- Apr 6, 2022
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It is very common to see games from Asian culture, specifically Japan and China, but what other countries could inspire me to create a story?
Other cultures as inspiration to create a story
- Thread starter clausdesska
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- Jan 21, 2022
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Whatever countries inspire you, the world is your oyster. Literally.
It's best to go with a country you are familiar with or that piques your interest to learn more about. If potential fans are from the country you choose or have a lot of knowledge about it and you don't do your research - you're going to get A LOT of feedback to improve your product and fix your mistakes.
- Jun 4, 2022
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I would assume it also depends on what assets you have access to. Unless you want to use photos as backgrounds. Generally speaking it would be nice to get some games not featuring Americans in the US (or Japan etc), but maybe something in Europe or South America, any other place.
However, it would only make sense to have your game set in any particular country if said country actually is important to the plot. I.e. your typical harem game or family themed game doesn't require any specific country.
Are there any stories which could only be set in a specific country? Historical settings would make sense, i.e. a game set during the French Revolution or maybe during WW II in Germany (or Europe in general), or maybe the Russian Revolution... but I suppose finding or creating assests for that would be a pretty difficult task.
You could also look into myths. Usually each country has its own unique legends and myths, so you could base a VN on that. But this would be a fantastical setting and again, it could be difficult to find or create assets. But it could be pretty unique and different.
Another option would be to pick a developing or even 3rd world country and to make the unique struggles people face in these countries a focus of the game, at least to a certain degree, i.e. what's it like trying to find love and happiness (or something like that) in places like Venezuela when more pressing matters like hyperinflation have a huge impact on life.
Just think long and hard why a game should be set in any particular country, find what's unique about it, either historical events, myths and legends or current living conditions... and use that as a backdrop, it should have some impact on the story, so the setting makes sense. Otherwise you may just have American characters living in some nondescript US city which is much less of a headache to develop (I guess).
However, it would only make sense to have your game set in any particular country if said country actually is important to the plot. I.e. your typical harem game or family themed game doesn't require any specific country.
Are there any stories which could only be set in a specific country? Historical settings would make sense, i.e. a game set during the French Revolution or maybe during WW II in Germany (or Europe in general), or maybe the Russian Revolution... but I suppose finding or creating assests for that would be a pretty difficult task.
You could also look into myths. Usually each country has its own unique legends and myths, so you could base a VN on that. But this would be a fantastical setting and again, it could be difficult to find or create assets. But it could be pretty unique and different.
Another option would be to pick a developing or even 3rd world country and to make the unique struggles people face in these countries a focus of the game, at least to a certain degree, i.e. what's it like trying to find love and happiness (or something like that) in places like Venezuela when more pressing matters like hyperinflation have a huge impact on life.
Just think long and hard why a game should be set in any particular country, find what's unique about it, either historical events, myths and legends or current living conditions... and use that as a backdrop, it should have some impact on the story, so the setting makes sense. Otherwise you may just have American characters living in some nondescript US city which is much less of a headache to develop (I guess).
Kitbash3D has some nice kitbashes for different countries/fantasies/building styles. Its expensive for sure, but if you want to make a game set in a different setting, you cannot really find any better.
You can always pirate them, I'm sure if you search hard enough you can find most of them for free somewhere.
Getting them into DAZ might be a bit of a challenge though.
- Jun 10, 2017
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This could be extended, why limit to existing cultures ? A lot of authors use a fantasy setting precisely to free themselves from all constraints, and from all possible backslashes.
- Jan 21, 2022
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Agreed to a point, but the question specifically references countries and that's why I limited my response. With established myths, it is probably wise to stick with generally accepted narratives. As for removing backlash - we know that will never happen. Reduction? Yes. Elimination? No.
- Apr 14, 2021
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Well, another popular place to find inspiration is no doubt:
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. have you ever tried writing scifi in a fully new world? I once made that mistake, thinking it would be easy because I can just make shit up as I go. HUGE mistake. it was by far the most exhausting thing ever, you're forced to think up EVERY single thing. 10/10 would advice against it.
much better using something that exists and giving it a twist. like blade runner is a very basic pulp detective story, yet one of the best scifi stories ever. you could drop humphrey bogart into it and absolutely nothing would break.
A game in which you play as Genghis Khan or one of his many descendants and your quest is to plant your seed all over the world.
Could be a globetrotting game that has the player visiting many different places and cultures just to make some babies.
Moreover, if time travel is included, you can even use different time periods.
Could be a globetrotting game that has the player visiting many different places and cultures just to make some babies.
Moreover, if time travel is included, you can even use different time periods.
- Apr 14, 2021
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Heh, funny you mention that.
I once was mulling it over for a while and came to the conclusion that it is nigh-impossible for the human mind to create completely new things. We always copy shit and then heavily modify it.
Like once birds hinted to us that it is possible to fly and inspired people to try.
