Unexplored game settings/enviorments

[josemlopes]

Basicly after that thread about overused settings/enviorments I wanted to see what ideas you guys had.



I recently made a picture (before even thinking about this subject) of a setting that while not very original still never had a go in video games.

This is the image:

Spoiler

Basicly its that kind of totalitarian dystopia, seen in things like Aeon Flux, Equilibrium and others, here are some more references:

Spoiler

The last image isnt exactly the same type but it show architecture with those big white empty spaces

I only think Half Life 2 falls in this category but after the starting levels the "alien" part of a dystopia starts to somewhat disapear. A very cool thing about Aeon Flux is how the world feels alien since things look so different from our own. A game with this setting could work in a Dark Souls fashion where you really dont know what is out there in that dangerous and opressive world.

It would really need to be bleak and force the player to feel claustrophobic even with all that empty space because of the always eminent danger like traps, sentries (any kind, alien, android, big hulking tripods,etc..) and overall need to stay prepared.

What settings would you like to see more in games?

 

[TehCookie]

Original fantasy, I really like the setting of games like Ar Tonelico and most of the Tales of games especially Fenmont in Xillia. Or like Pandora from the Avatar movie, and other surreal and magical forest or areas. I still remember Chrono Cross also having a beautiful setting. Have an entire city made of buildings floating on water and bridges to combine them with some fancy architecture. Steampunk canyons, entire villages in the top of trees, ice caverns with ice flora. None of those are 100% original, but it's vastly different from common settings.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Original fantasy, I really like the setting of games like Ar Tonelico and most of the Tales of games especially Fenmont in Xillia. Or like Pandora from the Avatar movie, and other surreal and magical forest or areas. I still remember Chrono Cross also having a beautiful setting. Have an entire city made of buildings floating on water and bridges to combine them with some fancy architecture. Steampunk canyons, entire villages in the top of trees, ice caverns with ice flora. None of those are 100% original, but it's vastly different from common settings.

(Nods) I certainly agree with Ar Tonelico and the Tales games.

It's always disheartening to see a fantasy setting that's extent of races are short people with beards, and tall people with pointy ears (Generalizing but you get the idea). It's why I don't read fantasy books despite liking fantasy because it seems like they all just do the same thing most of the time.

I mean... it shouldn't even be that hard! All you really need to do is take monsters and have them be intelligent races instead of wild creatures. Slimes, harpy's, naga's, lizard people, dryads, insect people, ect. There's tons of potential races from all of those that have the potential for much more interesting races and lifestyles but everyone just goes with essentially Star Trek aliens.

I guess a setting that I don't see used much is an underground setting. It's usually something that's only touched on briefly in games.

 

[The Madman]

It's definitely picking up in popularity again but I've always thought cyberpunk was an under-utilized setting for games. Fortunately there are a couple fantastic looking cyberpunk games in the works so hopefully that niche will soon be a bit less empty. Still you'd think it would be a perfect setting for games what with the popularity of stuff like Blade Runner or Neuromancer.

 

[Elfgore]

I feel steampunk is not used enough. I steampunk world with magic could be pretty awesome if the right people made it.

This is my big one, BC fictional world. I want a came in which I either play as a Dinosaur killing humans and other dinosaurs or a human fighting dinosaurs. That would be an awesome game.

 

[PFCboom]

Erm... Whatever the environment style was in Shadow of the Colossus. A strange series of massive fields that seem half natural, half man-made, connected by narrow passes, and not blocked off by arbitrary "you need this item to remove this" obstacles.

More magitek. Like, real fusions of machinery and steampunk with magic. I'm thinking Final Fantasy VI-X, or maybe even Warcraft.

Space operas. Mass Effect is a great example, though each installment is great for their own reasons. The first one gave us a whole galaxy to explore. The second gave each and every planet worth, either from missions or mining precious resources. The third scattered artifacts and wreckage, every piece adding a little more to the lore.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I'd like to see a non-violent/non-military/non-post-apocalyptic game set in non-western metropolises in the mould of Kowloon, New Delhi, Vietnam/Cambodia etc.

Some kind of espionage or magic realism, perhaps?

 

[Fox12]

Basicly after that thread about overused settings/enviorments I wanted to see what ideas you guys had.



I recently made a picture (before even thinking about this subject) of a setting that while not very original still never had a go in video games.

This is the image:

Spoiler

Basicly its that kind of totalitarian dystopia, seen in things like Aeon Flux, Equilibrium and others, here are some more references:

Spoiler

The last image isnt exactly the same type but it show architecture with those big white empty spaces

I only think Half Life 2 falls in this category but after the starting levels the "alien" part of a dystopia starts to somewhat disapear. A very cool thing about Aeon Flux is how the world feels alien since things look so different from our own. A game with this setting could work in a Dark Souls fashion where you really dont know what is out there in that dangerous and opressive world.

