it play into the narrative of the story. That everything is connected, and everything lead right back to the beginning. That is until you decide to break the cycle.

[@waxfigurefamous9189]

"It is a monument to our waste." I got chills

[@cryptic89]

With the Hollow Knight and Nier: Automata segments, I'm even more excited for Elden Ring. Because it's From Software translating George R.R. Martin, which in turn makes me think of his gardener versus architect philosophy. Great video!

[@RobSchwabRandom]

Hollow Knight's art, effects, and music theme aids it's Softworld building tremendously. I don't think this generation of gaming quite appreciates how much those matter in immersing the player audience into the story and game.

[@Sam-de6qx]

Hey Tim, could you make a video or maybe a video series on Character Archetypes? Like the Hero, the Magician, the King and the Lover. But how they have come to change over the years. Like how now we have the Reluctant Hero, the Magician how is so focused on balance or the broken Lover who no longer the strength to start over. And so on. This maybe a lot of work and it's a big ask but it would fit multiple mediums of storytelling. But in the end any video you make is interesting so thank you for those.

[@bodaciouschad]

Classical wizards gave you the kinds advice that can only come from years of experience and occasionally also gave you magical boons to aid your journey. Modern wizards shoot fireballs, lightning and laser beams and occasionally complain about non-wizards.

[@lukelcs8934]

"If you're immersed in a story, chances are someone else will be as well." That's beautiful

[@emilyferkin7431]

On your last bit about metrics of success: I don't think I would have written at all, or at least the same level of quality, in the past year if it wasn't for your videos. If you want a metric, think of the over 115,000 words that are now in the world because your videos have helped me so much.

[@ceruleanwalker1069]

I've only recently gotten into Lovecraft, I love his world building of creating a sense of unwelcoming horror. The sense that we humans are like ants that think ourselves giants. The Racism is a little distracting but I think it's important to read them as they were written. It doesn't matter that he was racist and elitist, the question is are you now?

[@Schadrach42]

If you're just getting into it, while he was very obviously racist even for his day, it's worth noting the cat in The Rats in the Walls that frequently gets pointed to as an example is not actually an example of that - it's him inserting a beloved childhood pet into one of his stories. Yes, that was the name of his pet black tom cat as a child. It's unclear if he was the one to name it or if someone else did, but that became his preferred name for black cats going forward, in memoriam.

[@chriscormac231]

@@Schadrach42 his father named the cat

[@alyastastic]

@@Schadrach42 The cat wasn't even black he just liked the name

[@sychuan3729]

There isn't any racism in his novels or at least most of it. To find it you really need to look for his private letters or something

[@Schadrach42]

@@sychuan3729 That's not true at all - there's plenty of overtly racist stuff in his short stories. Hell, the shadow over innsmouth is basically a metaphor for interracial marriage, there are cultists in call of Cthulhu are explicitly mixed race, etc. Then there's his poetry, which includes one titled " On the Creation of N*ggers", which is not exactly a glowing description of the race.

[@griffglowen5555]

I’m glad to have a term for this now. Several times my wife has watched me play Hollow Knight or Dark Souls and asked “what’s the game story?” I have no idea but it sure is emotive! I’ve never really thought of Lovecraft in the same way though. Admittedly I’ve not read the original books but most Cthulhu stuff I come across tends to set out a much more coherent story than HK or DS even if the monsters etc are not fully described

[@Valosken]

Consider this: Religious mythology is primarily about the soft worldbuilding

[@JMoore-vo7ii]

Very interesting take to look at "real world" in terms of hard/soft worldbuilding. Raises a lot of thoughts and questions

[@ChaosLierLen]

An underappreciated truth.

[@PhoenixCrown]

Yea they mess up when they get too concrete, like 'a man parted a sea with his staff.' Alas, you lost me!

