Shaping your worlds

Jess Kinghorn chats with world-building masters from Larian Studios, Techland, HoYoverse, Billy Goat Entertainment, and CD Projekt Red about what goes into crafting your favourite places on PlayStation

pen world design has dominated videogame settings for over a decade, and you can learn more about that history by reading our feature beginning on p62. However, more goes into building your favourite spaces than slapping Caspar David Friedrich’s painting ‘Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog’ on the mood board. When it comes to immersive worlds, we’ve never had it so good. Recently we’ve crashed through the material plane of Faerûn, run through the zombie-infested streets of Villedor, duelled with Fatui Harbingers across Teyvat, popped wheelies all over New Island, and disappeared into the seedy underbelly of Night City. Losing ourselves in these spaces, we emerge to seek the insight of the master world builders behind them, asking what exactly goes into setting the scene.

“Above all else, immersion and engagement reign supreme,” says Tymon Smektała, the franchise director for Dying Light. “A vast world means little if players don’t feel compelled to explore its depths and uncover its secrets. It’s not just about filling the map; it’s about creating an experience that captivates players from start to finish.”

2022’s Dying Light 2 Stay Human takes place in a world nearly two decades on from a zombie outbreak, while also offering what remains a fairly unique means of getting around: parkour. In creating Villedor, situated somewhere in Europe, Techland built upon everything it had achieved with the previous game’s smaller-scale Middle Eastern city setting, Harran. Full of dilapidated structures and still-towering skyscrapers, Villedor has greater verticality – so much so that you’ll use a paraglider in addition to your own two feet.