Worldbuilding is the process of creating a fictional world, including its history, geography, cultures, and people. Understandably, it can be a daunting task, but thankfully, there are numerous tools and resources available to help you quickly get started.
Best on the feedback of our community, here are 10 recommended worldbuilding tools and resources:
Maps
1. Wonderdraft
This is one of the most powerful mapmaking software currently available for creating detailed fantasy and vintage maps. It offers a range of tools and features that allow users to design landscapes, add various elements, and apply different styles and textures to create unique and visually appealing maps for their world-building projects.
Alternatives
2. Medieval Fantasy City Generator
As the name suggests, it allows you to generate a random medieval fantasy city. You can specify the size of the city, the number of inhabitants, and the type of terrain, and the generator will create a map and a description of the city.
3. Dungeon Painter Studio
For encounter maps, I recommend Dungeon Painter Studio. It allows you to create immersive 2D maps including dungeons, cities, landscapes, and more. While it is a paid software, the amount of features and assets it comes packed with makes the purchase well worth it.
4. Flowscape
Flowscape is a paid software but this time for creating fully immersive 3D maps. The software provides a variety of tools and features that enable users to shape terrain, add water bodies like lakes and rivers, populate the scene with trees, rocks, and buildings, and even introduce atmospheric effects such as fog and sunlight. Personally, my favorite feature is its ability to autogenerate intricate ecosystems based on one’s input.
Organizer
5. Fantasia Archive
Organizing and keeping track of all your various stories, characters, races, and other elements can be a hassle. Fantasia Archive is a software developed for resolving just this problem. The solution is completely free, can be used offline, and doesn’t even require any sign-ups.
Alternatives
Writing Assistant
6. ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an advanced AI assistant that can help you generate ideas, find mistakes in your writing, suggest improvements, and even generate relevant content for you. Do note, however, while it is a great productivity tool, I wouldn’t suggest you rely on it completely. It is prone to mistakes, especially with factual information, and ultimately, an AI is no replacement for the human touch when it comes to creative pursuits.
7. Grammarly
A must-have tool for any serious writer. Grammarly will you analyze your text in real-time, pointing out mistakes, suggesting improvements, and enhancing readability. It has both a free and paid version plus offers plugins for both desktop and your phone.
8. The Seventh Sanctum
This is a website offering a collection of generators for different aspects of worldbuilding. It provides tools for generating names, cities, species, technologies, and more; helping you find great inspiration and ideas for building fictional worlds.
Art Generation
9. Leonardo A.I.
Not everyone can be an artist or afford to commission one. In such cases, an image generation A.I. can be extremely helpful with the visualization of your ideas. I recommend Leonardo A.I. over its more famous counterpart, Midjourney, since it provides better perimeter controls for image generation and boasts a proper full-fledged interface. Moreover, it’s better value for money, costing half of what you pay for its competitor.
Alternatives
- Midjourney
- BlueWillow [Completely Free]
Other Tools
10. WorldSmith
This is a free tool developed by world-builder Artifexian. With it, you can make the size, distance, and habitability of your planets and cosmic bodies feel more accurate; especially a nifty aid for worldbuilders in the genre of hard sci-fi and speculative evolution.
So, these were our 10 recommended worldbuilding tools. I hope you found the list useful. Now, let me know what other tools I should add here by writing it down in the comment or joining the conversation at our community discord.
Thanks for this, this is a great list full of creative potential.
Not sure how I ended up here on this site, but I’m glad I did!
This has been a really useful post. Many thanks!