Announcing: The Way of Worldbuilding

The Templin Institute investigates alternate worlds, but every now and then we have a hand in shaping one. We’ve helped guide interstellar nations into an uncertain future through our Stellaris Invicta series, reimagined both the nature of the participants and the course of conflict between the First Order and the New Republic, and at times even had the privilege of contributing details and lore to the worlds we’re investigating. But in each of these cases, we’ve needed to work within some limit

ations and many details were ultimately out of our hands. We might have had some grand ideas, but in the end we were confined by some outside restriction whether gameplay mechanics or some pre-established canon we had to stay within. Which to be clear, isn’t a bad thing, that’s just the nature of collaborative storytelling. But working on these projects it was always tempting to imagine a scenario in which the only limits were the ones we set for ourselves. The creation of an entirely original w

orld, one where we would be free to tell whatever stories, to make whatever decisions we like, has always been an aspiration of ours. In the early days of the Templin Institute there were some very excited discussions about what this might look like. But we recognized the resources a project like this would require was well beyond what we had at the time, so there was never really a set date for anything, it was always just something we would work on, some day. But now it’s been a few years, we’

ve learned a lot, made some connections and hopefully got all the big mistakes out of the way. And, I am enormously excited to announce that someday, is today, well technically tomorrow, but still, it’s pretty close. In a new ongoing series we’re calling the Way of Worldbuilding, the Templin Institute will be developing a new universe from the ground up. Writing the lore, commissioning the visuals, and presenting it the style you’ve come to expect from us. But that’s only half of it. We won’t be

developing this universe in isolation, but rather right out in the open. To accompany this project, we’ll be producing a series of guides covering as many aspects of worldbuilding as we can. We’ll start right from the beginning, and as each one of our guides begins to cover more and more of the worldbuilding process, so too will our original world continue to expand. The intent here is that by showcasing what our process actually looks like in action and giving you all of our thoughts and opini

ons along the way, it will be more useful in understanding what worldbuilding looks like than if we only presented you one or the other. Ideally you’ll be able to look at how we do things, and maybe get some ideas for your own worldbuilding project whether it's something you’ve been working on for ages, or one you’ve always wanted to get started on. Or if it turns out our world sucks, you’ll have a thrilling example of what not to do. And for a few reasons I won’t get into, we’re going to need t

o work with some of the older, decommissioned systems archived within the Templin Institute. That means some elements of these videos might appear a little antiquated, but it’s necessary for this series to function. It’s going to work something like this. And stay with me, because in true Templin Institute fashion we’ve found a way to make this way more complicated than it needs to be. About once a month, more or less, we’ll be releasing an episode in our guide to worldbuilding, with each video

covering some specific element. As an example, let’s say our topic is “Creating a fictional nation”. In that episode, we would cover all the big questions you’d probably want to think about, what kind of government does it have, is there a guiding ideology or culture, what is its history? And along the way we’ll offer some of our opinions on how to keep it unique, how to make it interesting? All that stuff. If your familiar Templin Institute videos like “Building Your Interstellar Navy” or “Laun

ching your Planetary Invasion” these videos aren’t exactly identical, and they certainly won’t replace them, but they might give you an idea of the tone and style we’re going for. We’ll try to keep our topics universal and provide lots of different examples so no matter what kind of worldbuilding project you’re working on, or how far into you are, there should always be something relevant. At least most of the time, some episodes might need to get a bit more specific. That’s part one. We’re deal

ing completely in hypotheticals and just asking questions. In part two, we start constructing our own world. We move from theory to application and try to answer for ourselves all the questions we raised in our guide. If the topic is creating a fictional nation, then in part 2 here is how we would create one that fits within this universe we’re developing. We produced a video during Season 1 of Stellaris Invicta where we gave this kind of behind the scenes overview of how we developed the Greate

r Terran Union, and again, that’s not exactly what these videos will look like, but it gives you a sense of the format. And then finally, we’ll release a third video covering all the lore of whatever it is we’ve developed. If we ended up creating the People’s Kingdom of Exampleland, then we would cover its history, government, culture, etc in the style of our typical Templin Institute videos. And hold onto your butts for this next bit, because those latter videos, the ones in part 2, they’re goi

ng to be released on a whole other YouTube channel. Whatever universe we create, I want it to have its own identity, and not be overshadowed by the Templin Institute. And I also want this series to be flexible. If the world we create becomes popular enough and there’s demand for more lore, we might start releasing more videos to this secondary channel just on their own. Likewise, we might want to talk about some element of worldbuilding that just isn’t present in the universe we created. Say for

example we wanted to talk about magic systems, but our worldbuilding project has no magic. Keeping things clearly delineated across two different channels, will help our world appeal to an audience outside of Templin, and also just help keep things organized. And if it turns out you don’t care about this project at all, you won’t be bombarded with constant updates about it. This is a new format very different from anything we’ve attempted, so I think clearly delineating where each part begins a

