How do I create a world?

This page is the short editor walkthrough (how to start, playtest, refine, and publish). For how to write each section, use the Creating worlds guide.

Open the World Editor from your dashboard. You can start in several ways:

Generate with AI: describe your concept and the AI builds a complete draft (lore, characters, trackers, instructions, everything). Costs credits, but the first generation is free.
Blank world: start from an empty template and fill in each section yourself.
Make a solo character: create a one-on-one character world with a custom greeting and scenario.
Import content: upload an Imagina world JSON, character card, lorebook, or AI Dungeon story cards.

Importing content

Choose Import content, then upload a JSON or PNG file. Character cards become solo-character drafts. Lorebooks become new world drafts with their usable entries added to the Lore Book section. AI Dungeon story cards work the same way, except character cards become characters.

Importing is approximate because other apps support settings that Imagina does not. The preview lists anything converted, simplified, or skipped. Open the draft, review every section, and click Create only when you are happy with it.

AI generation can take a minute or two. You can close the tab and come back. The world appears in your dashboard when it's ready.

What's in the editor?

The editor hub is grouped by purpose:

Basics: world info (title, description, cover image), tags, author notes, and changelog.

Story: AI instructions, named instruction blocks, the journey opening (introduction, objective, first action), and endings.

Characters: playable characters (with portraits) and NPCs.

Lore (optional): lore book and locations.

Gameplay (optional): RPG, dice, trackers, world settings, text effects, turn images, extra images, and nudges.

Advanced (optional): story arcs, story beats, writing style, and the outcome system.

Use the display selector in the editor toolbar to choose how you move through these categories. Grouped opens one category at a time from the hub. All fields places the same categories in one scrollable form, with category buttons and section links in a sidebar or the editor menu on narrow screens. This choice is saved on your device and does not change the world itself.

Playtesting

Hit Playtest in the toolbar to launch a test journey against your current draft. Play a few turns, see how the AI handles your instructions, then go back and adjust.

Refining with AI

After playtesting, open Refine with AI. Describe what needs fixing ("NPCs are too passive", "the tracker never changes", "pacing is off") and the AI proposes changes. You review them in a diff view and accept or reject each one. Refinement costs credits.

Publishing

When you're happy with a version:

Make sure the world has a title card image.
Hit Publish. The world goes live and appears in Browse for other players.
You get a shareable URL and a short world code players can use to find it.

You can only have one published version at a time. Create new versions without losing old ones, and switch which one is live whenever you want. Unpublish to hide the world from discovery.

Before publishing, you can share a draft version with a link. This lets testers or collaborators try the world without it going public.

Duplicating a world

Open More actions in the editor toolbar (the editor menu on a phone) and choose Duplicate world. Edit the name of the copy, then hit Duplicate. The copy is a new private draft owned by you, made from the version you have open as last saved, and the original world is not changed. Every image comes along with its own files: title card, background, portraits, galleries and sprites, location pictures, maps, extra images, and Codex art. Exporting a world as JSON and importing it does not keep images, so this is the way to copy a world with its pictures.

Save first. Unsaved changes are not included, and the popup warns you if there are any.
Copying can take a while on a large world with many images. Keep the window open until it finishes, then open the copy or stay in the editor. If some images could not be found, the result says how many were left out.
Universe membership is not carried over. A world that was itself copied from another creator keeps its "Original world by" credit.
To iterate on the same world, create a new version instead. Duplicate makes a separate world, for a big rework or a sequel.