Going where no game has gone before

[propertyofcobra]

A modern ruined city turned battlefield!...
wait...eh...I mean...

A mansion full of zombies!...
...eh...hold on...

how about...An open fantasy world?
darnit, I have to have something new...

a realistic cyberpunk world done in the style of Vampire: Bloodlines.
there, finally got something new. Hah! I knew I could do it!

Also: There's shadowman, the N64 game, for boring voodoo-based games.

 

[Nonsensicalname]

A game taking place in a historic setting, with a real crafting system, where you can create furniture, boats, swords, or whatever you specialize in. It would be fully in-depth, from the types of wood with their physical and aesthetic properties to Wii-mote style cutting actions. You hammer every nail, sculpt each contour of your vase, and are rewarded with an accurate representation of your efforts. The location could reflect the style of your work, Middle Eastern items would dictate different features from Japanese or Spanish.

 

[Razzle Bathbone]

I love gaming in worlds that feel truly alien. Places that don't look or feel like anything I've ever seen before. I loved Morrowind, Psychonauts and (for the first hour or so) The Tone Rebellion because of this.

And the day somebody releases a game that lets me play as an avatar of the various Shakti, I'll be there with my sixty bucks in hand. Think of it, you could switch forms between Durga (brave and strong), Sarasvati (resourceful and clever) Kali (devastating but hard to control) and others. WANT!

 

[CanadianWolverine]

Honestly, if you look hard enough, games have gone just about every setting possible.

India: Does Prince of Persia games count? How about magic carpet riding? I could have sworn I remember even some games that were RPG like where you had to choose where you were in the hierarchy of the Hindu religion...

North American Native: Hmm, Prey? Age of Empires? Empire Earth? Gun?

Sky: Crimson Skies? I think there were some other ones too, the names escape me at the moment.

What else was suggested... Oh, Canada, I think there was a truck driving game I remember where I would drive back and forth across Canada, getting stuff in Vancouver, heading to Toronto, picking up a hitchhiker, getting robbed by the hitchhiker while I slept at the side of the road...

Hmm, what else was there... Crafting system, could sworn I remember something like that for a game that was about caveman, having to ship out a new spear head ever so carefully... But I suppose as long as you are having to go through the motions with a Wii remote, that would be different, though your settings still aren't places games haven't gone before.

Voodoo: Does Monkey Island count? And other adventure games too, I think they seemed to have a thing for voodoo. There were some shooters that involved voodoo too, I remember some intro involving Jack the Ripper or some such and the main character was like this guy just returned from the dead.

Antarctica: Pretty sure MiB went there and does Thing count? Or was that Arctic?

Urban Zombie: Wasn't there like Stub's the Zombie or something? Do I really have to go into to all the other zombie games set in an urban enviro as well?

I'm sorry I'm not being specific enough, its just after decades of games, the settings and names do kind of get all jumbled together in my ancient 27 year old brain.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

Some people seem to confuse mythology and religion.

Mythology is more of folk tales and superstitions. Religion is more towards the beliefs of creation, meaning of life, and of death.

Okami is mythological, not religious. Japanese religion is more towards of Buddhism and Shintoism.

Agreed.

In the spirit of Okami, I think the stories of the Native American trickster spirits, like Coyote and Raven [http://members.cox.net/academia/coyote.html], would also make great games. Because the tricksters use cunning rather than fighting prowess, it could be a great all-ages game, and because tricksters are often shapeshifters in some way, part of the game design could be unlocking new form options, each with their own gameplay styles.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

And the day somebody releases a game that lets me play as an avatar of the various Shakti, I'll be there with my sixty bucks in hand. Think of it, you could switch forms between Durga (brave and strong), Sarasvati (resourceful and clever) Kali (devastating but hard to control) and others. WANT!

I love considering the specific gameplay possibilities inherent in each mythological figure, Hindu or otherwise. For instance, in most RPGs I've played, friendly fire is not an issue. I can swing a huge-ass sword or throw a grenade into a cluster of friends and foes, and friends take no damage. So maybe if you play Kali the challenge is that she dishes out huge amounts of damage, but that damage hits everyone in the area of attack.

 

[sammyfreak]

Austria game!

Tell 100 people that you're from Austria and get more than 75 of them to ask you: "You're from Australia?"


I want one game to let you be a Nazi General, with the ability to kill Hitler or support him.

Or even better, Sound of Music: the game

 

[EzraPound]

Screw India. I think it'd be cool if there was a game where you were like, a plumber, and went to some place with green tubes you could travel through and killed dinosaurs by jumping on them.

 

[Anarchemitis]

A game has yet to take place in non-fictionalized Antarctica. For obvious reasons.

 

[Anarchemitis]

I've got an idea for a game. It's original in gameplay (I think, unless otherwise stated) but definitly original in methodology.
Because of a weird science experiment (Oh, how cliche.), the universe's physical laws have been changed: Mass now does not equal gravity! (Oh Noes!) Those during the calamity of gravity loss:
Inside buildings remain somewhat unaffected

Inside cars all of a sudden have new traffic problems to explore

In aircraft are completly screwed because the plane's wings would generate lift upon no resistance: the plane would go straight up with nothing to stop it.

In boats are not dissimilar from people in cars, just wetter.

It'd be a Mass Multiplayer Online Sandbox game. What do you do now that gravity doesn't exist? Become an air pirate and loot others unfortunate enough to get stuck in the atmosphere? Make a new company enterpirsing vehicles on the ground?

 

[xMacx]

A game has yet to take place in non-fictionalized Antarctica. For obvious reasons.

Not true! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(video_game)

 

[The Madman]

A game has yet to take place in non-fictionalized Antarctica. For obvious reasons.

