How RimWorld Was Made and Why it’s Not a Video Game

How RimWorld Was Made

This RimWorld documentary details the development of indie space colony management game RimWorld and goes behind the scenes of its creation. Discover how solo developer Tynan Sylvester created prototype after prototype before he landed on the idea for RimWorld. Starship Architect was the name of the prototype that evolved into RimWorld. The original idea was to let players design a spaceship, travel across the galaxy, and engage in real-time battles. It had potential, but something felt off. Instead of scrapping the whole thing, he stripped away the starship and moved the characters to the surface of a planet. And just like that, RimWorld was born. The documentary also explores all the design decisions that Tynan Sylvester made and shows why RimWorld is not a video game.

It also takes a close look at all the hurdles Tynan Sylvester had to go through. Tynan didn’t want players to win or lose in the traditional sense. He wanted them to experience something—something emotional, unpredictable, and personal. And to build a system that could do that, he would have to break a lot of the assumptions baked into traditional game design. Tynan experimented with several art styles, but the more detail he added, the less the player was able to connect to their colony. He needed to find a sweet spot where things didn’t look too ugly, but also left room for interpretation. To keep development on track, Tynan developed a system for deciding what to work on next. It involves comparing hundreds of ideas and selecting the ones that add the most value per cost. Lastly, the documentary looks at how RimWorld was received at release and what Tynan decided to do afterwards.