worldbuilding
world-building

Worldbuilding, the process of constructing an imaginary world or milieux.

Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world, sometimes associated with a whole fictional universe.

The term "worldbuilding" was popularized at science fiction writers' workshops in the 1970s.

Worldbuilding, in particular, has many common conventions as do, to a lesser extent, plot, and characterization.

As part of his worldbuilding, he needed to have a diverse group of human colonies scattered across a large area of space.

Breathtaking prose, immaculate worldbuilding, magnificent characters.

"The Use of Archaeology in Worldbuilding" illuminates Cherryh's science fiction, and will interest serious fans.

Worldbuilding may combine physics and magic, such as in the Dark Tower series and the Star Wars franchise.

Some like the epic worldbuilding of a Brian Aldiss or the cyberpunk of a William Gibson.

Patricia C. Wrede, "Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions"

Eighth Day Genesis: A Worldbuilding Codex for Writers and Creatives.

The book has been praised for its detailed worldbuilding, including the characters' awareness of previous zombie fiction; an element McGuire had found lacking in most horror works.

Niall Harrison of Strange Horizons praised Reynolds' intricate worldbuilding while criticizing the thriller elements as making the plot "more functional, and less textured".

Kirkus Reviews praised the book's premise, but wrote that it was "undermined by inconsistent worldbuilding, fuzzy physics, pedestrian language, characters who never move beyond stereotype and subplots that go nowhere".

Reviews of the original eight-book series praised its scope and detailed worldbuilding, comparing it to Frank Herbert's Dune series, James Clavell's Shōgun and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.

Winner of XYZZY Award for Best Story and finalist in seven other XYZZY Award categories in 1999, the game features a huge amount of detailed worldbuilding.

Having only been actively promoted as a design philosophy to be discussed internationally in recent years, immersive design is very much in its infancy, but as a term it has already been appropriated for the purposes of describing design for narrative media and the process of Worldbuilding.

The Lord of the Rings had its detractors in fandom, including both those who found the books unreadable or the character development inferior to the worldbuilding, and those who simply argued that Tolkien fans were taking things too far, with attempts to complete glossaries of Middle-earth already underway.