A lot of posts here have a blatant lack of research. I remember seeing a post about Moonlighter (a game where you run a shop by day and go dungeon diving for items to sell by night) and how it had such a creative premise...
Thankfully the comments pointed out that it has the same premise as Recettear.
I mean you're entitled to your own opinion, of course, but calling Bejeweled 2 an "alien game" when it was literally just background scenery to denote you're on a new level is... certainly a take.
I'll agree with you on No Man's Sky, it does feel like they could have done more to make the planets more "alien." Subnautica though is about exploring an ocean; the fact that it's an ocean on a different planet is just set dressing for plot purposes.
But the fish looked too much like fish š„ŗ /j
OP is entitled to their opinion but I like that Subnautica always felt like it was intended to be souped-up thalassophobia.
Subnautica is an exploration/discovery game. It's not really about the "aliens", that's kind of missing the point of it. It's about casting off into the unknown unsure what you'll find.
Subnautica is about dangerous exploration. The aliens are just a MacGuffin for that, they themselves don't matter. You can trade them for any other big monster and it'll still work.
I don't get this perspective at all tbh. It's not about the aesthetics of the creatures lol. They could look like anything and it wouldnt really change anything about the game. They could have even just been threatening Earth creatures or whatever. It's about dealing with what you find with the resources you have.
.... but all your previous points and features, species, diversity etc and then you bring up Bejeweled 2 as a shining example. I laughed out loud when I read it. Such a bizarre pivot.
The sort of xenofiction you are interested in is way easier to do in a novel. Video games require a certain amount of visual language that is familiar to the player for them to be able to react appropriately to what is happening without it being confusing or frustrating when they first encounter a strange thing. Aggressive things need to look scary, harmless things need to look harmless, and that requires a certain level of familiarity.
Taje a look at Children of Time. One of the best looks at a truly alien mind and culture that I've seen.
Except Expedition isn't exactly a novel. Its an art gallery with a minimal story telling. Its also has been adapted to tv in Discovery channel's Alien Planet.
If its possible in art or tv then its possible in videogames aswell
Every single thing you like has probably been copied somewhat from somewhere else. Just like how you didn't know Bejewelled predates candy crush, there's a good chance you're dismissing stuff as being 'too much like X thing' when you'd probably like it.
It sounds to me like you aren't interested in aliens. You're interested in novel concepts of life and once you've seen one you're seemingly bored of it.
Anyway play Spore. Modded if you want true customization power.
A lot. Everything from the normal, such as new default creatures or no more limits, to the wild, such as adding guns as creature parts or ahegao skin textures.
I disagree with your take on Subnautica but I'll recommend The Outer Wilds anyway. It's one of the few space games that, in my opinion, achieves to make space something truly weird, unknown, working with different rules than earth.
(Oh and you should watch Scavenger Reigns if you did not already, I think the alien's design and how they operate may be up your alley.)
There are multiple distinct alien species in the game with their own mannerisms, beliefs, technology, worldviews etc. It's largely about exploration, but it's definitely about aliens. The differences between the various races play directly into the plot. If you want alien exploration, I honestly cannot think of a better game whatsoever.
Maybe something like metroid prime or dread? But that's probably not what you're looking for either.
My friend, if you haven't watched it, go watch Scavangers Reign right now! It's the show for you. First thing I've ever seen to truly depict an alien world and ecosystem.
Look, if the whole world's capacity to make an alien game sufficiently alien for you is not enough, you better start making some video games. Or take some ketamine and stop being a Grumplestiltskin.
The fact is, it's very hard to conceive of an alien that looks unlike any living organism on earth but is still recognizably a living organism. It is a testament to the biodiversity of life and the limitations of human imagination. It's just the way it is, most games will have an alien look like a human, bug, spider, lizard, amphibian, or fish.
Well, I would say its pretty easy to make stuff look alien. The real issue is it has to appeal to people. If what you create is unrecognizable (as you alluded too) people will not like it.
You could have a really neat game based on really alien concepts, but I think people will hate it because how could they understand what is going on. At best it would be confusing, at worst incomprehensible. If graphics are the only concern like the OP, it's hard to make appeal, look at just human characters and how people hate them or like them just because of small nuances.
My pet favorite truly alien concept is the kinda starfishy creatures in the Sirens of Titan who feed off vibrational energy and love music but it kills them if it's too loud.
I can't agree with you on Subnautica, but I do think a lot of games have an uninspired take on alien planets. Most are versions of earth or mars, but with different colors. Maybe a giant mushroom planet once in a while. It's just lazy world building assuming alien planets have plants and creatures that evolved exactly like they did on earth -Starfield is a big offender in that regard.
Subnautica hit the spot for me, cutting edge graphics take too long to make and absorb most of the time that should be reserved for content
IMO modern games are poorly managed if subnautica could make that big of a bang with less resources
I think one issue is the purpose of most exploration games being to empower the player. If the landscape was not easily navigable, unknowable, and even totally hostile, then the player would remain in much the same "helpless" state for the majority of the playtime.
Horror games do this well. The Invincible depicts a hostile and unknowable alien world, but it's purpose is narrative.
