Worldbuilding

What is a worldbuilding card

The first tab in story elements is “Worldbuilding”. Each card here is not about one person or one place. It is a rule the whole comic must follow, such as “the tide goes out only once a day” or “it never rains in this city.”

Each worldbuilding card has two fields:

• What the rule is: write this rule clearly in one sentence;
• What to draw in the image: what the place where this rule happens looks like. This is an empty scene with no people.

How the assistant builds them

During planning, the assistant uses the final “Rules” section of the synopsis and creates one card for each rule. It also creates one special card for the “world aesthetic”: what the whole world looks like. Each comic has only one.

For the assistant, worldbuilding cards have three types:

• World aesthetic: what the whole world looks like;
• Visual rules: rules the drawn images must follow;
• Story rules: rules the beats must follow.

The UI does not show which type a card belongs to. Worldbuilding cards you create yourself count as “visual rules.” If you want to change one into a story rule, just tell the assistant.

How it is used in panels

When Wapopo draws each storyboard panel, it automatically includes these. You do not need to attach them panel by panel:

• the description on the “world aesthetic” card;
• all visual rules.

Story rules are not added to images. The assistant only uses them when writing the story and checking whether things stay consistent.

Worldbuilding cards do not appear in the appearances list, and their images are not used as reference images when drawing panels. Panels rely on the text on the card. If you change the worldbuilding, panels drawn after that will follow the new version. Panels that were already drawn will not be marked as old drafts.

Why write rules as separate cards? Something like “it never rains in this city” is easy to forget if it only lives in the synopsis. Then rain may suddenly appear in panel 20. When you write it as a worldbuilding card, every panel carries it automatically. No one has to remember it.

Images for worldbuilding cards

Worldbuilding cards can also have images. Wapopo draws a 3:4 empty scene based on “What to draw in the image.” There will be no people. It costs 100 credits. If “What to draw in the image” is empty, Wapopo cannot draw it.

This image is only for you to see what the world looks like. It will not be used as a reference image for panels. It also cannot be used on the cover, and it does not appear in the relationship chart.