It would really need to be bleak and force the player to feel claustrophobic even with all that empty space because of the always eminent danger like traps, sentries (any kind, alien, android, big hulking tripods,etc..) and overall need to stay prepared.

What settings would you like to see more in games?

A serious, legitimate, Steampunk game. Some games, like Bioshock Infinite, have dabbled in it, but I've never seen a serious Steampunk style story before.

 

[Chaosian]

Interestingly, when it comes to uncommon game settings I like of the Metroid Prime games - mostly 3, but 2 to a smaller degree. Prime 3 has a generic Sci-Fi planet that still displays nature, a post-apocalypic planet turned pre-indrustrial, a steampunk one (the whole sky-city rails thing Bioshock totally didn't rip off), a worst-case scenario cyberpunk planet, and a planet made entirely of radioactive evil-anium. Not too shabby, I don't think.

Personally, I like playing in the setting of the mind. Games like Cry of Fear and Afraid of Monsters really made some sections unpredictable and scary as hell.

 

[RandV80]

I've always wanted a game with a legit Aliens-like setting. Not a sequence of levels that you blast your way through, but some sort of large-massive abandoned colony or derelict spaceship (possibly of ancient unknown origins) that you either alone or with a small team get stranded on that appears to be abandoned at first but is anything but. The purpose would be to explore, salvage, survive, and escape. It would be especially cool if it could be randomly generated and rogue like.

I've also always loved underwater environments. The Metroid style indy game Aquaria was an amazing game largely because of the undersea environment, with settings like under water caves, kelp forests, lost civilizations, icy arctic, and finally the deep. Would love to see more games use this setting.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

I feel steampunk is not used enough. I steampunk world with magic could be pretty awesome if the right people made it.

A serious, legitimate, Steampunk game. Some games, like Bioshock Infinite, have dabbled in it, but I've never seen a serious Steampunk style story before.

Isn't Dishonored considered a steampunk game? I mean, it's pretty much got all the elements of steampunk, plus some magic to boot.


I want a game with a setting like Firefly or Cowboy Bebop. That is to say it's set in space, but there's a grungy, wild west aesthetic. And the characters all tend to be low-lives and drifters, as opposed to something like Mass Effect or Star Trek, where almost everyone you meet happens to be the galaxy's best and brightest.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Interestingly, when it comes to uncommon game settings I like of the Metroid Prime games - mostly 3, but 2 to a smaller degree. Prime 3 has a generic Sci-Fi planet that still displays nature, a post-apocalypic planet turned pre-indrustrial, a steampunk one (the whole sky-city rails thing Bioshock totally didn't rip off), a worst-case scenario cyberpunk planet, and a planet made entirely of radioactive evil-anium. Not too shabby, I don't think.

Personally, I like playing in the setting of the mind. Games like Cry of Fear and Afraid of Monsters really made some sections unpredictable and scary as hell.

I too love me some Metroid Prime but your comment about the third game's locations reminded me of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. Although the game does have levels that you initially think are just the same stock ones you see all the time, they actually put nice twists on them. There's the jungle level, but it's also really focused on the aspect of it having two towers and making your way up them. There's a desert level but it's also an abandoned clock factory. There's an ice level, but it's also an abandoned mine.

I've always wanted a game with a legit Aliens-like setting. Not a sequence of levels that you blast your way through, but some sort of large-massive abandoned colony or derelict spaceship (possibly of ancient unknown origins) that you either alone or with a small team get stranded on that appears to be abandoned at first but is anything but. The purpose would be to explore, salvage, survive, and escape. It would be especially cool if it could be randomly generated and rogue like.

Dead Space. The only thing it's missing from your requirements is for it to be procedurally generated.

I want a game with a setting like Firefly or Cowboy Bebop. That is to say it's set in space, but there's a grungy, wild west aesthetic. And the characters all tend to be low-lives and drifters, as opposed to something like Mass Effect or Star Trek, where almost everyone you meet happens to be the galaxy's best and brightest.

Although it's not a game, you might enjoy a short movie called 'Magnetic Rose'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh6b5ALyPaY

(Sorry if you'd prefer a subbed version but this is the only version available online and for a fandub, they do a pretty good job)

 

[Mr F.]

I cannot believe I am saying this, and I genuinely mean this...

No so much "Unexplored" as "I now miss the setting."

I want a WW2 shooter. I want Battlefield 1942 with the destruction of Battlefield 3/4. That is all I want. I want it to have bots and ridiculous servers (64 players is so 2003.)

Speaking of things which have been deserted for so long that they basically count as "Unexplored", I want a return to old school strategy. You know, Age of Empires/Rise of Nations/Empire Earth (Although the latter two are a better example). Games where you start with 3 blokes standing in a field and end expand through distinct historical ages. Hell, in Rise of Nations you LITERALLY start with three blokes in a field on the Nomad setting. I miss it. I miss going from cavemen to stealth bombers,

As for settings that have not really been touched?

