How do you guys go about building your universes?

[Zetsubonii]

I keep my ideas in different notebooks which I don't organize, are all over the place (probably in more than 2 countries actually ^^") and are a product of my bored-fueled class time xD

As for the monster = new fantasy race tends to be the next step for any monster based story like Ben 10 or Digimon and such and such, I feel that if done wrong, it could possibly get overused? ^^" I personally like having the monsters just be there already, like yokai in Japan or, I guess Pokemon? :U At least, that's what I plan for my story that is ^^"

[Zetsubonii]

How do you plan on incorporating background in your story? ^^" I'm curious because I also plan on doing this as I keep working on mine as well :U

[Zetsubonii]

How is "monster" too harsh? :U To be honest, I think it's more context than anything as they can own the title of "monster" like they do in Pokemon or Digimon to be honest ^^" (sorry for the bad example, but I'm big fan of them ^^")

[Zetsubonii]

How are you gonna go about starting a story that's in a huge universe already?

[Zetsubonii]

Oooh, another mystery comic xD I found it and I'll check it out Also, if you started out with a fan comic idea, what was it? Did it influence your work?

[AnnaLandin]

How long does it take you to make a world from a single idea?

Depends on the idea! If I just need something for a short comic, with a fairly small scope, building that world can take me a few days or a few weeks. If we're talking about a vast, epic sprawl of a story that's going to cover a lot of ground and be very complex, worldbuilding can take months or years.

[navyzerimar]

For my series I planed out the storyline first and foremost (basically the characters, the sequence of events, etc...) and everything that has to do with the lore and universe itself surrounding the plot I think about it has a way not to expand the world but to give deeper context to the story itself...

The world building concept has to flow naturally in my opinion, through the story itself. I do think that you can expand the world through outside source has a way for people who desire to dig deeper into the lore but keeping the plot intact

[indagold]

simple, stay small, don't info dump, don't share every single minuet detail and keep it concise. Readers don't need to know too much anyway, only the very surface is what they need.

[Chopythes]

That's actually interesting, just straight to the point and secure what's needed xD If you were to add other countries, how would it go?

Well, first: "Do I need a character from another world/country or is it fine as it is? What that create conflict and add more interesting characters? Why is it needed?"
When I know all that, I start by making the character. "Why is that character the way it is? Is it due to culture or is it just that character's behaviour?"

It's very character based, all my world building, I try not to add too much as it'll only be things I as a creator would enjoy. I'm practical, if the reader won't know about it, why should I?

So yeah, basically: I'll only create a new country if it'll make sense to the story and I need a character from said country to create a conflict or maybe even have them flee there or something. But I mostly concentrate on the characters behaviour to figure out where they come from!

[abbastudios]

You start with a good story and build up on that foundation.

[Merle]

Thanks haha!
Haven´t tought of that to be honest! There are no fantasy elements, i did my best to make the world and the story look like it could actually happen right now.
Still, The ending might be unusual, and I am shure many will be suprised to find out who the villians are (Whilst at the same time being possible to find out before our heros do)....I have mixed many things that were very usual to me (growing up in bavarian smalltown) with an unusual death.
Maybe the teenagers are a bit to chill about this whole - we´ll try to find the murderer...at least at the start they are

For my actual Fantasy story...that´ll be a crazy ride :3

[joannekwan]

Usually I'll start with the characters, their motivations, their backstories, then the plot. And I add to the universe as needed. I don't need to know what their world's plumbing is like unless they're chasing something that fell down the drain for instance. So I do the bare minimum for the most part. I just need to know why some things are and how that molds the story.

But if I'm dealing with fantasy and magic, I like to write down how their magic systems work so I can keep it consistent for my own sake, however the reader never has to know the nitty-gritty of it all.

[DavidPerry]

I always start with characters. Once I have the characters, I know what sort of universe they'd best populate. With Mallory Bash, She was originally going to be a space-faring kid that fought weird aliens and her world was quite neon. As I added characters, though, the whole thing became more meaningful, so I put her on Earth in the fictional town of Moonblush Village.

I still wanted the series to be about discovery, so I wanted a space bigger than a town. I created an entire county for her to roam (Nightdrift), and physically mapped out Moonblush Village and the surrounding towns. Full color illustrations with street names, businesses, forests, lakes, rivers, caves, mountains, neighborhoods, districts--everything.

Now, whenever you see a place in the comic, that place is concrete and it has a specific place in the town. This is important for the series because Mallory documents everything, and when a viewer sees these places, they need to stay consistent. I want viewers to feel like they could be placed anywhere in Nightdrift County and know their way around--know how to get from place to place, as if it were a real county.

[NickRowler]

She told me that the characters looked too humanoid to be considered "monsters". And even like you said, when people think monster, they think of something more unusual looking.

[redsblueyoungster]

Not sure about politics. (Mostly because I don't know how to specifically write political things or recgonize it.) It will for now in the future be social interactions.

[Vanesalisa]

yeah biohazard fancomic that focus on Jeju Island from Seoul about the villagers went crazy then plan not to yet because I haven't try to make an original story so it did influence my work by making the fancomic characters into original characters and Tell me if you like it if you see my story

[Moonshade]

Thank you very much :3 Now I drawing for the second chapter the gryphon's cubs (or chicks? so difficult, half eagle, half leopard...)
But the resource is very important for determinate the civilizations: water, food, also writing or vocal knowing is important.

[SynergyEclipse]

For my comic, I focus the most on details about the universe that are the most relevant to the plot, and establishing individual characters, and the character classes and factions they're a part of. Before I got to writing notes for the factions, I already had notes for individual characters. For each character class, I needed to establish their strengths and weaknesses, and I also needed to establish what the rules of magic and time travel are, including which rules can be broken, and which rules never can.

Because the plot of my comic involves different factions, I also need to go into detail about their histories, their alliances and rivalries with each other, their ideologies, and political differences. Taking place in a fictional country, I also focus on showing the setting, showing the climate, the architecture, history and culture. I wouldn't need to go into too much detail about every landmark or city, and just include the places that are relevant to the plot in the comic.

In my notes, I've written more about the lore than I might need to include in the comic itself, but I feel like it's better to write more in my notes than I needed, than to not have enough. The extra information could always be used in supplementary materials.

[Zetsubonii]

Yeah Just read your latest chapter actually xD Niohazard as in the US's Resident Evil yeah? xD I can get that

[Vanesalisa]

what think did you think of the chapter and yeah