Welcome to the first-ever International Worldbuilding Day on February 18th! Worldbuilding is for anyone who dreams of a better world. It’s an act of radical imagination that allows us to step into the role of our creatorship, rethinking everything from personal identity to global systems. In a world overwhelmed by uncertainty, worldbuilding is how we reclaim our agency, rediscover meaning, and design hopeful futures.
This year’s theme is Radical Hope, we invite you to join the movement with these ten fun and creative challenges.
Whether you’re ready to dive deep or just dabble, I believe there’s something for everyone. Start today, build momentum, and let’s create a brighter, more imaginative tomorrow together!
3 Daily Challenges Leading Up to Worldbuilding Day
For those who want to build the habit of imagining possible futures, these bite-sized exercises are perfect to do every day leading up to February 18th:
- Radical Hope Journaling
- Write down one thing you hope exists in the future—a sustainable city, universal education, a way to heal old wounds—and describe it in detail. Focus on how it works and why it matters.
- What it does: Builds a practice of imagining solutions to today’s problems while anchoring your hope in action.
- Reimagine the Everyday
- Choose one aspect of your life—your commute, your lunch, or even your wardrobe—and imagine how it might evolve in fifty years. What new tools, designs, or values might shape it?
- What it does: Shifts your perspective to see how even small parts of life can transform.
- “What If?” Prompts
- Take a few minutes each day to answer one of these:
- What if cities were built in the sky?
- What if everyone could talk to animals?
- What if we solved climate change tomorrow—how would the world look in ten years?
- What it does: Sparks creative thinking and builds your capacity to imagine beyond the present.
- Take a few minutes each day to answer one of these:
4 Fun Challenges for February 18th
On International Worldbuilding Day, let’s go big! These challenges are designed to inspire collaboration and deeper reflection:
- “Build a World in 30 Minutes”
- Grab some friends or go solo and imagine a new world. Decide:
- What’s the environment like?
- How do people live?
- What’s one major cultural value?
- Bonus: Name your world and share it online with #WorldbuildingDay!
- Grab some friends or go solo and imagine a new world. Decide:
- Letters from the Future
- Write a letter from your future self to your present self. What advice do they give? What challenges have they overcome? What hope do they share?
- Bonus: Read it aloud to someone or record it as a video.
- Create a Future Artifact
- Design or describe an object from a possible future world. What does it look like? How is it used? Why is it important?
- Share a sketch or description of your artifact on social media!
- Radical Collaboration Game
- Partner with someone—friends, family, or even coworkers—and create a fictional society together. One person designs the technology, another the environment, and another the culture.
- What it does: Fosters teamwork and helps you see how systems connect.
3 Ways to Dive Even Deeper
For those who want to take worldbuilding to the next level, here are immersive ways to expand your imagination:
- Community Futures Collage
- Gather images from magazines or online and create a visual collage of your ideal future community. How does it look? Feel? Function?
- Bonus: Host a virtual or in-person collage party with friends!
- Worldbuilding for Justice
- Pick a real-world challenge—like homelessness or environmental degradation—and imagine a fictional world where it’s solved. How did the people in that world achieve it?
- What it does: Encourages actionable thinking about the present through the lens of possibility.
- The Collective Map
- Join others in creating a shared world. Use a shared Google Doc, a whiteboard, or even sticky notes to design a map of your world.
- Add mountains, cities, rivers—but also the stories of the people who live there.
Why Worldbuilding Matters
Worldbuilding is a active philosophy of hope. When we imagine new worlds, we take ownership of our capacity to shape reality. It’s a practice of radical agency and radical imagination, a deep reminder that the systems we live in were built by human hands and can be reimagined by them too.
On International Worldbuilding Day, we invite you to reclaim your role as a creator. Whether you’re sketching an artifact, imagining a future city, or simply journaling your dreams, every act of worldbuilding is an act of radical imagination. Together, we can dream bigger and build a future that’s more inclusive, sustainable, and joyful.
Let’s start today. I believe the future begins with what we dare to imagine.
Share your creations, reflections and tag us with #WorldbuildingDay! Let’s flood the world with hope and imagination this February 18th.
Toolkit by Syllble Founder & CEO Fabrice Guerrier