Steampunk. Like quite a few of you. I want steampunk. I want a steampunk Strategy games, based around invention where the players can invent their own death machines (Think Impossible Creatures, but with Tanks/Plains instead of mutants.). Or a steampunk RPG where players can invent their own weaponry.

For me, the beauty of steampunk is invention.

 

[Thomas Barnsley]

I'm not too sure about this, but how about more ring worlds? You know, giant scifi satellites in the shape of a ring.

I know doing this comes with a seriously large elephant-in-the-room (the Halo series, of course), but I would really like a sandbox ring world. It wouldn't need invisible boundaries, since it curves back on itself, and would allow for several other interesting elements (for example, some kind of portable artillery-like sniper that can shoot people directly above you along the diameter of the ring).

Also aquatic environments are pretty much never used.

 

[Quasar97]

More proper Gothic universes. I wanna see some cathedrals man!

Oooh look at those flying buttresses. :O

 

[kommando367]

A metallic, sci-fi textured jungle home to giant mechs and magitek golems of varying size.

More living worlds that warp and reshape the land as you progress.

 

[awesomeClaw]

World War 1, aka The Great War.

I think it would be a very interesting setting for an anti-War game. Think about it. You start off being all hyped up in your home country, and then you gradually learn the horror of battle as your friends die around you all the while gaining nothing.

Would be hard to make it fun though...

 

[Mr F.]

I cannot believe I am saying this, and I genuinely mean this...

No so much "Unexplored" as "I now miss the setting."

I want a WW2 shooter. I want Battlefield 1942 with the destruction of Battlefield 3/4. That is all I want. I want it to have bots and ridiculous servers (64 players is so 2003.)

Speaking of things which have been deserted for so long that they basically count as "Unexplored", I want a return to old school strategy. You know, Age of Empires/Rise of Nations/Empire Earth (Although the latter two are a better example). Games where you start with 3 blokes standing in a field and end expand through distinct historical ages. Hell, in Rise of Nations you LITERALLY start with three blokes in a field on the Nomad setting. I miss it. I miss going from cavemen to stealth bombers,

As for settings that have not really been touched?

Steampunk. Like quite a few of you. I want steampunk. I want a steampunk Strategy games, based around invention where the players can invent their own death machines (Think Impossible Creatures, but with Tanks/Plains instead of mutants.). Or a steampunk RPG where players can invent their own weaponry.

For me, the beauty of steampunk is invention.

Finally someone else who played Rise of Nations! One of the most overlooked RTS's ever. A shame because it got a lot of stuff so right.

Trying to make my computer run it again, when I try it comes up with some error message. Same with Rise of Legends, its utterly worthless sequel.

RoN was the best RTS of a generation in my eyes. It desperately needs a sequel. Just modern graphics, maybe a few more units (The rock paper scissors gameplay was... a little bit too simplistic.) but that is all. I want Rise of Nations to come back!

But it won't, the guy who made it now works for Zynga. Yeah, the founder of BHG works for gorram Zynga. This fills me with so much rage.

 

[Cabisco]

A metallic, sci-fi textured jungle home to giant mechs and magitek golems of varying size.

More living worlds that warp and reshape the land as you progress.

Colour me intrigued.

I personally just want a fantasy game set in not lord of the rings. Different creatures and environment, no bloody orcs or elves.

I'd also think a game set on an alien world after you crash landed would be cool. where you need to survive (make supplies, defend yourself, build a way to communicate) a hostile environment that seems increasingly determined to kill you, like the planet is rejecting you.

 

[Skeleon]

The human body.
There are very few games that take place on a microscopic level and I always thought that would be awesome to play on, with killer cells, bacteria, viruses, lymphocytes, antibodies and so on.

If any of you know...

Spoiler: Il était une fois... la vie/Es war einmal... das Leben/Once Upon a Time... Life

...that's kind of what I mean. It's hugely nostalgic to me.

There was an old German game that had the setting ages ago called...

Spoiler: PC Bakterien!

...but it's ancient and also more of a puzzle game.

I always thought the setting would lend itself incredibly well to an RTS-kind of deal. Hell, you could even make it Homeworld-style in that it could have real 3D-environments, with tissues, blood vessels etc. criss-crossing three-dimensionally rather than on a 2D-plane like most RTS do.

You could command the white blood cells as they need to call out for reinforcements with chemotaxis, you'd have to increase body temperature to harm the bacteria while carefully walking the line between damaging them and harming the body's cells, you could have specialized killer cells kill off virus-infected body cells, have your cells release the right cytokines to trigger the proper immune response against bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses etc. as the current situation requires and so on.
You could even have scenarios with AIDS or cancer where you need to combat infected cells or cancerous growths that mimic healthy tissues, making it harder to target them and in the case of HIV even destroying your forces. Kind of the equivalent of stealth-units or invisibility and infiltration in typical RTS games.

I think that could be amazing if done properly. And even a bit educational at the same time.