For my first project in worldbuilding, I decided to look at a game genre that is traditionally underserved in the worldbuilding department: sports.
Most sports games rely on the players’ knowledge of real-world sports, leagues, and players. Their worlds are built for them, and each one is immersed in the tone and imagery of the league it represents. While this can be thrilling to simulation-craving sports fans, it causes people who don’t follow sports to find themselves at both a competitive disadvantage and a cultural disconnect. I believe that the sports genre has merit as a ludic Gesamtkunstwerk, blending strategy, simulation, action, and role-playing in proportions completely decidable by the player. But because of its strong associations with sports culture and its lack of effort to attract an audience outside sports fans, “people who like sports games” has become more or less a subset of “people who follow sports leagues.”
I believe that it is possible to use worldbuilding to create a sports game that is equally accessible to sports fans and those new to sports alike. Of course, I had to make up a new sport to eliminate inequalities based on familiarity with rule sets, strategies, teams and players. But just as importantly, I have devised a fantastical setting to contextualize the playing of this sport, to tell stories and raise stakes beyond just “this is a game between two teams” and “now this is a championship game.” It’s exceedingly earnest, and more than a little geeky – a calculated move away from jock culture to themes of recapturing the youthful fun of simply playing a sport.
For my assignment, I’ve attempted to demonstrate a few of the possibilities offered by a sports game in a genre setting. Click here to visit Galaxy Stadium, the central hub of the sport of Betterball. The Stadium is located in the same physical location spread out between countless dimensions from which teams gather to compete. This multiverse approach allows for a great variety of teams and settings, and allows for each one to separately examine an aspect of how sports relates to society or use sports as a metaphor.
To control, use WASD to move, the mouse to look around, E to pick up the ball, and T to throw the ball. You can also use space bar to jump, if you want. You’ll start in an unremarkable backyard sports field, but try moving the ball around and you may discover how to shift between dimensions. Perhaps you will find a majestic sci-fi stadium, or a place where sports are used to decide political conflicts, or a world where physics are entirely different. Or, at least representations of these things made by someone with no modeling or drawing skills.
If you’d like to read more about Betterball, here’s a pitch I made last year for a new type of sports game.