Brandon Sanderson has become one of fantasy’s most prominent authors, publishers and commentators. Alongside expanding his Cosmere universe almost every year, he regularly discusses the mechanics of fantasy writing, from world-building to the magic systems associated with J.R.R. Tolkien.
In an earlier conversation with fellow fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie, the pair examined the opportunities and risks of epic fantasy. Game of Thrones became a useful example: its enormous scale helped make it successful, but that same scale could make the story harder to keep intimate and coherent.
“I grew up reading the big epics. I think it’s the most natural form for fantasy in some ways. It gives you a lot of time to dig into that world and immerse yourself in it and explore another place. I think that’s why Game of Thrones did well,” Sanderson said.
He also pointed to a practical danger familiar to anyone attempting a large fantasy project: exhaustion. Sanderson has described needing to step away from his own writing after reaching roughly the tenth revision of a draft.
How epic fantasy can lose its personal focus
Sanderson’s broader concern is that a story can begin with a strong emotional centre before gradually expanding beyond its main characters. As more locations, factions and supporting figures enter the narrative, the author may become increasingly interested in the edges of the world rather than the people who first drew readers into it.
“Epic fantasy has this danger. It starts very personal, and then it can drift away from being personal about the characters if you’re not careful,” Sanderson said. “Authors tend to get more excited about side characters later on. We see this happening a bit in Game of Thrones and in A Wheel of Time.”
For Sanderson, the challenge is maintaining freshness, emotional connection and momentum even when the story has grown vast. That problem is not unique to television: it also affects authors, screenwriters and game designers building worlds with multiple storylines.
Why maps can create narrative problems
The discussion returned to maps, a subject the writers had raised during a previous conversation in 2025 about Abercrombie’s The Devils, released the previous year.
Abercrombie clarified that he likes maps when they serve a clear purpose. What he dislikes is their careless use, particularly when a map is presented before the reader has formed a close connection with the characters.
“When I was first writing The First Law, I guess I wanted to write something that was very character focused, that was almost told in tight close-up on the people,” Abercrombie said. “To start with the widest shot imaginable of the whole world felt like exactly the wrong kind of tone.”
A map can make a fictional world easier to understand, while also promising a level of geographical realism. Once distances and routes are visible, readers may naturally question how quickly characters travel, why armies take particular paths or how a group moves from one location to another.
Sanderson used later Game of Thrones seasons as an example of the difficulty. When a series presents itself as realistic, rapid movement between distant locations can become conspicuous if the story does not explain the journey.
“When you’re trying to be very realistic when presenting some of that stuff, it can get you into trouble,” Sanderson added. “I still love them.”
The same principle applies to interactive entertainment. A map in a game can strengthen a sense of place, but it can also invite players to compare visible distances with travel times, level design and the story’s internal logic. For more coverage of gaming and industry developments, visit RETROCADE’s arcade blog.
George R.R. Martin’s long-running scale problem
George R.R. Martin has openly discussed the difficulty of reducing the scope of an epic series. A Song of Ice and Fire is planned as a seven-book cycle, with five novels published so far. The sixth book, The Winds of Winter, has been in progress for 15 years.
The television adaptation eventually moved beyond the published chronology of the novels, adding another complication as the screen story accelerated ahead of Martin’s books.
Sanderson may also have a personal reason for continuing to think about the series’ strengths and weaknesses. He is working to adapt his own epic settings for film and television after reaching a major agreement with Apple. His current plans include writing a screenplay for a Mistborn film, followed by a pilot for a Stormlight Archive television series.
Martin’s experience offers a close example of the pressures that can accompany ambitious fantasy adaptations. For readers and creators alike, the lesson is not that expansive worlds are a mistake. Rather, scale needs to remain connected to character, geography and the practical movement of the story.
That balance is familiar to anyone designing a game world or planning a home arcade setup: presentation matters, but structure matters just as much. RETROCADE’s arcade machine buying guide offers a practical starting point for choosing the right format, while arcade machines provide a range of cabinet styles for different spaces.
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