[@DalithaMW]

Honestly, this feels like a good idea on how to build a Dnd setting - it doesn't always need to work perfectly in the back end, but as long as the world has a consistent Feel and Vibe, then it'll work

[@TheRandomzcookie]

aaaaa tim im adding another comment just to say that you're just always consistently improving in terms of how concise you are, how incisive and insightful; which isn't to say that you weren't before, but just that basically every new video surpasses my expectations. you always find something to say that hasn't been said, or a way to say it that hasnt been done.

[@arklados3596]

NieR: Automata is an absolute masterpiece

[@austinharmon8039]

This is definitely a video I needed. I have wanted to figure out how to build my world around wonder and this helped me discern there's a balance to having hard, explicit, detail, and purely emotional design. Your videos are absolutely some of my favorites

[@tristanneal9552]

It is impossible to choose between those two cover arts, they're both too beautiful. The one on the right more immediately caught my eye, but the one on the left better captured my imagination.

[@yerduf]

Man, I' ve been trying to apply this submerssive technique into my art, trying to build my own world into every paint I made. Your video is pure gold to me, thanks!! 😆

[@iamnoimpact]

You're an inspiration, man. Video on its own is brilliant, great takes and helpful to provide a perspective on some of it from the sidelines instead of diving too deeply into it (I guess that's mostly the point of soft worldbuilding!) but giving us a way to see the worlds without the textures and contexts within. Excellent. And what's more, proud and humbled at the way you are continuing to provide new videos while still writing and submitting to more outlets. I wish you nothing but the best, man.

[@ladyuh77]

This was so encouraging. I'm currently writing a gritty, syfy webcomic. I haven't written or drawn up a project this big yet, and I've been stuck on the world building. It takes place in a world that so far, only exists in my mind, and conveying that onto paper has been difficult. Anyway, I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't worry about it so much and just write what I like. 😊 I'm looking forward to buying your book!

[@Russo-Delenda-Est]

Thanks Tim! I always aspired to be a writer, but the older I got the more confined it felt, so many rules and tropes, it lost the same wonder it had for me as a child. But your videos, especially on soft magic and now world building, have reinvigorated my love of writing.

[@stefb.2451]

I always thought that hard world building was the "right" way to tell a story by fully fleshing out the world a narrative takes place in but that's such a limited perspective of the possibilities a story can explore. Your older video on hard vs soft world building helped me understand the difference, but this video see the differences in a greater perspective. Both have their uses and can lead to excellent stories, but it seems to be another important factor to consider when writing. Also, I'm glad you point out that both can be used in the same work, that they aren't completely binary and can enrich a world separately, but in conjunction too. Great vid!

[@Ragemuffn]

I think if you keep the hard World building to yourself, and not in the story, for your own references sake, it can be fine still.

[@dizzyentrepreneur6350]

I will watch it soon I promise, just commenting for the algorithmic overlords. Also someone suggested in the poll to have one on the front cover and another on the back, I think that would really work. Stay nerdy Tim :)

[@burghleyimeanberdly6513]

I literally cried when Hollow Knight started playing, it's such a melancholy melody and on top of that is the story of the Hollow Knight itself...

[@chombokong3949]

A video with all of my favorite things smashed into one? This has been the best analysis video of soft world building I have seen a long time. Expertly spoken, wonderfully conveyed feelings and emotions that these world give without saying little to few words. Amazing!

[@scarredchild]

This actually really helped me. I love writing about aliens that live in places that don't make sense, have cultural practices that only sometimes flow together concisely, and have anatomy that defies scientific logic. The other part of that is my love for all those things making sense somehow. So not thinking about what does or doesn't make sense and focusing on what I feel when I write them is a great and less stressful way to write a story. Also, ignoring the grammar checker from time to time. =)

[@nathanaelsallhageriksson1719]

I've started doing more with experiencial consistency in my world building for a few months now. I really like fitting in these things slowly, piece by piece into otherwise really grounded worlds. It has really reignited my fanaticism with world building, and I love it.

