World Theming

[FungiGamer]

I've been giving it further thought, and..... what if the level themes were actually more broad? Like, instead of catering to specific lava/ice/scary/forest etc. worlds, they instead themed themselves by book genres, as we know that books will play an integral part in level selection. For example, Horror is its own book genre world that can have different themes and settings within it, as will Romance, drama, fantasy, historical, mystery, tall tales, even poems, essays, and whatnot.

[JonFleming86]

I'd love to see a '64 Bit' level and have a proper homage to the N64 classics!

[Nabnut]

I am so excited by all of this. Here is my idea!

A world that is based around a 1920's bandstand. The characters in the level could be instruments with googly eyes, or characters that play the instruments, characters that could be swing dancing, just a big night club party. The music in the level could have that scratchy record playing sound, with music that reflects a style a la Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, etc (But with the charm and talents of Grant Kirkhope!) There could be a moment where the heroes need to play in the band to receive a pagie, where the band could play old tunes from other Rare Games, almost like jazzed up new arrangements of the music from Click Clock Wood, or Clankers Canvern, Fungi Forest, Jungle Japes, the opening credits to Banjo Kazooie, etc, just a big jam-session! Maybe all the characters in the level talk with some kind of made-up, odd-ball jazz lingo that again has that old BK charm, maybe some kind of goofy bar-tender character. There could be a huge old-fashioned microphone stand that the heroes could climb, giant sheet music and music stands to run across, drum-sets, pianos, record players, maybe the entire world is in black and white. I don't know, just an idea! I am so excited by all of this and cannot wait to see what Playtonic comes up with; I have been waiting for years!!!

[Derpy World 1 NPC]

What if there was a survival-horror game-based world that was designed to be as tense and frightening as possible while still being hilarious? It could make fun of a bunch of survival horror tropes and cliches, with mutants, zombies, zombies that are actually mutants, mutants that are actually zombies, zombie-mutants that are actually demons, rabid pinatas that you have to beat back with a shovel, etc etc. Maybe a couple of eldritch abominations for good measure.
And unkillable Amnesia-type monsters. Can't have a great horror level without that.
Remember the well and the Shadow Temple from Ocarina of Time? They are often regarded by fans as being really frightening (especially since a lot of them were kids when they first played them). I'm not saying those are what made the game or anything, but I think they improved it by taking the players a little outside of their comfort zone.

[Alucard]

Well I think zombies could really fit in to an area of my suggested b-movie theater world.
But here is another world suggestion:How about an victorian london themed world with some steampunk elements.

This could be the perfect setting for a spooky world. Off course the world should be at night and should have many dark corners and alleys in an rundown and poor quarter with an accessible pub. There should also a giant clockwork tower similar to the big ben which the main characters need to climb up to get a pagie and the path to the peak of the tower is very difficult (made out of inner workings of the tower like cogs which are constantly moving). Another area could be like a small fair with minigames like the strongman game, can knock down and a freakshow showing weird characters like the elephant man or dr.jekyll and mr.hyde. The whole world should be inhabited by spooky characters like werewolves and vampires (the werewolves run the funfair and the vampires should run the pub where they serve bloody mary and other bloody drinks). A task could be to help an of course anthropomorphic detective to find clues and solve a case in order to find an wanted criminal (jack the ripper).

[Pim3nt]

1. a chinatown level: Set in the underworld of a rainy town, this level features skyscrapers, shady back alley, lots of neons and ninjas!

2. an office level: Corporate music, bland decor, water machine and a real boss at the top of the building.

3. a sea-resort level: Seapunk music, dolphins, deep blue waters (and skies).

4. a house level: seeing how the bathroom or bedroom idea has been mentioned a lot in this thread…why not a whole house to explore? The heroes being the size of an insect of course.

5. last level… a vaporwave level.

