What is Lore?

Lore in game design is the invisible scaffolding of the world — the stories, history, culture, and logic that exist behind the scenes.

Lore doesn’t tell the player what to do. It tells them where they are, why it matters, and what came before.

1️⃣ Definition

Lore is the internal mythology, history, and logic of a game world — a body of contextual knowledge that adds meaning, texture, and cohesion to environments, factions, events, and characters.

It’s not what the game explains. It’s what the world assumes is already known.

📍Lore is only valuable when it serves tone, coherence, or emotional resonance — not just quantity.

2️⃣ Why Lore Matters

Role	What It Enables	Example
World coherence	Rules feel consistent, not arbitrary	Dark Souls’ cryptic but unified cosmology
Depth & mystery	Players feel there’s more beneath the surface	Bloodborne’s layered mythos
Emotional context	Places and objects gain weight	The Master Sword in Zelda carries mythic legacy
Exploration reward	Lore becomes its own collectible	Hollow Knight’s fragments of history hidden in ruins
Player investment	Fans build theories, connections, headcanon	Elder Scrolls’ books, calendars, political maps

📍Good lore invites curiosity. Great lore survives outside the quest log.

3️⃣ Forms of Lore

Form	Description	Game Example
Environmental	Ruins, architecture, corpse placement	Dark Souls tells war history through space
Item Descriptions	Flavor text expands unseen context	Hades, Destiny 2 lore tabs
Dialogue fragments	NPCs hint at history or worldview	Disco Elysium’s broken utopias
Codex / Archives	Collectible or reference-based lore	Mass Effect’s galaxy codex
Books / Scrolls / Journals	Written records in-world	Skyrim’s book libraries
Implied	Patterns, names, rituals with no explanation	Shadow of the Colossus’ unspoken past

📍Don’t frontload lore — embed it in the world. Let players stumble into history.

4️⃣ Lore vs Story vs Worldbuilding

Concept	What It Covers	Player Experience
Lore	Pre-existing past and context	“What has happened here?”
Story	Present events the player witnesses or shapes	“What’s happening to me?”
Worldbuilding	Systems and logic that make it all work	“What kind of place is this?”

📍Lore enriches both worldbuilding and story — but it must be felt, not just read.

✅ Lore Design Checklist

Does the lore reinforce themes and atmosphere?

Is it discoverable — not forced or frontloaded?

Can it be ignored without confusion, but rewarded when explored?

Does it invite curiosity, theorycraft, or emotional framing?

Are the details consistent and non-contradictory?

📍Treat lore as clay, not stone. Let mystery and gaps live — players will shape them.

Summary

Term	Lore
What it is	The underlying mythology, history, and context of a game world
Why it matters	Adds coherence, depth, and emotional weight
How it’s delivered	Through space, items, characters, documents, and implication
Design goal	Make the world feel like it existed before the player — and might go on after

📍Lore is not exposition. It’s the feeling that this world has roots — and you’ve only just touched the surface.