[@watcher314159]

One of the things I love about The Elder Scrolls, as a lore nerd, and once one dives sufficiently deep into the lore... is the particular way it takes an inherently very soft worldbuilding conceit and then proceeds to make it hard. Reality, on its most fundamental level, is a dream, a PTSD flashback writ large, trauma ruminated over from every possible angle until an entire multiverse is imagined. Physics, while there are subatomic particles and quantum effects in play, do literally operate on dream logic to an extent. And this is a feature of reality that is exploited, sometimes intentionally, sometimes by accident, for example with the notion of Mantling, or assuming the identity of some narratively significant figure from the past and carrying on or recreating their story. The main quest of each game is a sort of reenactment of the Event that caused the Godhead's trauma, and it's only through exploiting the power of such a narrative structure that major shifts in the status quo can happen. The protagonist of most games is a Prisoner Hero, and the way they interact with the world, as a being of absurd power who determines events and destiny rather than being subject to them (as appropriate in a sandbox RPG), as an entity literally being imagined by an entity beyond the game's reality (the player), the nigh-sociopathic lack of deep connection to the world, even the save scumming, are all a consequence of the ritual significance of being imprisoned and the severing from one's past that that entails. The entire experiential conceit of the series is justified very carefully within the lore of the games. It's very hard worldbuilding, in its own way, so as to craft a very particular soft experience. Now, it's not just TES that does this. Homestuck took a remarkably similar metatextual stance on its worldbuilding, for example. And even the more Cosmic parts of DC, especially the bits written by Grant Morrison, play with very similar themes, though not with nearly so much depth nor consistency. But TES, to my knowledge, has been doing this kind of thing, with such deep integration, the longest.

[@jordanthomson1572]

I really love the Hollow Knight and Dark Souls styles of worldbuilding and storytelling, where you have to specifically seek out information. You can play through Dark Souls games and have very little idea of what's going on, most of the concrete backstory comes from item descriptions. Without reading those, it's a pretty simple "go here, kill this, go there, kill that" game. With the item descriptions, you can slowly piece together the story and rules of the world. It's a form of interactive storytelling that is pretty much exclusive to video games, and it really sells the feeling of uncovering lost secrets of the world.

[@slambotv1334]

The difference is that for Dark Souls most people go through without understanding anything, whereas most players of Hollow Knight know at least a bit of the lore. Don’t get me wrong, i love both games

[@RockinAfr0]

Regular politicians: "VOTE!" Me: "..." HelloFutureMe: "VOTE!" Me: "That's all you had to say!"

[@Sootielove]

This was a fascinating video. World building is often one of those things I just question why people don't go further with and you really captured how often times of the most important elements of a world is the vibe. I know "vibe" is the result of so many other things but it can just help when writing or creating a world to start out, not with exploring realistic consequences, but the feeling you want the world to inspire and build out from there

[@angelaharrison1327]

I've been slowly making my way through all your videos and they're all great so please keep making them! I wanted to comment on this one specifically because your use of the Hollow Knight theme at the end and re-revealing the title over the last chord of the song was just *chefs kiss*

[@davidmauchly4689]

I think this is one of my favorite video of yours; I have a watched it three times. There is just something spectacular about an author letting the world so completely fit the story. It is so beautiful for a story to just so perfectly explore an experiences or an emotional. I love the work by Studio Ghibli and it is just so full of this sort of world-building.

[@simonjohansson248]

I've never viewed The Lord of The Rings as Hard Worldbuilding. This is probably due to watching the movies before reading the books, the films feels to fantastical to be logically believable. I never felt that it needed it, though. It is strongest as a metaforical story, and the soft world view works for me. I don't need to understand the ecology of Middle Earth to understand the meaning and lessons of the story.

[@JinzoTK]

Volume 2 is coming? Yes.

[@Toolgirl64209]

I am slightly convinced that other than the image TVtropes used, that weird ._. Lovecraft makes in that photo is the only facial expression he's ever made, and maybe a 0_0 when he sees the Ocean. And this has been my contribution to this section

[@MMusch]

It's both amazing and horrific how nearly each video you put out there makes me reconsider entire chapters of the book I've been trying to finish over the past year... Thanks for this, please keep on going, your work here is a gem. All hail Momo!