There's actually one game being developed that's pretty interesting and takes place in the artic ice-cap. It's paranomal based horror stuff, looks a fair bit like STALKER meets Bioshock except cold and icy. Still, might interest you!

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=982

Anyway, as for me; I'd kill for a Neil Gaiman style game, especially Neverwhere.

My favorite types of settings are those that overlay the mundane with the fantastical, like Neverwhere obviously, so I'd love to have more games like Castle Wolfenstein which take a basic premise (Kill Nazis in world war 2) and throw in the fantastic (You're fighting the paranormal nazi unit investigating ancient cult rituals.). Perhaps something like The Longest Journey where two worlds are melding together? I'm not sure, I'd have to think it over for a bit.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

I've got an idea for a game. It's original in gameplay (I think, unless otherwise stated) but definitly original in methodology.
Because of a weird science experiment (Oh, how cliche.), the universe's physical laws have been changed: Mass now does not equal gravity! (Oh Noes!) Those during the calamity of gravity loss...

...It'd be a Mass Multiplayer Online Sandbox game. What do you do now that gravity doesn't exist? Become an air pirate and loot others unfortunate enough to get stuck in the atmosphere? Make a new company enterpirsing vehicles on the ground?

The physics engine on that would be totally awesome.

Tangentially, have you ever read The Integral Trees [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Integral_Trees]? It's set in a minimal-gravity environment and comes up with some interesting ideas on the implications of that.

 

[TSED]

I've got an idea for a game. It's original in gameplay (I think, unless otherwise stated) but definitly original in methodology.
Because of a weird science experiment (Oh, how cliche.), the universe's physical laws have been changed: Mass now does not equal gravity! (Oh Noes!) Those during the calamity of gravity loss:
Inside buildings remain somewhat unaffected

Inside cars all of a sudden have new traffic problems to explore

In aircraft are completly screwed because the plane's wings would generate lift upon no resistance: the plane would go straight up with nothing to stop it.

In boats are not dissimilar from people in cars, just wetter.

It'd be a Mass Multiplayer Online Sandbox game. What do you do now that gravity doesn't exist? Become an air pirate and loot others unfortunate enough to get stuck in the atmosphere? Make a new company enterpirsing vehicles on the ground?

Unfortunately, 'no gravity any more' means 'every one would be hurled off the Earth as it is rotating so quickly. The Earth would shortly after reach unfathomably cold temperatures as it leaves the sun's orbit. Also, there's a chance we crash into the moon somehow.'

So, no. My suspension of disbelief can't buy that game.



I, personally, am a big fan of that "wow, never seen THAT before" kind of setting. Alien planets are the most common, but meh.

Some kind of 'cyber space' a la Reboot. I remember actually seeing a game in stores way back when I was a little kid, it was about a virus invasion or something. Anyways, I don't know if it was an action game or RTS or TBS or what, but I know that it you could go by your own image files you'd see them, or your videos, or your music would play while you're near THAT... Really neat looking. Never managed to convince my parents to buy it (late-mid 90's, 3D gaming was new but unrealised...)

 

[Cooper42]

The more surreal, the better I reckon.

You have massive graphics power, the ability to render HD textures and vast numbers of polygons, meld them and fold them in entirely original and innovative ways.

And the best you can do is yet another tank, yet another nazi and the odd sniper rifle?

You have massive processing power, hitherto unheard of abi8lity to calculate millions of variables - and the best you can do is punting barrels around and see-saw puzzles?

I love it when games go all-out and develop surreal, mind-screwing gameplay mechanics and worlds.

 

[Meshakhad_v1legacy]

How about an Elder Scrolls-esque RPG set on the surface of a semi-colonized Mars? That would rock.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I am very well aware of Halo being in africa, but honestly in those games it wouldent have mattered if it was in Siberia or Argentina

Um, no... not in Halo's case, anyway. It's crucial to the backstory that the action happens near the Kenya/Tanzania border because of what happened there about 100,000 years ago. (Or, at least, what archeologists think happened there at that time, anyway.)

Happy digging!

-- Steve

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Some kind of 'cyber space' a la Reboot. I remember actually seeing a game in stores way back when I was a little kid, it was about a virus invasion or something. Anyways, I don't know if it was an action game or RTS or TBS or what, but I know that it you could go by your own image files you'd see them, or your videos, or your music would play while you're near THAT... Really neat looking. Never managed to convince my parents to buy it (late-mid 90's, 3D gaming was new but unrealised...)

I believe there was a Reboot Playstation game, but it was unpopular and poorly designed (though I watched the 'bad' endings on Youtube and thought they looked pretty sweet... like something right out of the show). Unfortunatley, we will likely never see a new Reboot game, at least until the last 4 episodes finally get made. Another graphically intense depiction of cyberspace is Tron 2.0, actually looking better than the old movie. Everyone has their own idea of how a visual interpetation of cyberspace looks.

Speaking of ruined potential, the setting of the bombed movie Wild Wild West has almost never been used in a game besides JRPGs (Wild Arms); the big mecha-tarantula at the end with a train's smokestack coming out of it had me thinking about other designs for such a 'what if' period. Say one of the original American colonists discovers the plans to advanced alien/future technology left behind in one of the first mines of the Gold Rush, and then tries his primitive best to recreate them using chains, iron and coal/steam power. 10 years later, it's been sold off to many different groups and interests. Then the War of Independence starts...

 

[ayoama]

I'd like to see a game set in contemporary Tokyo. It would be something like GTA on crack. Objective: be the leader of one of the crazy japanese urban clans (ganguro girls, pervy otaku, j-rockers etc.).