Worlds Adrift developer Bossa Studios is inviting fans and followers to take part in a creative writing contest, with the winning entry being added to the the game as a piece of official lore. Submissions can be made in any written format—prose, poetry, script—as long as they're no more than 500 words and based upon the history of the game.

Of course, that history is largely unknown (and unformed) at this point, but that's the point of the contest. “We want to encourage the community to speculate and create the lore for the Worlds Adrift universe. Fans are already creating their own fan-fiction for the game and we want to encourage this,” Bossa explained. “The launch of the contest will also coincide with the launch of the ‘Creative Writing’ section on the forum, which will become the home for all budding writers in the forum.”

“Feel free to do your own thing. You won’t be penalised for non-conformity, or lack of context. This is a writing competition, and the best bit of writing will triumph,” Bossa's Matt Cook added in a separate forum post. “My suggestion (to all entrants) would be to free yourself from all but the most obvious pillars of fact you have seen in the images and information about the game, and even then, do not feel you need to present all or any of those (e.g skyships, creatures). Channel your subconscious, and out may come the spirit of a place, and that will be enough.”

To help aspiring writers get started, Bossa posted a pair of “prompts,” one an image and the other a text-based extract of a book or NPC diary taken from the game. The studio will also release bits and pieces of official lore into the forum on a daily basis throughout the contest, to help inspire writers and fuel further speculation about the history of the game world.

The Worlds Adrift writing contest is live now and runs until February 9. Full contest rules and other such details are yours to examine at Worldsadrift.com.