One reason I created Iron Arachne is because I'm fascinated with all of the aspects of worldbuilding. There are so many facets of this, though, that attempting

One reason I created Iron Arachne is because I'm fascinated with all of the aspects of worldbuilding. There are so many facets of this, though, that attempting to build One Generator to Rule Them All is impossible. Instead, I take the approach of creating discrete generators that build a single aspect of Reality, and model, mock, or handwave related concepts. For example, the planet generator generates only a handful of statistics and a pretty neat image, rather than billions of years of history, tectonics, etc. A game like Dwarf Fortress goes farther, in attempting to simulate the evolution of a world. This leads to all kinds of interesting and weird phenomena in the "final" version of the world that the player starts in. One of the difficulties with this approach is that people often expect a coherent and familiar world with enough differences that it feels novel. A simulated universe that has evolved from a random initial state is going to feel alien and more difficult to resonate with. So, worldbuilding is a balancing act between detail and narrative. Too much of one makes the other feel stale or wrong.