[@fast-yi9js]

been a while since I enjoyed a video of yours this much. glad to be a patreon HOLY SMOKES THERE'S GONNA BE TWO BOOKS FOR ME TO BUY?! *drool*

[@mightymaster8752]

Allow me to introduce, Outer Wilds. Best soft worldbuilding in a game I've ever played.

[@TheCivildecay]

Yes!

[@Dandy4ask]

I just binge watched a couple of you videos in a row, and i was expecting to look up and realize it is 1 am and I should probably go to bed, but instead, it has been only 1 hour. Every word song and clip, immersed me so deep into this experience. Every video felt like a 2 hour video essay. Absolutely amazing work and channel.

[@AKNeal81]

This is my first video of yours that I just came across today and I'm subscribed now! This one video will already help my worldbuilding and I'm excited to see what else your channel has to offer! Well done and thank you!

[@hugoaransan8251]

Love the theme! These are my favourite games right there, such interesting worlds!

[@sarahjacobsen469]

I love these soft world building videos! So many good stories don’t fill out a ton. I think of Sabriel by Garth Nix (one of my favorite books) that explains almost nothing about the world, letting you dwell in this sense of wonder and fear at the many things that are just barely out of view. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but absolutely delightful to me.

[@janjangirls417]

I am not a writer nor a world builder, but i love how you explore stories and give them deeper meaning than i could find myself. So thanks for what you do!

[@monotwaanbok4411]

THANK YOU! Love your videos on world building and writing. Will be sure to grab your books.

[@user-og1pp3zv4b]

I’m to impatient and usually skip through dialogue and cutscenes, but with Nier I just loved the story and world so much. I still play the game today and try to do things differently to see what happens. Im glad that there’s multiple ending to Nier! A game has never made me cry so many times with the amount character development

[@rga1605]

I think one thing that should be considered: Lovecraft and Nier are written having in mind a more modern style of storytelling, while Hollow Knight and Dark Souls have a style that calls back to the old myths. You might think hard worldbuilding is more important in the first one, while soft is more important for the second one, but this shows both types of worldbuilding can be integrated. I feel the most important question when crafting is to see how it benefits the story you want to tell. I feel one example of bad integration between hard and soft worldbuilding is The Last Jedi. I could understand what Johnson wanted to do with the casino scene, to make a point on systemic corruption, followed by pretty visuals, but the fact it was so contrived and badly written (it makes the viewever question a lot of things, such as why they didn't evacuate the ship using that method) removes the power and the point of the scene. Still, TLJ had a pretty stunning aesthetic shot with the destruction of the First Order capital, but again, it costs the hard worldbuilding and makes it worse in the long run.

[@writerducky2589]

Oh, man, you really transferred that experiential feeling into this video. I'm getting goosebumps!!! Love it!

[@joem.8555]

I literally was JUST thinking about how to implement this kind of thing in my writing, because like HPL I'm writing a vague cosmic horror universe, and I find this video in my recommendations. Can't wait to watch this.

[@johannageisel5390]

Yesterday, when I was lying in bed and couldn't sleep, I started to think up a kind of Lovecraftian horror story set on Venus (real Venus, not early 20th century Venus). And when I fell asleep, it turned into a normal sci-fi story, because the monster Aliens weren't that horrible, actually. I do not know whether it was a dream, a lucid dream or whether I was actually awake, but they started talking and told me they just wanted water. So I contacted Earth and asked whether we could slingshot a few carbonaceous chondrites into Venus' orbit to process them into water for the natives. Now I don't know whether I should keep that last part if I write the story down or not. I know it has not much to do with the topic of the video, but I just remembered it.

[@yeahkeen2905]

“You won’t find anti-mask protestors in Hollow Knight” I don’t know about that. The Colosseum of _Fools_ is a place where infected bugs have a “social gathering.”

