Art & Design: Vanguard: Saga of Heroes’ Qalia

GameSpy has released a three-page “Art & Design” article for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, this time offering the perspective of a Sigil Games designer on creating the fantasy world the game is set in. A snippet:

One of the first things designers need to understand is that creating a world for a game is far different than doing the same thing for a novel, a play, or even a movie. All of those world-building efforts are built around the vision of a single person, therefore the world is purpose-designed to convey the messages, scenes, and action-set pieces that the “auteur” wishes to create. Why, for example, did the Fellowship of the Ring travel through Moria? Forget any answer related to the actions of the characters in the book — the real answer is that the Fellowship went to Moria because J.R.R. Tolkien wanted them to. In the story Tolkien wanted to tell, he needed mountains, he needed an ancient Dwarven kingdom under the mountains, and he needed a massive force of evil that could go toe-to-toe with Gandalf the Grey — so he put them there.