Useful apps for worldbuilding

ZakJarvis · Nov 20, 2006

First up is Celestia. It's a multiplatform tool for exploring our galaxy. All of it. You can jump around between stars, zoom into planets, moons, asteroids, existing spacecraft, etc. It lets you speed up or slow down or go backwards or forwards in time. In short, it's an astronomy program for exploring everything. The basic download will get you going very nicely, but there's tons of awesome add-ons to make it even better. However, installing them can be somewhat less than intuitive.

The other tool is StarGen. There are both Mac and Windows versions of the stand-alone app, plus a link to a web-based version. It generates solar systems with pretty complete data on each planet. You can have it filter output to only systems with Earth-like, or potentially habitable planets. I gather that the method it uses isn't up to date with current planet-formation theory, but it does still produce good results for storytelling purposes.

I've personally used Celestia extensively when working on science-fiction worldbuilding (specifically a story set on a terraformed Ganymede). It was invaluable for getting a sense of the way day/night cycles worked and figuring out the timing of daily eclipses.

Pthom · Nov 20, 2006

Okay Zak. I just put you on my list. Now I have to go back and redo everything. Thanks. Boy, you sure know how to hurt a guy.

Seriously, this Celestia is a delight. I wish I'd had it on hand when I worked out phases of the moon 2000 years from now. It's a great tool.
This deserves a gold star!

ZakJarvis · Nov 20, 2006

The current version of Celestia (v1.41) may or may not have enough precession accuracy for two thousand years of lunar cycle prediction. I know accuracy is one of the things they're working on in the new version.

Just a heads-up!

Pthom · Nov 20, 2006

Right. When I researched lunar phases a couple of years ago, none of the available free software could produce accurate results. Beyond 3000 CE, they all gave very erratic results. Some wouldn't even attempt to do it. Celestia will "show" Luna orbiting Earth in the year 5000+ and the graphics are so realistic who cares if the results are precise? Neither I nor my novel will be around then anyhow.

JimmyB27 · Nov 21, 2006

Not really relevant for the sort of story I write, but they both sound helluva fun anyway. I'll have to have a proper look when I get home from work, thanks for the links!

Forbidden Snowflake · Nov 21, 2006

Thank you, something I can use

RTH · Nov 21, 2006

Sweet. That's all I can say. Sweet.

badducky · Nov 21, 2006

For fantasy worlds, your best friend is a good, old-fashioned Excel Spreadsheet.

Pthom · Nov 21, 2006

Excel works wonders for SF worlds, too. I couldn't keep track of stuff without it. But programming Excel for astronomical data is just ... do $@#*&# hard.

JimmyB27 · Nov 22, 2006

badducky said:
For fantasy worlds, your best friend is a good, old-fashioned Excel Spreadsheet.

What on earth would you use excel for in fantasy worldbuilding?

Pthom · Nov 22, 2006

If I may answer for badducky (he may embellish if he wishes), Excel is a fantastic tool for keeping track of characters, events, locations, etc.

The calendar functions alone are worth the trouble to set up a spreadsheet.

sassandgroove · Nov 22, 2006

Badducky and pthom, elaborate, please! Also, thanks ZAK!

badducky · Nov 22, 2006

Pthom's right. Also, an excellent, excellent tool for outlining is this Excel thing. Specifically, you can create a subheading of data, or a new labeled worksheet, and you can keep filling that sheet up with the info that you need.

Also, many of the functions can be rigged to include fantasy-specific data such as your own personal calender, or the phases of two separate moons in separate orbits.

Math is your friend, sometimes. A grumpy friend, indeed, but a friend that will deliver in time of need.

BrianTubbs · Dec 14, 2006

What about...?

I just found this thread. What about for those of us who hate math, accounting, etc. (and I must say I'm surprised to see fantasy writers here who apparently LIKE math, but I digress)? I try to stay away from Excel personally. I know how to use it, but I've never thought of it as a fun program. Are there any other tools, resources, etc. for FANTASY world-building?

tourdeforce · Dec 14, 2006

I never considered Excel to be a storytelling tool and I can't even start to imagine how I could make it work in the process.