[@MrDalisclock]

And there's a massive corpse in the center background. Nobody cares

[@captainfordo556]

To be fair, the Infection wasn't transmitted physically, so social gatherings don't matter much. Also the audience in the Colosseum isn't infected, but apparently the ones who fight are infected when in the arena but not in the warriors pit, which is weird

[@RodrigoPereira-ws8ok]

@@captainfordo556 Figuring out the lore of the Colosseum of Fools is a fool's errand (heh). We had a stretch goal of "fight in the colosseum and figure out its mistery" which was reached, but since the money came late through donations, Team Cherry must have tought we only deserved half of it.

[@marcogianesello6083]

If only they had the decency to gather in one place and fight each other to the death in real life too

[@yeahkeen2905]

@@RodrigoPereira-ws8ok I thought it was never reached but Team Cherry added it in anyway?

[@MagnusRydr]

Another awesome video. Thanks for all the work you put into them, and congrats on your upcoming books!

[@asrgelpi_author]

So happy for you and I look forward to reading your work. I am glad for your videos and Vol I of your world building book. Can't wait for Vol II. And lastly, glad I found you in KZbin.

[@Arcamonde]

I really want to hear this man's thoughts on Outer Wilds. As someone who just played and finished it myself, I'd be curious for a narrative style breakdown of how it uses it's tools to tell in my opinion an amazing story.

[@nemoimmingagijzen8482]

Hey Tim, could you do a video on depth in writing. I would love to see something that covers that area of writing.

[@couriercomms8761]

i started hollering out LOUD when he said dark souls in the intro LMAO im so happy it got covered right when im back in its hyperfixation renaissance! always love your takes and im so happy to hear abt dark souls, a favorite story world of mine, through your takes 🍉✨

[@isacwidendahl58]

i love hearing you talk about practically anything! please continue to do so for as long as you feel you have something to say!

[@Sci-Fi_Freak_YT]

I love Lovecraftian horror a lot (well not the racism), it’s what inspires my writing.

[@FistoftheUmbralStar-1.0]

I feel certain that realism was partially responsible for why a lot of movies were ruined. What do you think? Honestly that's just my opinion.

[@hiimchrisj]

Whether or not I agree requires a bit more elaboration on your part. Like in terms of excessive exposition ruining the flow of the story? Or aesthetically things looking boring for the sake of looking "grounded"? I find both of those among other things to be detrimental to a lot of movies, sure, but that's not necessarily limited to stories with hard world building and you can have hard world built stories that don't fall into those traps.

[@suppmydiff3257]

People have this annoying tendency to equate "realistic" with "hopelessly depressing" and that's definitely ruined a lot of properties. Namely the entirety of the DC cinematic universe

[@representativejoints1188]

Keep sharing what you care about with the world in whatever way feels right for you. You're inspirational to a lot of people. Thanks for the hard work Tim.

[@mori6434]

This is definitely a video I needed. I love worldbuilding and a lot of story beats and scenes just kinda come to me, but I always get stuck whenever I sit down to actually write because I end up thinking too much about whether something makes sense or not. I'm trying to get over the habit, and I think I really just needed to hear that "doesn't matter, who cares" is a perfectly valid way to just... ignore things that otherwise get in my way of simply telling a story.

[@adren4306]

I feel like Hollow Knight and Dark Souls may be too similar as examples. Hollow Knight is kind of just a cartoonier Dark Souls in terms of worldbuilding. Maybe Ghibli movies or weird 30s cartoons would be a more diverse example.

[@HelloFutureMe]

I feel you just made Hollow Knight nerds angry. ~ Tim

[@bhesseling9949]

@@HelloFutureMe i agree, I'm absolutely furious - Sincerely, a Hollow Knight fan

[@justsomewritingfan2202]

Hollow Knight fan here to advert thee from the horrors of the internet. This take, is good and not incorrect. Not like being compared to Dark Souls is a bad thing.

[@Great_Olaf5]

He already referenced a few Ghibli movies in his previous video on soft worldbuilding, he probably felt he should diversify from that.

[@legrandliseurtri7495]

*More aestetically pleasing dark souls.