Note: these design diaries were originally published in spring/summer of 2025. The design, and definitely the screenshots, have changed a lot since then! I hope you'll find them an interesting look in the design and development process, and an insight into what does or does not change over the course of development. - nic
Today's design diary is written by the other writer on the game: historian, academic, and game developer Holly Nielsen. Holly was brought on to the game to bring a historian's eye to the writing and worldbuilding, but in a way to make sure things stay believably vague and contradictory, and in my biased opinion you're in for a treat.
Hello! I’m Holly Nielsen, a historian, writer and narrative designer. I’m lucky enough to be working on Amberspire, and Nic has kindly offered this space to let me discuss our approach to narrative..
Being a historian shapes the way I approach narrative and worldbuilding for games in numerous ways, far too many for one post. So for this piece I am limiting myself to talk about one particular aspect- macrohistory and microhistory and the interaction between the two. Macro are the large scale and long term aspects: the big events, wars, eras, the exceptional moments with far reaching consequences, etc. While the micro are the smaller scale: intricacies of everyday life, a community, an individual, a building. Both of these are interesting in their own ways, but it’s where they interact that I often find the most potential for storytelling.
An example of how the macro relates to the micro in Amberspire is the mausoleum. As Nic examined in an earlier post, the city you build is on top of a giant mausoleum where the ground can crumble revealing the dark arched chasm beneath. At first it felt intimidating to try and place something that seems so terrifying in the everyday lives of those in a city. But quickly I realised that we do it every single day, and that people are very adaptable to living with a constant potential threat. A combination of going back to the early inspiration of Venice, and also a trip to Isle of Wight and seeing a pub I visited now tumbling into the sea, made me look to the ocean and water more generally. Large bodies of water are both something that sustains life and also can threaten it. We are constantly trying to fight erosion, and even the most impressive structures can fall to it. This also gives an excellent reason for why if a building is abandoned it potentially will collapse into the mausoleum- because to keep the ground from crumbling requires constant upkeep- just as Venice does against the water.
Inspired by this, a note on how the mausoleum is generally perceived and understood was added to worldbuilding documents. The mausoleum: “people relate to it similarly to how societies have thought of the sea- it's both potentially dangerous, and therefore scary, but also provides resources and therefore gives/enables life, it's beautiful but also horrifying, it can be awe inspiring but also is the backdrop to everyday life, it's also a potential encroaching threat, one that is unstoppable. So it is common and known, but also its depths and true nature are unknown.”
The contradictions offered by the mausoleum felt incredibly grounding. It also led to questions around if residents would gain anything from the mausoleum, as societies and communities do from the sea. This led to a particularly fun message to send to Nic asking if the mausoleum had a fish equivalent. The practical considerations are important to consider when untangling the more ephemeral issues such as perception and emotion. This is an aspect I personally think makes for great worldbuilding documents- not just saying what is in the world, but saying how those things are perceived and felt.
It also leans into an area of academic research I find particularly interesting; environmental and geographical histories. I’m perhaps biased as she was one of my PhD supervisors but the work of historical geographer Professor Veronica della Dora, especially her work on mountains and their role in culture, was a large inspiration. This area of research feels particularly relevant to Amberspire considering how much of the game is about environment, ecology and interaction; allowing the player to reflect on their interaction with the landscape as well as with the city they’ve built. It was also an excellent excuse to spend some more time in an area of research that personally interests me. Always a bonus.
Building off this then allowed me to understand how the micro and macro relate in this instance. The macro is that the moon you develop your city on was built as a giant mausoleum. It looms large both in size, culturally and socially, and in the game’s own mythology. In Amberspire, the micro is largely explored in events. Here are some examples of event outlines with a brief explainer as to what they highlight.
A resident falls into the mausoleum after believing they could see a glint of the entombed sovereign’s armor in the darkness below - this shows that the mausoleum is something that can be seen by some as potentially holding immediate material opportunity on an individual level, while also holding potential “answers” to historical and spiritual questions. The exact motivation and intention of the resident is left ambiguous and up to the player to interpret.
A faction’s underling uncovering an item of disputed provenance while gathering resources - displays a wider interest in the mausoleum by this faction, that interpretations of the mausoleum are disputed, and also gives insight into faction structure and power dynamics.
A community unwilling to vacate when the ground shows signs of weakness, believing they can hold it together - tells the player that physical interactions (and how to deal) with the mausoleum are not homogenous, and although losing structures is commonplace does not necessarily lessen the emotion of communities and individuals to the loss.
My historical background also informs how I interpret these. As a thought experiment I like to imagine that I am an in-world historian, and if I came across these events in the archive and treated them as microhistory studies- what would they tell me about the culture/society/environment/politics. These are the smaller moments that give life to the city. The macro informs the micro, and the micro reveals more about- and gives meaning to- the macro.