- Jun 10, 2017
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Michael Moorcock whole creations, J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, and so many more. Or why not Jack Vance's Tschaï cycle, where each one of the four species have its own setting, all integrated in a whole universe setting ? I can be wrong and confuse with another story, haven't read it since a long time, but I kind of remember that one of those species do not know about wheel. It's a really important point that totally change how mechanism works, because if there's no wheels, there's also no gearing. Perhaps John Boyd's The Pollinators of Eden, where life took a weird turn, leading to plants being the most intelligent species on the planet ?
Of course, it need works and creativity, but it's not something impossible. And anyway, I never said that one should invent a whole universe, reason why I talked about a Fantasy setting. Harry Potter saga, by example, take place in a fantasy setting, yet there's only one difference with our known world, magic is a thing.
Er... Sorry to say this, but you totally missed the point in Blade Runner, if you think it's a basic pulp detective story. It's the first movie to, tangentially, address the trans humanism issue, way before trans humanism effectively became something everybody talk about. It's also the movie that defined the visual setting for the whole Cyberpunk movement, by putting images on top of their descriptions.
Nothing is simple and basic in this movie, even the lighting carry a message, expressing how deeply near to suicide is the society it depict.
So, sorry, but Bogart wouldn't do it. Classy, in an setting where even the air you breath is made of trash. Stolid, when even the powerful sometimes wonder if life worth it. Positive, when positivity seem to have been outlawed decades ago.
It's not the story of a detective solving a mystery, it's the story of a disillusioned cop who slowly understand that "life form" can have more than one meaning.
- Jun 10, 2017
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I'm pretty sure that Moorcock, Tolkien, Vance, Boyd, and all the not named, are writers...
- Jun 10, 2017
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Would you've believed me if I had answered that, yes, I did it ?
I doubt. Especially since at this time my writing was surely shittier than now and it was never published. Not that it was bad, I even had some encouragement to continue, it was just not good enough. But well, anyway I'm not stupid enough to dox myself, so even if it had been published, I wouldn't have gave the name to the book.
So I listed authors who did it, on a large scale, and obviously way better than me.
But well, let's say that you believe me: The secret is to plan, then don't care too much.
Firstly, you find the premise of your universe.
Like by example what I said, "this species never discovered wheel".
Secondly, you understand what it imply in regard of our own universe.
No wheel mean that travels are more difficult. Therefore the mentality is more clannish due to the forced isolation.
There's also less trades, except between cities near to waters. What mean that there's probably a split in the population. People living near to waters will be more advanced, and they will probably see people living inland as retarded savages.
And finally, everything that works because circular, also to not exist, like gearing... And you stop there. Unless you intend to depict a mechanic, the MC don't need to know how it works.
Thirdly, you look at our own history for references.
And arrogant advanced civilization believing that everyone else is retarded savages ? It's not what is missing in human history. Pick the one you prefer, and depict the relation in the same way.
Fourthly, while writing you keep in mind that you're on a different universe.
Whatever the constraints you defined, when you start working you forget everything you know about our universe, and put yourself in the one you constructed. Writing will still come naturally and be accurate.
Fifthly, you are more careful while proof reading yourself.
It's only at this time that you really ask yourself if "this" is really possible in such universe. You'll catch some errors, there's always some errors, even when you write for our own universe. But now you've all the time you want to fix them, and you don't have any pressure, because everything is already wrote. What mean that you don't have to invent something, but to make plausible the transition to the outcome that you already wrote.
The reader will not care about pure accuracy, he just want a believable setting.
Isaac Asimov once wrote a novel about a chicken laying golden eggs. The whole story turn around the fact that it's impossible, because, to make the transmutation, the chicken need the same amount of power than the sun, yet it happen.
Accuracy with reality, 0%. Never a chicken would survive the process needed for her to lay golden eggs.
Credibility, 100%. Asimov explained how it can happen, and the narrator (or MC I don't remember exactly) pass most of his time saying that it's not possible, yet he witness it.
But, it's probably not a good example, since Asimov explained, and fucking did it with all his PhD as backup... You don't necessarily need to explain, as long as it feel believable accordingly to everything you wrote before, and you'll wrote after. And when you explain, you don't necessarily need to do it precisely.
You can even rely self-derision, or self-destruction if you need. Like by example, still in an universe without wheel, if you've to disassemble some mechanism:
"While seeing him removing, one after the other, strange mechanisms of all shapes, you remember [whatever name]. It's a scientist who lived something like two centuries ago. He isn't a great inventor, he didn't helped science to make a giant leap. No, he's not remembered for what he did, but for what he said ; he past all his life claiming that there's surely a shape that is better and more accurate to make all our machinery works. But, like he never found this shape, guess what... Everybody mocked him. Was he right or not, we'll probably never know, since nobody really cared to continue his researches, probably fearing to be mocked as much as he was."
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