World Builder

World Builder
by Paul Lee profile

Science Fiction
2012

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Asimovian vignette, June 13, 2013

by Jim Kaplan (Jim Kaplan has a room called the location. The location of Jim Kaplan is variable.)
Related reviews: paul lee

Play it if: you're in the mood for a short, high-concept piece of sci-fi.

Don't play it if: you're in the mood for puzzles or much in the way of interactivity.

World Builder seems to draw strong influence from the Isaac Asimov short story "The Last Question". I could be wrong about that, but given the common themes of man, machine, and cosmic godhood, I think I could be forgiven for drawing the comparison.

Perhaps appropriately, World Builder as a narrative shares most of The Last Question's strengths and weaknesses. It succeeds in moments where it evokes grand imagery and higher powers: this is a universe inhabited by machine intelligences, planetary designs and would-be gods. The prose is acceptable, perhaps under-implemented in places but functional in conveying the settings and possessed of occasional moments of striking imagery. The scope of the story requires that the characters speak with Tolkienic grandiosity, which while appropriate does serve to distance the player from any deep emotional connection with the characters, especially given the short length of the game; beside their immediate goals, the characters are generally ciphers. This is not entirely a flaw in a short game emphasizing high-concept imagery: "The Last Question" also had fairly flat and static characters, and it's (by most standards) a gem of sci-fi short stories (Asimov's personal favorite, incidentally, and my favorite short story of his ouevre).

As a game, there's not much to speak of. There are no real puzzles and no real gameplay stakes - as far as I can tell, there's no way to lose, though perhaps the game was just very forgiving. This is understandable when dealing with a PC who is close to apotheosis, but it does make me wonder if the story of "World Builder" wouldn't have been better served as straightforward fiction than as IF.

Still, a diverting five minutes of your time.

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strivenword, June 14, 2013 - Reply
Awesome, thank you!

I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't read Asimov. However, I love the movie I, Robot, and that film was probably a great influence, so perhaps Asimov's touch is evident indirectly.

For the Hugo mini comp, we decided to draw inspiration from the pre-release trailer for the movie Hugo. I watched that trailer and saw the image of the steampunk, gear-based android boy. I'm pretty sure Tales of a clockwork boy must have been inspired by the same image. At any rate, I know I was explicitly thinking of the character of Sonny in I, Robot after that. The other influence I was conscious of is the space opera television show Babylon 5. I was aiming for the sense of cosmic scope and intense theme that I liked so much from Babylon 5.

Jim Kaplan, June 14, 2013 - Reply
Thanks for the reply! That's interesting to know. I definitely recommend looking up "The Last Question" - it's short, accessible, and I'm fairly sure available for free online.

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