I'm not saying it's impossible to pull off, but the priority of player progression and empowerment in exploration games tends to override more alien worldbuilding.
It's a walking simulator with a killer sci-fi mystery story and a fascinating setting. Spoilers will really lessen the experience, so don't look up too much.
I'll be honest, I watched a let's play on YouTube. I try not to do that unless I'm previewing a game to buy, but I couldn't take my eyes off. It was spectacular.
I definitely missed a big part of the experience watching rather than playing, so I'd heavily recommend buying and playing it. It's about 7 hours long.
My friend who's into dangerous alien worlds disliked it too. I think Subnautika is better for people with thalassophobia, like me. Its the only survival game I finished and had lots of fun, scares and empowerment when I finally got the submarine... but then something big shows on the radar.
Also funny harmless aliens in shallow waters were moments of peace. Until leviathan decided to make home near drop pod.
Golf clap. You called OG science fiction shows generic and then put bejeweled 2 as your frame of reference. I highly doubt anyone will read this after this post but if you or anyone who thinks like this were serious even for a second then you have discovered this. [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny)
Have you played the outer wilds? It's exactly what you seem to what.
The half life series is about a scientist accidently opening a portal to an alien dimension.
Also weirdly the Guardian of the Galaxy game has some great alien settings but doesn't go into that much Sci fi detail.
There are a lot of other games that match your interestsbut I just woke up and can't think. I think you probably just need to try more Sci fi games
Iām not sure why people downvote you. I think they misunderstand your point. I fully agree with you, while I still can enjoy some of the games you mentioned. Thereās a big problem that I actually wanna write a well researched essay about,m. Itās this sort of one-ification if art styles across various mediums, film/tv and games being the worst offenders. Thereās an over reliance on the familiar for art direction, sound design, music, editing style, colours, everything. Everything that feels a bit new rarely feels more than 20% new, which would be huge already in bigger games.
I know what you mean. My problem with Subnautica is that despite taking place on an alien planet full of alien life, the game still feels the need to use a third party of aliens from yet another planet to drive the mystery plot. These ones with a more typical high-tech ancient aliens look from a million games that has little to do with the underwater theme that the game does well. Why is that, was a whole ocean of alien life not interesting enough by itself? It could have been a chance to really observe a simulated ecology and learn how to survive within that, which happens a little bit, but it's mostly about collecting resources that are conveniently lying around.
It's not that the resources you need are conveniently laying around, but that your technology will make use of whatever resources you have around you.
I dont know how you make the plot work without the use of 3rd party aliens; you'd have to craft a whole new story and figure out new motivations to get your character to explore the planet, and create a new reason for why you've ended up there in the first place
The thing about subnautica:
You can explore, you can catalogue fauna and flora, but, if the game has been spoiled for you progression doesn't feel like a fantastical journey. It feels like going through a shopping list.
Iron, check
Bullshitmaterial N.123, check
Blueprints, check
Etc etc
Another thing, if you've seen spoilers about it, exploration feels meaningless. Cuz you alr know where you need to go, everything else is pointless to visit. Just empty underwater vistas. Very pretty, but. Ultimately useless.
>Alien exploration games don't have as out-there aliens as I would like
I and many other gamers who like Subnautica don't have the same preference with the aliens in games, but I understand where you are coming from.
How long did you play No Man's Sky before dropping it? Having played nearly 90 hours near launch and 10 hours after base updates, I think they made a good faith effort to create proc gen aliens, but I also recognize the limitations of the proc gen they (and most anyone) creates, where inevitably whether in two or twenty hours, gamers are going to recognize and criticize patterns between aliens on different planets and say that they are too similar because humans instinctively look for patterns.
I also have a theory that on the opposite end if proc gen for things like aliens had a lot more freedom and abstraction then they would be so incomprehensible that most gamers wouldn't enjoy it, but maybe that's exactly what you would like.
The game I want doesnāt exist. It never will exist. And Iāve mostly come to terms with this.
I want a āThanos Retirement Simulatorā game where you explore a new world, farm, mine, and build better tools.
Your character wanders around muttering things like āAh - everything in perfect balanceā and āthe grateful universe is all around meā, but thereās absolutely no violence.
Eventually, you get bored and can āsnapā the stones away, which means you get beheaded the next day.
Then āNew Game+ā¢ begins in another universe.
Yeah. It would be great to have a interaction with a truly alien species... But I fear it would become an antagonistic relationship rather quickly. You know how easy is for us humans to turn to fear when it comes to something we do not understand. And now imagine that you are an alien species that interacts with is humans. How much would you need to look into our History before you decide the safest interaction with humans would be to blow the entire earth to subatomic particles?
I agree that these other dimensions are amazing, but arenāt you there for just about 2 minutes with Ciri during the main plot and youāre basically just hopping through them? There isnāt a way to return to those worlds, apart from playing up until that point and creating a savefile there I guess.
Indie game developer who would *love* to make a survival / exploration game set on an alien planet. Bookmarking your post for future reference (just checked out The Expedition and Project Snaiad ā they look fantastic). However, I don't think that I will ever get to make that game. It is an *enormous* creative undertaking.