[Rueckkoppler]

[Alucard]

[dotEXE]

Man I've gotta admit, I really hate that bathtub world idea. It's the only thought I've had every time I've seen it since April 3rd. It sounds completely out of place, right up there with the "Convenience Store Level" idea I've seen. Dream your dreams though.

[Scrubber]

No mazes please or labyrinths please.

[Alucard]

[Alucard]

[Scrubber]

[Alucard]

[theucgamer]

Okay so my idea is like an entire level dedicated to holidays. If you remember from Nightmare before christmas, that forest with all the doors to different holidays; have a level kind of like that. There is so much you could do with that you could have a valentines day level where its like in the clouds and have hearts and flying babies attacking you and stuff. Then you could have a saint patrick's day level where its like a very Ireland stylized forest and of course christmas and halloween stylized sub levels too. It would kind of be like click clock woods only holidays and not seasons. As far as I can think back it is a pretty original idea that hasn't been used all that much in gaming but is still familar to the point where you instantly get it. I don't know what do you guys think?

[Ped]

[Quartzy]

It appears I posted a thread without looking at this on. Oh well. I'll put my ideas here as well!

Jumbled Jungle = Jungle World
The world we first saw. I don't really have any ideas since we've seen what it will be like, but the boss would probably be some type of inorganic monster, since there's a temple.

Chilly Chasm = Ice World
The ice world we've seen in the artwork. There will probably be a whole bunch of slides, cliffs, and ice, and perhaps it snows constantly? You might need to help someone from freezing, and they'll give you a pagie, or get someone's items from one point to another. The boss would be a yeti?

Undersea City = Water World
Instead of your usual water level, I want a world where it's a city underwater, with glass domes surrounding the city. It would be like those places in large aquariums, where you can walk down a hall of glass and seeing animals swim around. That would be sick to explore, especiall if you go into outskirts of the city to venture off. I just want a squid boss, not a fish one.

Cursed Keep = Haunted World
I suspect ghosts and paranormal activity here. Maybe the pagies make the world expands downwards, discovering the secret behind the ghosts. MAYBE a ghost boss?

Taxing Toybox = Misc/Strange World
Okay, I would LOVE for this world to be in the game, because it could be made up of building blocks, and since you expand the worlds, it would be such a great idea to make it as if it were Lego blocks! A giant toy soldier that commands the toys into seneseless war with eachother could make an interesting boss.

Stellar Sanctuary = Sky World
Imagine: a beautiful view of the night sky and exploring and expanding this giant world with an observatory that unlocked different rooms for pagies. All I have for the boss idea is a giant hawk.

[Taco In A Can]

Since worlds will expand if you invest your collected pages into it, I would love to see some side incentive to do so. Like, lets say you've done the bare minimum to move on from one book/world to the next, but you wanted to find out what happened to a character(s), TO ADVANCE THE STORY STILL GOING ON WITHIN THAT WROLD! I would love to feel intrinsically motivated to do so based on the curiosity I've gained unearthing the clues to its mystery by just following the main missions.

I would LOVE to see at least one would do this in a serious way, internal politics and drama to some degree.(By serious I mean something with human depth). This could be some I want to become attached to one world's story and characters because of the complexity of their relationship to their world.
--Alternatively, instead of a whole world...--
We could have the development of any one side character expand as that book/world does due to an investment of pagies by the player. Unraveling curiosities the player might have about the background of a particular character, or the mysteries of a certain world, or the Shakespearean complex in-depth hidden stories between characters that aren't necessarily pointed out or explained to you but hinted with small clues(for the lore hungry).



