(Almost) Announcing the Next Templin Institute Ongoing Series

Attention Institute Personnel! Earlier in the year, we mentioned that we were working on a new miniseries of similar scope to Stellaris Invicta. Half the Institute has been struck down with some kind of sickness this last week, so in lieu of an episode today, I wanted to provide a brief update on this new project and solicit any feedback you might have before we announce it in earnest. We’ll save a lot of the context and details for that latter announcement, and instead skip right to the meat of it all.

The Templin Institute is going to be building its own original universe.

It might or might not look something like this, (Unrelated artwork by our friend Joan Piqué Llorens)

Unlike Stellaris Invicta or Star Wars Reimagined, this won’t be tied to any existing game or property, but a new fresh idea where we are free to do whatever we want without limitations. And we won’t be building this new universe behind closed doors, but openly. This new miniseries will follow our progress and showcase our results. You’ll get to follow along as we build a new alternate world.

My hope is that this series will be a kind of guide or case study on how to create your own alternate worlds. Each video will focus on a specific aspect of worldbuilding, and we’ll talk about all the questions and considerations that go into that aspect. We’re still working out the finer details, but I think I can give an example of what this series will probably look like.

Imagine if “Building Your Interstellar Navy” was just the first half of a video. We discuss all the different elements and ideas related to interstellar navies, but then in the second half, we put all those ideas into practice. The video then concludes with an example of an interstellar navy that the Templin Institute has created. Sort of like how the “First Order Doesn’t Work” was followed by “The First Order Reimagined”. This new series is a blend of all these different things the Templin Institute has already been doing.

Part of the appeal of this, is that we’ll be free to create a new universe in the way we feel it should be done. We won’t be beholden to the rules of an existing franchise, or the sometimes-random events of a Stellaris. That said, we’re still going to be looking for ways to involve this community. We’ll have plenty more to say about this aspect in the official announcement.

Until then, I’m very interested to hear your reaction and thoughts on this project. It’s going to be a complicated endeavor with a lot of moving parts, and if you have any suggestions or ideas for what you’d like to see, feel free to let me know. I’m particularly interested in if this announcement made any sense at all to you. Do you have at least a rough understanding of what this series will be like? Much of its success will be in how well we can explain it, the nightmare scenario would be for us to release our official announcement and have every comment be something akin to “I have no idea what this is”.

Maybe there will be cool space shuttles, or something else entirely. (Unrelated artwork by our friend Joan Piqué Llorens)

And lastly, I know that the first question you probably had is “what kind of universe will the Templin Institute be building?” Well, that’s going to be the first decision you’ll get to make. Right now we’re preparing three different ideas: a military-science fiction universe, an historical fantasy world, and a post-apocalyptic science-fantasy setting.

We’re going to have a ton more to say about this, but these choices will not all be equal, but might instead be seen as “difficulty levels”, going from easy, medium, and hard. Part of this is because one option is something I’ve been working on for decades and already have a lot ready to go (that many of you might recognize), the second choice is something I’ve only sporadically thought about, while the last will be almost completely from the ground up.

So! Until then, please give me your feedback! Is this new series of interest to you?