Designing worldbuilding pages on website

[schlime9k]

Hi all, I'm finally putting my writings for my own mythology on my website (take a look here!) but have no clue on how to design the pages and make them look nice!

What do your pages look like for your own worldbuilding / stories and what advice can you give me? Thanks everyone!

[lycheecreature]

ik you saw my links in the other thread, so i won't link them again, just wanted to say good luck!! 

tho i will say i was also thinking about making a more straightforward "glossary" page (bc i have a bunch of obnoxious in universe terminology) for my stuff, but i haven't gotten around to it yet.. oh, or a timeline could be cool??

in general tho i think it depends on what you want to emphasize with your world/project. i started w/ my cosmology page since religion is a major theme in the story i'm writing.

[knifex]

LETSGO MORE LORE SITES HOW LOVELY!

For looks, I'd reccomend this wiki template. Its pretty straight forward and highly customizable:
here are some examples of what I've made with it (lamest to coolest)! quinherits, eclipsion, Teens on Mana

Sidenote, the navigation sidebar is smth I commissioned someone yrs ago; steps to make it work under the spoiler

Spoiler

Step 1: add this JS file to ur src folder
Step 2: Make a navcontent.html. here is an example
Step 3 (optional): Make a stylesheet just for your nav. Ex. here, tough classes dont match the navcontent.html I linked, because I gave you my emptiest navcontent
Step 4: add this to every page you want the nav on

Code

<script src="/src/navhandler.js"></script>
 <script>$(function () {$("#getnav").load("/src/navcontent.html", navhandler);}); </script>

I think thats everything!

[close]

Besides that, what I'd recommend is to have fun. Try some color palettes, get yourself some fonts, make it your own! Theres so many options, so many things you can do! Dont be afraid to have some pages that break the mold too!
Best of luck on your endeavors :)

[Skykristal]

oh nice, worldbuilding is so fun! I love what you already have put up there and the map is really neat! Personally I really love to go for a world-inspired theme. Using on-topic colors and textures if that makes sense. my own features a paper-scroll-like design as it fits well with the world's magic rule book & darker vibe of the universe. (fantasy, mysterious, dragons etc. I kinda associate that look with it)

But yeah just try'n mess around with the theme & vibe of your world.. It pretty much depends on what you're going for and the impression you wanna give.

[schlime9k]

LETSGO MORE LORE SITES HOW LOVELY!

I love what you already have put up there and the map is really neat!

Thank you all for your interest in my story, I really appreciate it.

I've had a look over your examples and also your own websites and worldbuilding (all lovely by the way, will be following all of you!) and will be taking some of your advice.

tho i will say i was also thinking about making a more straightforward "glossary" page

I'll be doing this as well, as I realised looking through what I've put up that I have not explained a single thing because it's all stuff I thought up and know... Will be making a glossary very soon (not good-looking but functional)

Personally I really love to go for a world-inspired theme.

This I'll probably end up doing, probably going to take inspo from your stuff @Skykristal if ya don't mind 

[oro_junestar]

Someday, I want to revamp my characters page. Right now, it's just styled like a bunch of wiki pages, which is kinda boring.

One idea I have for a revamp is to make a 'homepage' for the band that four of my characters are in, showing their bios and made-up concert dates and song names. I haven't even figured out the band's name yet, so that might take a while to get to...
I'd also like to have a sorta guided tour-like navigation style for the rest of Vacnas (the planet they're on), showing important landmarks and where the characters hang out. Perhaps each character's pages would be styled the way they'd make their own webpage if they had one!

[schlime9k]

One idea I have for a revamp is to make a 'homepage' for the band that four of my characters are in, showing their bios and made-up concert dates and song names.

Ever since I first saw your Pac-Man shrine (which motivated me to continue working on my own shrines) I've been really interested in your website, OCs and world. I personally really like what it looks like so far but maybe that's just cause I'm a sucker for "all-over-the-place" space-ish web design. Can't wait to see what you design the page to be next, especially with the main four being a band!

I'll probably continue to port and add things over from what I've already written, design the pages to be (temporarily) a wiki-esque thing, and somwhere in the future it'll look nicer and be more interactive...

[oro_junestar]

Ever since I first saw your Pac-Man shrine (which motivated me to continue working on my own shrines) I've been really interested in your website, OCs and world. I personally really like what it looks like so far but maybe that's just cause I'm a sucker for "all-over-the-place" space-ish web design. Can't wait to see what you design the page to be next, especially with the main four being a band!

ooohh thank u so much, that makes me so happy to hear!! ;w;

i've been thinking of redesigning Isper to have more resemblance to kambaba stone, though right now pac-man is occupying too much of my brain cells to let me think about my own ocs >w<

i took a look at ur site and i love it too!! i'm excited to see ur shrines once u make them all :>

[Kolo]

You could consider adding some small headers in to break up the text a little bit. It makes it easier to read, remember your place, and even write them (when doing lore articles myself I tend to start by laying out headers). If you have symbols associated with certain places (like with the links at the bottom of the page) you could consider adding tiny pixel images next to the links or title text. I'm always thinking about adding images because I think it helps with information retention for the reader! You could also consider bolding keywords or in-universe jargon, and supplying a glossary page with said keywords. These are pretty small little ideas but they might help make the pages a little fancier without requiring a huge CSS investment.

Though, just having the text laid out nicely is totally okay for most pages, too. I only break out the really fancy stuff if the idea of the page demands it or it brings another level of interactivity that supports the main page idea. But like... a simple background and easy-to-read text are great as they are.