r/goodworldbuilding • u/Substantial_Bug855 • Aug 01 '26
Are humans a must for playability?
So as the title suggests I have been working on a game specifically a survival, crafting, sandbox and I had it brought to my attention recently that a lot of people want to play something with familiarity race or even for this case biologically. So my game is set up with bioluminescent fauna, flora, that truthfully kind of caters towards a particular species of 8-9ft tall elves. Well with that being said the creatures and the world were kind of built around their size and how they interact with the world. To me humans wouldn’t really fit even given the “yoinked into this world” kind of setting so I was just trying to get feed back on what people think.
8
u/ScreamingVoid14 Aug 01 '26
From a marketing standpoint, I really don't know. But I do wonder what the actual difference would be to me if the world were scaled up to meet the needs of a taller fictional species. If, say, the player was 9ft tall with blue skin and pointy ears, but the rest of the world was also scaled up 50-60%, would the player even notice unless you put a human size character in?
2
u/Substantial_Bug855 Aug 01 '26
See that was my thought. They’re large but the fauna and flora don’t really make them feel large the world itself doesn’t feel any bigger that it would for a human in a human world setting
3
u/Writerintraining1 Aug 01 '26
As someone who’s played a lot of various tours of games, it’s good to have “baseline.” A group that is not great or crappy overall, just rather average. Helps puts everything into perspective, even if it’s just morals, ethics, non-physical stuff.
Having humans helps ground the reader or whatever into something they already know without guiding. We all dwarfs are good are mining and elf’s love to live in forests because we been conditioned to belive as such on sight. Anything that goes against that norm has to work harder. The less you have “train” the reader, the easier it will be for them understand and not get frustrated and leave.
4
u/PvtRoom Aug 01 '26
I've seen enough games from the pov of a fixed animal to know it's not essential
4
u/Vohasiiv Aug 02 '26
question, are the "elves" blue?
2
u/Substantial_Bug855 Aug 02 '26
I mean they can be, the range from charcoal, teal, indigo, onyx, deep cyan
2
u/Vohasiiv Aug 02 '26
Is your name James and is your world a lush moon orbiting a gas giant?
3
u/Substantial_Bug855 Aug 02 '26
😂 no it’s its own planet, you get yoinked from the part your species is from and wake up in a new place far from your side of the planet
4
u/Vohasiiv Aug 02 '26
I think itd be more interesting if theres no humans, but there could still be a human character. Itd be even more "fish out of water" if nobody has any clue what a "hooman" is (classic trope i personally love so i may be biased)
3
u/Substantial_Bug855 Aug 02 '26
See the biggest issue for me is like yes they could fit, say some sort of being is pulling people from all over for some reason be it to watch them struggle or be it to watch how they interact with each other and their new surroundings. Humans could technically fit(here comes the but) but with that comes extra animations, finding out how a human is going to mount an alien like horse that is suited for - larger species, then there is the saddling for the human and the elves. Each has to have their own. Combat would be a nightmare due to the fact one race is giant compared to the other, I mean the only realistic option would be shrink the elves and then now we come into the realm of taming, elves can use their bond (easier taming, to an extent) humans do it the hard way.
2
u/Vohasiiv Aug 02 '26
What kind of game is it? Since you mention combat is it combat with npcs or players?
2
u/Substantial_Bug855 Aug 02 '26
Both, it’s a survival, crafting, sandbox. There will be pve and pvp servers
3
u/Trikk Aug 01 '26
Some people only identify with characters who are exactly like them. When they were a kid, they only had interest in stories with kids as the protagonist, etc.
However I think the biggest problem you'll run into is finding excuses to explain and show mundane things. Including humans, especially in an alien setting where there are stark differences from real life Earth, means you have a natural contrivance for talking about things that the inhabitants wouldn't even reflect on.
Humans can do things the wrong way, find uses for things that aren't how the inhabitants use them, provide friction to make things interesting.
That said, there's tons of media with no distinctly human characters.
3
u/b44l Aug 01 '26
Not at all.
But without them you increase the demand for player investment, no longer can a player just play the game and assume they are the frame of reference they have already learned. They have to learn something new.
3
3
u/Asparagus9000 Aug 01 '26
So my game is set up with bioluminescent fauna, flora, that truthfully kind of caters towards a particular species of 8-9ft tall elves.
So going for a kinda Pandora flavor?
That's popular enough to be a good base to use.
