Well, simply, I only need about half the theme ideas, and i have some personal favorites... but even though with games you can make them as YOU want, if you ever hope to make it for sale, you have to take in other peoples interests as well.

Unless you plan on being a total rebel :P

But I'm not that much of a rebel... I want to know what you'de like to see

I certainly understand that the type of gameplay can very much influence the types of levels you'd like to see... hopefully without this information it will force you to think about being immersed in these enviroments, and decide what looks 'cool' to be there, no mattter what size you are.

I don't quite get this poll to be honest. If you already know what kind of game you are going to make, then why is it important to figure out what type of environment appeals to the most people? Look at World of Warcraft, look at Halo3, look at Oblivion or Assassin's Creed... don't they all prove that the environment really is secondary to gameplay, the kind of game and story and all that? In fact, Halo, World of Warcraft and Oblivion have a kinds of different environments... Variation is quite important me thinks.

As for my personal preferences, I'm all for sci-fi environments, but only if it's good sci-fi stuff. It's difficult to explain, but movies like Dune, Chronicles of Riddick and Firefly (Serenity) all have awesome sci-fi environments. It's a certain style though, it doesn't depend on whether the grass is green or if there's snow...

I think it's pretty interesting how alot of people have choosen 'arctic'. Can't think of many games with an arctic scene :). And surprisingly few people choosed martian. I wonder how changes will be in the next days :p


I can't speak for BlueBeast of course, but might it be because 'kind of game' does not necessarily relate to an environment? As you will say in the last quote here, variation is important, so hes figuring out what environments appeals to most people to apply on his game :).

There is a risk that his gameplay type does not fit anyones thought of 'most loved environment' at all with lots of psychological reasons behind it resulting in a low interest and years of hard work for nothing (...), but it could also turn out to be the trigger to let a game sell to the largest audience... Though this question will probably turn into the everlasting discussion between 'brainless mutant firstperson shooters' (no-care about environment, care about controls) and 'relaxing peaceful adventure dreamers' (other way around) :). No comment on this example, very stereotype, I know.

Do they? I mainly love HALO 1 because of it's environment. Not beautiful, but it's giving this great atmosphere that pulls you into it's story. I love it, and it is on top of my priorities list for a game :).

'Sins of a solar empire' has a magnificent environment. It's a space rts game, and you're in the middle of nowhere-space. Somehow they managed to let a vast emptyness look stunning by using much environment and background variation, but this is a variation within the space theme. So variation can be made within the same theme and still keep the game very interesting.

Now to make a conclusion, I needed to understand the relation between 'the importance of environments ("environment really is secondary to gameplay")' and 'the variation of environments ("Variation is quite important me thinks")' in your post, but I can't relate them... are you even contradicting yourself?
Split personalities?

Phemox... I understand your point about not undertstanding the poll....

If I told you what kind of game it was, you'd say "Oh, well yea, that makes sense then"

Some are thinking 1st person shooters... some are thinking RPG... maybe some are thinking a 'marble madness' type game .... and god knows what some others are thinking (shame on you!)

The point is the player should experience a variety of 'worlds' to play in.

These are my ideas for some worlds/situations.. and I wonder what is appealing. The gameplay will be the final judge of the games quality, sure, but they have to play somewhere don't they?

I personally can't decide which of these to select from, so i'm asking for help is all.

Arctic is semi-surprising indeed, but City Rooftops, is surprising to me as well, though one of my favorites for sure. I just diodnt think other saw it like I do.

Thanks folks sorry the non registered users can't vote but i have reasons for everything I'm doing hehehe

well it looks like we've peaked already with voters... But I'll of course wait a day to see if anyone else cares to assist in the poll.

Certainly good data here for me Thanks to those who voted, and to those yet to vote!

Thank You Thank You!

- Jason

Space, seas and mountains are my fav places from the list you provided anyway.
Really like a mix of the 3 but quite enjoy large contained areas like complexes too.

No and not really. I don't see how it's contradicting though. I was talking about the different kinds of gameplay environments (space, surreal, cartoon, realistic and so on) and the different styles of variation within the choosen kind of environment (snow, sunny/rainy, green grass, dessert and so on), so basically two slightly different things.

You won't find many games where at one point you are in space fighting aliens in a spacecraft and at another point you are fighting pirates with a sword in the 13th century... that's what I meant. Of course theoretically it's possible to combine those two "worlds", but then you'd mix them into something sci-fi steampunk kind of thing rather than having two really distinct styles of art and environments.



My point is that it sort of does relate to certain type of environments. I'm not saying there's something totally inevitable about choosing the kind of environment, but you really can't choose any random environment for most kinds of games.

LOL, Phemox made some extreme examples, but he made his side clear. True, being in a futuristic spacecraft and then swordfighting on a pirate ship would be a stretch.

And on the other hand.. an entire game based in only 1 setting would get pretty boring.

Fortunately, I have the option where the gameplay can take place litterally anywhere, and can change drastically from one level to another without anyone knowing why or caring.

Anyway, don't anyone rack their brains trying to figure it out... I'm simply trying to choose from my list of which enviroments I'll be using, since it's hard to decide from so many.

If there's a 'Part2' then I can use others as well.

But again, If I said "It's this type of game" you'de understand the diversity.

Hahaha, at least now you've got me interested in finding out what kind of game it's going to be. Good luck on the project man.

It's a 'simple' game concept...

I wont be able to start on the levels for a few days, so the poll is certainly valid for a bit.

I'll try to have the thread locked when the poll is done. This poll might be able to help others too when thinking of themes, so I hope it does more good than just for me