nd ends just makes sense. And that secondary channel by the way, it’s already been created. It doesn’t have a name or anything uploaded to it, but if 20 years from now you wanna be able to tell your grandchildren that you were one of the very first people to subscribe to the worldbuilding project created by the Templin Institute, before it blew up and became super popular and launched this whole multimedia franchise it and then the Templin Institute got greedy and sold out to a bunch of corporat

e suits who threw out a lot of the expanded universe which in turn created a rift in the fandom that never truly healed, well, you’ll find the link in the description. Now I don’t think I’ll be surprising anyone when I say that worldbuilding is a complex topic. And as tempting as it is to just immediately begin building our original universe, it’s important to first cover the basic fundamentals, all the stuff you might need to consider when you’re just getting started. So that's what we're dedic

ating all of this week towards. Consider it an extended prologue. On Tuesday, September 26th, we’ll introduce and discuss the basic, fundamental worldbuilding questions. We’ll cover the different techniques and approaches people use and I’ll discuss my own personal philosophy and how that will influence this series as a whole. Surprise, surprise, I have some very strong opinions on this, and I think there is a bit of a blind-spot in how worldbuidling is discussed on YouTube, that maybe this seri

es can fill. The next day, it’s time to talk genre. What is science fiction, what is fantasy, what happens when they touch? Where does steampunk fit into this? How do you tell soft sci fi apart from hard sci fi? Does any of this even matter? That’s on Wednesday. On Thursday we’re going to cover how to just organize your thoughts. If you’re building a new world and you understand at least the basics of what you want to do, how do you move on from just a swirling mass of ideas and begin to turn yo

ur concept into something you can really start to build on. And on Friday, September 29th, we’ll bring it all together. Having come up with a rough idea of what I want my worldbuilding setting to be, what elements will it need to be interesting and unique. And what makes a good setting in general, are there maybe some lessons we can learn from examples in popular culture that succeeded or failed? And with that, our extended prologue is over. Now you may have noticed that I’ve been kinda vague on

the details for what kind of world the Templin Institute is creating. Is it science fiction, fantasy, what’s the deal? The reason is, I don’t know just yet. Whatever world the Templin Institute ends up creating, I want to retain the final say, that’s the whole point of this project. But that doesn’t mean we won’t be looking for ways to involve our community. So what better way to start this project than by letting you decide the biggest question of all. I have three ideas for worlds that could

become the case study for this series. The first is a post-apocalyptic science-fantasy, the second is a historical low fantasy, and the last is a grand space opera combined with military science fiction. The following week, on October 2nd, 4th, and 6th we’ll be presenting them to you one by one. Each video will cover the basics of the world, a bit of the inspiration behind it, and why I think it would be a good candidate for this series. If you remember how we introduced the different options fo

r Stellaris Invicta Season 2, this will feel very familiar. On Friday, October 6th, once the final video has been released, the polls will open, and you’ll have the chance to cast your vote. But there's one way in which this poll will be very different from any of the other choices we’ve presented to you before. In Stellaris Invicta and our various pilot weeks, we’ve tried to make each option equal. And while I think that any of the three ideas I’ve come up with has the potential to make an imme

rsive, interesting universe, we also need to think of them as difficult levels. There are some genres in which I’m simply just more comfortable, and others that are going to be more of a challenge. Depending on which option wins, this series might be very different. And because The Way of Worldbuilding has the potential to be a long running series, or even potentially a permanent feature of the Templin Institute. I want to make this choice available to everyone. The polls will open right here on

YouTube in our community page with no restrictions. Everyone gets a vote. But to our Patrons, not to worry, you’ll have the chance to make your mark on this series and the universe it’s creating, later down the road. After the polls are closed and the winner is determined, you won’t hear about the Way of Worldbuilding for a bit. In fact, the Templin Institute will continue operating on a reduced release schedule. Over the last few months we’ve been contacting artists, securing funding, drafting

up plans, and just doing all the research a series like this requires. It’s not like we had any doubts before, but the work we’ve done so far has proven just how big this endeavor this is. I want to do it right and that means not rushing into things. I’m not sure how long that might take, I’m hoping for a few months, but this is a new process for us so I’ll be keeping the timeline deliberately vague here. When the series begins in earnest, it will work just how we described it previously. Episo

des will be released monthly here at the Templin Institute, with accompanying videos on our new secondary channel. Now if all that is too confusing and you already forgot half of it, just follow us on whatever social media you prefer. We’ll be posting all the relevant updates there. And before we end things for today, I just want to draw some attention to the artwork we’re included in this video and future installments of the Way of Worldbuilding. As this series progresses, we hope to commission

some artists to help bring our world to life. Right now though, we’re starting from scratch, all we have are some ideas. So we’ve been incredibly fortunate that so many talented artists have offered us the use of their portfolios to help us convey those ideas and make this all a little less dry and boring. Our heads up display will update with an artist's name whenever their work appears, and you’ll find links to their galleries in the description. So we’ll see you tomorrow, September 26th, 202

3, for the first part of our extended prologue. We’ll be discussing the basic fundamentals of worldbuilding; the methods most people find useful, my personal worldbuilding philosophy and the dreaded worldbuilder’s disease. Until then, thank you very much for your support. This is the first step on a very long journey, and I’m excited to see where it takes us.