Inspiration, Not a Field Guide
Why the World of Us Looks the Way It Does
Walk through the Shadow Forest and you'll notice some curious things. Maybe the rocks are arranged a little too neatly, the vegetation a little too tidy, the paths a little too inviting.
That's not an accident. It's a choice.
World of Us was never designed to be a simulation of the ecosystems we’ve visited. It's a child-friendly invitation to become curious about them. Real forests are magnificent, but they're also visually overwhelming, filled with winding paths, overgrown with roots and foliage.
To an 8-year-old, exploring a game world means they will need readable spaces: clear paths, distinct landmarks, moments of calm between discoveries.
For us it’s crucial to still keep young people on these clearer paths. We want to encourage them to explore offline spaces but to remain safe at all times, in clear sight of their guardians. What they see in the game will build their confidence in roaming but with the guardrails to find familiar spots to our guided online world.
Ecologists who have reviewed our world rightly pointed out that real elephant habitats are tangled, browsed, and trampled. Not at all like the manicured groves we built. They're correct, and without their expertise being considered we wouldn’t be doing our job right either.
Some of the feedback we receive will directly improve the game: tigers will no longer lounge on tree branches (did you know that's leopard behaviour?), and our riversides will gain more of the green density that defines waterways in the western ghats. But other choices we'll stand by.
Structured environments help children navigate. By simplifying the landscapes we can keep attention on the species, foods, and stories we want our young players to meet. It helps to think of our world the way you'd think of an illustrated storybook: the drawings aren't photographs, but they can still spark a real journey.
In our ideal world, a child who wanders our stylised forest will become an adult who walks into a real one – and finds it even wilder, messier, and more wonderful than the game promised. World of Us is an entry point for curious kids to spark a lifetime of adventure offline.