(Although I have very little experience with Excel to begin with).

badducky · Dec 14, 2006

Open the file, and give it a shot.

Basically, it's a spreadsheet. If you start playing with it as a tool for outlines and notes, you'll quickly discover why spreadsheets are a daily tool in the business world.

Honestly, if you plan on doing any freelance business writing -- or, heck, TEMPING -- you'll need a working knowledge of Excel.

Run through this quick tutorial and you'll know everything worth knowing to use Excel as an outliner and notepad:
http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/excel/

This will go over some of the basic math stuff, which isn't always that useful to us, but when you start playing with the spreadsheets with what the tutorial calls "descriptions", you'll notice how similar the spreadsheet looks to the good old fashioned outline you learned in grade school, along with an endless number of cells and pages in which to keep your notes all organized and neat and not spread out over your desk where your father (with the best of intentions) can "organize" your desk for you... I'll never forget that day...

The fact that we hate math is exactly why we use computer programs to do it for us.

Of course, I don't hate math. I actually got a C in Calculus I in college. People asked me, a lowly Creative Writing Major, what I was doing in that class. I told them I needed a break from all those hard workshops.

JimmyB27 · Dec 15, 2006

badducky said:
you'll quickly discover why spreadsheets are a daily tool in the business world.

I'll tell you why, because the business world generally doesn't understand what Excel is for.
The company I work for stores a lot of business critical data in spreadsheets, and it's just a rubbish way of storing data. You can't search or update with any degree of complexity, and a big spreadsheet quickly becomes unwieldy and slow to respond.

Databases are your friend. I've been thinking about starting a project to create a worldbuilding databas application, but I've not got around to it yet. Not sure how it would work, except for one thing, it would be much better than a spreadsheet!

Silverhand · Dec 18, 2006

http://www.profantasy.com/

This is a pretty good tool for helping build the appearance of your world...and even populating it.

I also use MS Excel extensively - for sheer data storage.

chibeth · Dec 18, 2006

I use Excel for keeping track of story progress and word count, but for worldbuilding, I use TiddlyWiki. It's the best thing ever. Here's an example of the one I use (which was created by a helpful NaNoWriMo participant). It works best if you right click the above file and save as.

Ordinary_Guy · Dec 20, 2006

Two programs I find invaluable:

Omni Outliner. It's a mac-only program though there are some pretty good outliner apps for windows as well. Any decent outliner app will help create a good world-building timeline.

Photoshop, especially for maps. Create a base layer (original topography/geography/whatever), then create new layers to reflect changes over a period. The period can be just about any span you can imagine and the best part is taking the actual terrain of a story setting and letting it inspire new angles on the story (would they have just gone around the mountain rather than try for the high pass...?). You could even conceivable begin with a screen grab from google maps...

JBI · Dec 20, 2006

Profantasy is good if you can get a free copy, but honestly who is going to pay for something that you can mostly do with pen and paper. Personally, I got the free copy so meh. I must say though, it has some uses in terms of its city design apps, but nothing you can't do with any drawing program or by hand on paper. It just saves time.

ebrillblaiddes · Dec 29, 2006

I have a serious weakness for AutoRealm for maps...though, that said, it's good at regions but sucks at whole round worlds.

Shades of Humanity · Dec 31, 2006

Thanks for the tips on Celestia and Profantasy.

Wonderful!

edit: Tiddlywiki looks interesting for keeping everything organized...will play with that one as well.

Pomona · Jan 14, 2007

I've been using Tiddlywiki for a few months, and I'll vouch for it too. It's a very flexible way of organizing short chunks of text.

(Among it's non-intended uses, it's a fun way to write choose-your-own adventure stories and other non-linear texts. If you like SF, look at Charles Stross' Singularity! - A Tough Guide to the Rapture of the Nerds.)

spacejock2 · Jan 16, 2007

Check out Freemind too. It's cross-platform and freeware.

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