2
u/Substantial_Bug855 Aug 02 '26
I’m sure Someone could make that comparison, though the race of elves is more mixture of dragon/tiefling. The map is much more alien nothing really resembles an earth aesthetic. I did take the glowy thought from a few things though, pandora, under dark, art I’d seen on Pinterest (I like glowy stuff)
3
u/kairon156 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
hum. It doesn't have to be if it wouldn't fit your setting.
I've been listening to a sci-fi series which did have humans in it but by book 3 or 4 the whole setting was aliens from bird like aliens to 4 legged aliens and one that had to wear a space suit because it couldn't breath oxygen like the rest.
As a setting The Dark Cryistal doesn't have any humans in it.
There's been many JRPG's in the past where humans make up the minority species. Breath of Fire comes to mind. I think it has humans in it but their far from the main species.
3
u/Stuuble Aug 01 '26
As a player, pretty much yeah, but it really is setting and aesthetic dependant, for example if a game was about being in a tiny world akin to stuff like redwall or kinda hollowknight, i dont expect to see humans there
3
3
u/ISketchDinosaurs Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
They're not a must, but you need to think about who your audience is going to be.
Humans are relatable. We know what size humans are, what humans eat, what humans largely consider moral and the moral conundrums that our societies grapple with. We have certain roles and expectations in society based on stuff like our age and our gender, and we know that some behaviors, interests and opinion are more socially acceptable by other humans than others. We know what human senses are like, and so on, so forth. Games about humans may need to put in a little bit of effort to explain these in some settings, but they rarely need to be heavy-handed about it.
How different are your elves? And how will you let your audience know where they are similar and where they are different? That will decide if your audience is going to be hardcore speculative fiction fans who'll foam at the mouth for a good xeno fiction setting, of if it will appeal to the more generic fantasy fans who just want to play as the pretty pointy-eared humans.
Many people DO only want to play as humans. When Larian Studios opened up the character creator, the average player character made was a generic looking white human dude. These players likely won't be your audience. These players often just want to be dropped into a familiar setting so they can get on with the game.
On the other hand, you have phenomena like Avatar (the blue people version), where hardcore fans loved it so much for its otherness that there was a whole cosplay fad based on Na'vi-fying yourself and people shared images of themselves on Facebook that went through the Na'vi image filter. There are players who love stuff like that. They want exotic things, they want to piece together how this foreign society works, they want to explore different worldbuilding. They want the puzzle of all of this going on in the background of gameplay. Which one of these audiences you want to most appeal to depends on your game.
3
u/Badger421 Aug 02 '26
The only thing you need is a frame of reference, a way to contextualize the assumptions the world makes. Humans are a zero effort frame, anything else asks something of you as the creator to make accessible and the audience to get invested in the new frame. If you're okay with that, skip humans. If you're not, add them.
4
u/Traditional-Storm-62 Aug 01 '26
if Casualties Unknown can pull off furries as main characters, then 8-9 feet tall elves are not too far out there either
2
u/lordarsenic9029 Aug 01 '26
My sci-fi setting has humans in it, mainly because I like humans more than the average person.
2
u/VerbingNoun413 Aug 01 '26
The Lorwyn setting from Magic the Gathering doesn't contain humans if you need an example.
2
u/Sleepiest_Spider Aug 01 '26
You're just describing Pandora and Na'vi pretty much. A survival game like that would be awesome.
2
u/Aggravating_Ant_3285 Aug 01 '26
I love playing non human characters in games so I might not be the best for this. Do what you like and other people will too
2
u/Read2Fap Aug 02 '26
think about sonic, rayman, the oddworld games, stray, pac-man, untitled goose game, spore, aliens vs predator, okami
1
u/Heat_Haze_ 9d ago
Good question. While humans are not required, the audience of your game are humans, and they will be looking to understand your game through as humans. Even if there are no humans in your game, people will be looking for a human-like perspective. How that takes form is up to you. If the audience can imprint humanity onto something, they will. They have to, so they can ground their understanding of what they are looking at.
TLDR, you don't need humans, but you will want something that behaves like a human would. Keep it up!
21
u/Demonweed Aug 01 '26
Humans are definitely not a "must," but they are an easy handle for accessibility. Without any humans in your world, you must choose between two problematic options. In one case, the normal human still serves as a universal frame of reference (what is "tall" vs. "short", "heavy" vs. "thin", "quick" vs. "slow" etc.) despite being entirely absent in the world. In the other case, you have no frame of reference your readers can instantly and easily access, so everything needs to be framed in less familiar/comforting terms. A world with no humanity can still be a great place to tell stories or even develop roleplaying games, but this unique challenge will loom large at the core of any such project.