Step 1. World Building

Before you can create your character and dive in, you need to create the world. Now, I’m not saying that this needs to be some grand design where you create lore for yourself (unless you really want to). When I say World Building, I really mean decide on a couple of key things.

The Framework/Genre

This is a game, it should be fun. That means you don’t have to pretend everything is just a day to day life sim. Unless ‘The Sims’ is your favourite game, you may want to consider doing something a little different.

Part of why I see Gamification working is that it allows you to romanticise your life. One of the keys to that is reframing how you look at your life, and deciding the genre of your game is one way to do that.

I think a lot of people default to fantasy, even high fantasy, when they think of games, especially if they are influenced by Dungeons and Dragons, but even table top games came in all flavours. Maybe you like the gritty sci-fi of the Warhammer 40K world, or maybe you’d prefer the utopia-esque future of Star Trek, or maybe you want to live on a farm like Stardew Valley. Or do you want the fantasy of an Elder Scrolls game?

Besides the setting, you also want to look at the gameplay. Do you want a sim type game where you are working to increase your skills? Is your life more of a dating sim? Is it more quest/mission oriented, or is it open ended with the goal only to be seeing numbers go up?

Take some time and look at your life. What game world would you like to slip into? What kind of game do you enjoy being in the most? What motivates you?

Note: While you could pick a genre like a fighting game or a souls-like, it’s probably better to pick something that is more geared towards character progress, not just player skill.

For myself, I’m going with a fantasy RPG influenced by Oblivion and Final Fantasy XIV.