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IP Bible Development

IP bibles that let many teams build one franchise

One franchise. Many teams. No shared rules.

Your franchise started with one team and one game. Now there is a sequel in development, a live-service roadmap, a licensing partner asking for guidance, and a screen adaptation in early talks. Everyone is building on the same world, and nobody is working from the same page.

The cracks are familiar. A licensee invents backstory that contradicts the sequel. A new studio asks questions the original writers could have answered, but they left two years ago. Marketing publishes lore that is not lore. Every contradiction is small, until it is not.

What an IP bible is

An IP bible is the single source of truth for your franchise. It records what is canon and what is not: the rules of the world, the characters, the tone, the timeline, the things that must never change, and the places where there is room to play.

It is not a style guide, and it is not a wiki. It is the working document every internal team, partner and licensee builds from, so dozens of people can create inside the same world without breaking the thing that makes it worth owning.

What goes in one

Signs you need one

How an engagement runs

Most IP bible engagements run four to six weeks.

  1. Immersion. We read, play and watch everything that exists, and interview the people who know the world best.
  2. Canon baseline. We settle what is canon, and flag the contradictions already sitting in the material.
  3. Drafting. World rules, characters, tone and the narrative framework, written in language teams can actually use.
  4. Review. We work through the draft with your leads and agree the guardrails together.
  5. Handover. You get the finished bible, the franchise action plan, and a walkthrough for the teams who will use it.

What you get

Proof: the Payday franchise

For Payday, I was commissioned by Starbreeze Entertainment to lead their Franchise Foundation & Future Mapping Initiative: to comprehensively audit, document and develop the foundational knowledge of the Payday franchise, while establishing the creative and commercial groundwork for future transmedia expansion. The work covered four strands.

  1. Building a cohesive foundation of the Payday IP. Auditing and mapping existing storylines, characters, lore, creative assets, licensing materials and untapped IP potential.
  2. Capturing internal and external narrative viewpoints. 1:1 interviews with key Starbreeze team members, past contributors and community voices.
  3. Defining a playable storyworld and creative baseline. Identifying the core pillars that support future content across games, comics, animation, merchandise and more.
  4. Laying the groundwork for transmedia development. Evaluating short-term activations such as comics, community challenges and lore drops, while building the base for longer-term narrative and IP investment.

The delivered outcome was a comprehensive and highly detailed IP bible, a core canon bible, and a detailed action plan framed around Repair, Reset, Reimagine, the three pillars of PAYDAY's recovery. Starbreeze owns the finished work.

Pete’s work on the Payday franchise was exactly what we needed at this stage of its evolution. He delivered a comprehensive IP bible alongside a core canon baseline, narrative framework, and franchise action plan that have given us genuine clarity on how we protect and grow one of our most valuable assets. His understanding of IP strategy and franchise architecture, combined with a deep respect for the source material, meant the deliverables were both commercially sharp and creatively rich. The process was smooth, collaborative, and thoroughly professional throughout. I’d highly recommend Pete to any studio serious about safeguarding and unlocking the long-term value of their intellectual property.
Adolf Kristjansson CEO, Starbreeze Entertainment

Read how the engagement ran in the Payday case study.

FAQ

How long does an IP bible take?

Typically four to six weeks, depending on the size of the franchise and how much material already exists. A single-game IP with a small team sits at the faster end. A franchise spanning several games, comics and adaptations takes longer to consolidate.

Who owns the IP bible?

The client does. For Payday, Starbreeze Entertainment owns the finished IP bible, handed over in full on completion.

We already have lore documents and a wiki. Do we need this?

Most franchises have fragments: design documents, wiki pages, pitch decks, and the memories of long-serving staff. An IP bible consolidates those fragments, resolves the contradictions between them, and adds the framework for what comes next, rather than only recording what has already happened.

We have never written any of this down. Can you still build one?

Yes, and that is normal. Most bibles start with structured interviews with the people who carry the world in their heads. Getting that knowledge out of their heads and onto the page is a large part of the value.

How is the bible kept up to date?

For Payday, Starbreeze owns and maintains the completed IP bible following handover.

When is the right time to write one?

Before the complexity arrives, not after. The cheapest time to write the rules is when a second team or partner joins the franchise. The most expensive time is after a contradiction ships.

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