These ideas I had in mind were more along the lines of something simple:

(@)an exploer who is climbing a mountain constantly or the depths of a jungle world and you get to see what he/she encounters as they progress/you add more pagies to the world.
(@)Same thing but for a miner who when you first help solve an uninteresting problem leads to the discovery of something small and interesting(like a beautiful artifact that resembles the hint of a power up for you); as the pagies expand the world, what they are uncovering becomes more serious and you can see them excited and obsessing over it(you would see the uncovery progress too, designed to cleverly leave you with more questions each time you visit); completely seeing a shift in their character(like from clean and proper to slowly more dirty and grungy everytime there's progress). I want to hear myself say "what is it?! I need to get more pagies for this!". Maybe in the end you fight them as a side/tough bonus boss (because maybe they uncovered power in the end like magic or ancient tech) for whatever the treasure is and the whole experience evolves them as a character you maybe didn't like before but feel like they've changed for the better. Like maybe as a result of loosing the fight to you they seem to then become a pacifist hippie renouncing all material possessions "dude". Light hearted humor and such
(@)Clues to who a mysterious superhero really is


What I was mentioning I would really like to see though is along the lines of something more complex:

(@)Lovers in secret (you can find/see a hidden locket or photo or letter tucked under inconspicuous clutter, or by bashing an object with a specific move, or uncover a hidden room behind a bookshelf by doing something unique that you wouldn't do anywhere else in the game,e.g., like sit in a chair or something/ something out of context to the games normal mechanics)
(@)(World supporting a feud? Political, Tribal, Family.) The true guilty party of a murder that got away with it (your skills allow you to find the easter eggs, e.g., hidden room, or see behind a wall with sonar). The murder would have already taken place once you've first arrived of course; so that you don't have a personal connection with them once their wacked(although you could still develop a relationship with them if you get to know the depths of who they were) This wouldn't be an official mission, just in game lore that has detail because it was fun to develop and stick into the game. THE PU COMMUNITY WOULD GO BAT#$%* MAD LOOKING FOR THE CLUES IF CONVOLUTED ENOUGH ,.i.e., Five Nights at Freddie's convoluted lore style(People who didn't even like the genre of scary games invested in unraveling the untold story and looking for the possible connection between things ) This would be fun even if it was cartoony.

An example to try and give you an idea of what I am talking about for the more serious stuff is the type of character development you would see in Psychonauts while inside someone's mind(the level); you would explore the world and slowly unravel maybe some dark things, or maybe some interesting things that gave those characters depth and a peak into their vulnerabilities & past, overall things that weren't said but that you felt you uncovered and saw there because these characters were given personalities and you saw the dynamics of their story; you were rewarded for paying attention while playing and not just collecting/"platforming". Just under 2-min vid of a perfect example:

TL;DR I want to see something like this (https://youtu.be/m6TXYP6qU8I) be fed to you when expanding at least one world's theme again and again. Consider building a world that supports this evolution.

Non-related to world theme:
That incentive for uncovering what "the miner" has started to unearth would be the style I'd like to see for the player to 100% the game. Where you get to see the progress and the scene evolve until you finish dropping off all the rare special item(s) from each world or you 100% the game because you collected all of the things "needed"/ the common items. This incentive would be in the world hub most likely.
(An example would be the type of collecting you did for Snide in DK64 with the blueprints but it would be a side boss/power up as a reward not an advantage to progressing in the storyline as that was in that game)

[Yavga]

Yay, creativities! I had some ideas back in the dynamic level thread, here I will try to think up some more.

The Chameleon of the Opera:
As the name suggests, a giant opera. Long ago many famous creatures from the YL universe performed here. That was until nobody was interested enough in grand performances anymore. They'd rather visit rock concerts and other loud music events. The opera was at a decline and the building was left alone... For years, until rumors started circulating of music that people could hear from the operahouse. Yooka and Laylee enter the opera by answering the request of Trowser (insert reason here). The stage will feauture the opera itself and a huge lagoon hidden under the operahouse. Yooka and Laylee discover the source of music throughout the opera house when they face a friendly face, the phantom of the opera AKA (insert chameleon name here) the phantom tells Yooka and Laylee the real story behind the Opera and what exactly was the cause of the abandonment and that he protects the operahouse by playing music that a certain Evil detests. Together Yooka and Laylee seek out the Evil that has to be rid of its' crimes.

To be continued...

[Taco In A Can]