Godville was created by Dmitry Kosinov and Mikhail Platov. Their goal was to create a video game that did not involve actual gameplay. They called this a zero-player game. The inspiration for Godville came from a game the two discovered in 2003 named Progress Quest. Progress Quest is a parody of EverQuest and other massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

The first version of Godville began gameplay on November 21, 2007 and was entirely in Russian. That version is now referred to as Russian Godville or OriGV. It was only playable on a web browser at www.godville.net. A few months later, the pair was approached to create an English-language version and, with the help of volunteer translators, www.godvillegame.com came online on May 10, 2010.

The name Godville was chosen for two reasons: because it explains the idea of the game and it sounds good in both English and Russian. While the -ville may appear to be inspired from Zynga’s Farmville, Cityville, and a host of other similarly named games, it is not. In fact, the first version of Godville, in 2007, predates the release of Farmville which was released in 2009.