When building your world, did you start micro or macro?
I did a bit of both. Got a continent name and the name of some regions. Then a few city names and important places in them. Working on the big stuff is fun, making countries, histories, that kind of thing. But the thing I like best is getting into the small details. What do the streets look like? Are there any vendors on the street? I'd love to see how others approach it.
I started very micro - I liked to draw proper designs for spacecraft, vehicles, and so on; the rest of the world is largely just an excuse for a framework around which they can develop.
I worldbuild for the TTRPGs I run so my process is definably flavoured of that. First I start really high level with flavour, themes, maturity rating etc. These things are demanded by the system used, what the game is to be about and what I want out of it. Once I have those things I get down nitty-gritty and start building the things that will be before the adventurers, things that will/can come up the coming few sessions. Things includes things such as the starting situation, who and what are involved in it, and how the start looks and feels. This is so that I have a foundation to start at so I initially don't have to worldbuild-as-I-go but can listen to the players and what they find interesting. Something I also do at the start is once I know the starting situation and who/what are involved is to take a few steps back and roughly connect it broader. After all players will come and ask more about the world than what will be in front of their characters. Having some ideas of the larger picture will help them connect their characters to the world.
With that I have the start of the worldbuildning for whatever game I'll be running. From there I'll mostly worldbuild what the game demands of me, making sure that I know enough of the world to present it during play.
With my own setting, I started with the "high concept" - what makes the world unique. After that, I'd zoom around between the different "layers" of the setting, since the "micro" level can shape and inspire the "macro" level and vice versa.
That honestly seems like the way to go. Though I've heard plenty of stories about worlds starting from a single town. I'm lucky in that my world is for D&D, so certain aspects can be shaped by players and I just need to make it fit somewhere.
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