While it may be tempting to run off and create an entire world (or galaxy) full of empires and heroes, we suggest you try something smaller to begin with (Don’t worry, you’ll soon be creating entire planets). Designing isolated pocketworlds (just small settings within a world) can be a great creative exercise, and an easy introduction to the art of worldbuilding. These are examples of what is called ‘bottom-up’ approaches to worldbuilding, where a creator starts with some minor detail and begins growing their world from there.

To get started, we will being designing a single island.