If you could make a game set in an optimistic setting what would it be like?

[CaptJohnSheridan]

What kind of story would be good for a setting set in an alternate 90s or near future where humanity has brought back dinosaurs and has colonized mars?

Do you think a video game that is set in an optimistic setting can be as interesting as one set in a universe like Fallout, Horizon Zero Dawn, or Bioshock?

 

[Squilookle]

On a surface level, no.

Without conflict, there is no drama, and without drama there is no real character or story. And considering how badly games do generally with making interesting stories even when they are relying on post apocalyptic worlds and wars etc, I wouldn't really hold my breath for games that can pull off a happy setting.

Then again, it's been done before. You could say Pokemon, Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley, Pilotwings etc succeed in this, by making the goals and hurdles much smaller scale in the grand scheme of things (similar to, say, Kiki's Delivery Service for example- a movie with no villain). You could also argue that racing games such as Wipeout depict a futuristic world that isn't doing too badly- though the player view of this world is incredibly limited.

I think if you were to go specifically 90s, with colonisation and dinosaurs while keeping it optimistic- you'd probably have to go full 'Radical' with it, make it a comedy or at least light hearted. Think the Goonies meets E.T. Bonus points if you go everywhere on your BMX solving neighborhood mysteries, and have a pet dino who constantly wisecracks and wears a sideways baseball hat, or maybe a propeller hat. And your dad works on Mars or something, idk...

 

[sXeth]

I guess it depends what we mean by optimistic setting.

A future or alternate history that isn't post-apocalyptic or dosed up on grey/grey or grey/black morality can obviously be done, Star Trek being the obvious example.

Games without conflict and the like tend to be restricted to stuff like simulators or management games though. You could squeeze fairly bloodless versions of anything out, but itd take a decent level of creativity to not seem forced.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I'd consider any setting where all the evils of the world can be fixed by the player's actions to be optimistic. The games you listed are all post-apocalyptic settings, normally the perfect setting for an amoral player, and while the player's actions can usually improve things, they can't undo the disaster that got it that way to start with.

Simcity and its ilk are a good example. While a 100% approval rating is impossible so long as there are taxes to be paid, people will normally flock to any powered city with decent zone balance and transportation. Public polls make it very clear what the big problems are and how to fix them, and in the original game at least disasters are optional. You're also allowed to be mayor for hundreds of years so long as you don't screw up too badly.

 

[CaitSeith]

You can make the setting as optimistic as you would like, but there still must be some kind of conflict that the player must get involved into (even if it's limited to personal level like not getting fired). A premise could be the player being responsible of keeping the setting optimistic, so the conflicts have to be solved fast and efficiently. A more fun premise is the player being the source of the conflict.

 

[Yoshi178]

A more fun premise is the player being the source of the conflict.

OP should make a game about Bowser and how him and Peach are about to get happily married ever after but then some asshole plumber comes in to ruin it all and steal his girl away.

Now it's up to Bowser to be the pretty cool guy that he is and rescue his beloved Peach from the clutches of the evil Mario.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Murder mystery? If society is all fine and dandy then you aren't going to be a plucky resistance fighter or anything, so you need to make the story smaller. And since people are going to be assholes no matter how good life is, there's bound to be someone doing murdery crime somewhere. Perhaps you are the sheriff on some frontier colony on Mars and need to unravel the mystery with the limited equipment and support you have available to you

 

[Mikejames]

As others have said, it depends on what you specifically mean by optimistic and interesting. A game being set somewhere dark and gritty doesn't automatically make it more compelling, but a conflict or problem of some sort is generally going to be what drives the main plot of most games.

So I'll just point at games like Gravity Rush and Psychonauts. They have colorful settings, optimistic and good-natured lead characters, and a sense of willful adventure that makes the world as a whole feel creative and inviting despite the dark things that happen within the main story.

 

[Abomination]

You can make the setting as optimistic as you would like, but there still must be some kind of conflict that the player must get involved into (even if it's limited to personal level like not getting fired). A premise could be the player being responsible of keeping the setting optimistic, so the conflicts have to be solved fast and efficiently. A more fun premise is the player being the source of the conflict.

I would say a game like this has the potential to be very very dark depending on the "problems" the player has to solve.

So the setting is optimistic but the plot would be anything but.

 

[Vanilla ISIS]

What kind of story would be good for a setting set in an alternate 90s or near future where humanity has brought back dinosaurs and has colonized mars?

The next Jurassic World movie.

 

[Kyrian007]

Yes. Star Trek proved that sci-fi futuristic did not have to be a dystopia to be interesting. They just had to move the goalposts a little. The same can be true for just about any setting. Setting is just backdrop, writing that is good can make any backdrop good. A 90's where the world was more focused on scientific discovery and less on ancient religious and racial/national divides CAN be a great setting. You just have to figure out where the drama would be in such a place. Is there an economic divide keeping some group in poverty? Is the (or less likely in a utopic setting) a government heavy-handed in maintaining the "good times?" Is there pressure from an outside force threating stability? Or like Star Trek generally did, just keep the question in morality "is what we did this week the right thing to do?" Plenty of drama there. Did we kill off an alien bacteria moving to Mars, but managed to save a few samples. Maybe its deadly to humans, but doesn't it deserve the right to live? Maybe a version of it made it to earth and killed the dinosaurs, robbing them of their chance to evolve... maybe we give mars to the dinosaurs to give them their chance. All kinds of ideas there.

 

[09philj]

No matter the system, someone will want to exploit or destroy it.

 

[CaitSeith]

You can make the setting as optimistic as you would like, but there still must be some kind of conflict that the player must get involved into (even if it's limited to personal level like not getting fired). A premise could be the player being responsible of keeping the setting optimistic, so the conflicts have to be solved fast and efficiently. A more fun premise is the player being the source of the conflict.

I would say a game like this has the potential to be very very dark depending on the "problems" the player has to solve.

So the setting is optimistic but the plot would be anything but.

Persona 4 is similar to the concept. The setting is a peaceful Japanese rural town, and you are a transfer high-school student just arriving to your new school and starting to make friends. But then you discover an entrance to a dimension where people's repressed thoughts take physical form.

 

[Tanis]

I'd like it to be like the short story 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas'.