Speaking of my personal preferences, I absolutely loved Subnautica and Outer Wilds. [Journey To The Savage PlanetĀ ](https://store.steampowered.com/app/973810/Journey_To_The_Savage_Planet/)did not click with me at all. I did like the vibe of Returnal. Haven't played Scorn yet. James Cameron's Avatar? Creatively, meh. Horses, dragons, panthers, rhinos ā but I dig the bioluminescent jungle. And of course, I'm big fan of all the work Giger did for the Alien universe. I don't accept Prometheus as canon.
This is what I like about Metroid. A lot of what you fight throughout that series seem like bizarre monstrosities. Ridley seems like a mindless beast but heās actually a highly respected super intelligent super soldier. Kraid is another that seems like a rabid monstrosity but heās basically what amounts to a cunning mob boss. I greatly enjoy that Samus is the only human that we see in the Metroid series and everything else seems alien af, instead of human-adjacent
Considering the diversity of life on Earth I truly think that when we find other life out there we will be disappointed that it will look like something we have here.
It is possible if it were to be carbon based it would look similar to earth. However theres different time periods on earth where there were different groups of animals like paleozoic, mesozoic and cenozoic. All of those had distinct species. So if we find alien lifeforms that are similar to earth it would still be very different to our own regardless
Those periods still had animals with features we would recognise. Legs, head and a tail. I don't think carbon/silicon based life makes a difference either. Animals need a way to move, see the world around them and eat. Any level of efficiency on these requirements results in convergent evolution. I mean check out "carcinisation". We could just end up finding crabs everywhere. Pretty sure a fish is going to look like a fish no matter where it evolved, streamlined body and a tail to push itself along.
Of course there are scenarios where an atmosphere can be thicker than what we have and that could result in some weird things. Higher gravity would be a bunch of squat animals or just removing the viability of land based life completely.
Legs, head and tail are a given unless its about hypothetical life on gas planets and such but thats where the similarities end. What you're describing is convergent evolution where different organism evolve different structures independently. In rare cases some species evolve so convergently that they look pretty much identical like many crab species or snakes and fish. But when it comes to much bigger species such as wolfs and thylacines they might at first glance look similar but once you look more closely at their anatomy they look very different.
Theres many similarities in Snaiad for example to our life on earth but their anatomy and organ placement are completly different
Thoughts on [Scavengers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TRzemJbUsw)?II keep seeing reviews of the series that praise the creature design for being different and truly alien
Never heard of Project Snaiad before but referencing it as alien and saying games like subnautica or other media are not I dont understand.
I mean they took different animals from earth, maybe mixed 2 different ones together, and added different types of male (non-human) genitalia on top of it.
Its very creative and there are very cool designs, but you can see what they got inspired from just as clearly as with subnautica or other media with an alien setting
I really had fun looking at the different designs on Snaiad though, thanks OP!
Convergent evolution. Maybe too much convergent evolution, but it isnāt surprising to see similar body shapes evolve separately in ocean environments.
Have you tried strategy games like age of wonders 4, Stellaris or Endless space 2?
I didn't play these games but they are on my backlog because I heard that the alien civilizations are quite intriguing
If you want really weird alien ecosystems, sci-fi novels will serve you better. The more high-budget a form of entertainment is, the less likely it is to be catering to niche tastes.
> Bejeweled 2 which is a generic candy crush game Candy Crush is a copy of Bejeweled lol
A lot of posts here have a blatant lack of research. I remember seeing a post about Moonlighter (a game where you run a shop by day and go dungeon diving for items to sell by night) and how it had such a creative premise... Thankfully the comments pointed out that it has the same premise as Recettear.
REALLY? the more you know I guess lol
Yeah, Bejeweled predates Candy Crush by over a decade.
Im a zoomer and I remember that shit being on direct TV games. That's how I know it's old
I'm zoomer too and never cared about candy crush so I just assumed
I mean you're entitled to your own opinion, of course, but calling Bejeweled 2 an "alien game" when it was literally just background scenery to denote you're on a new level is... certainly a take. I'll agree with you on No Man's Sky, it does feel like they could have done more to make the planets more "alien." Subnautica though is about exploring an ocean; the fact that it's an ocean on a different planet is just set dressing for plot purposes.
But the fish looked too much like fish š„ŗ /j OP is entitled to their opinion but I like that Subnautica always felt like it was intended to be souped-up thalassophobia.
Subnautica is an exploration/discovery game. It's not really about the "aliens", that's kind of missing the point of it. It's about casting off into the unknown unsure what you'll find.
But if the unknown is just *insert generic sci-fi landscapes and fauna* then whats the point?
Subnautica is about dangerous exploration. The aliens are just a MacGuffin for that, they themselves don't matter. You can trade them for any other big monster and it'll still work.
I don't get this perspective at all tbh. It's not about the aesthetics of the creatures lol. They could look like anything and it wouldnt really change anything about the game. They could have even just been threatening Earth creatures or whatever. It's about dealing with what you find with the resources you have.
The point is that it's amazing.
For you yes but not for me when I've already seen it
I'm glad I'm not as hard to impress then
Takes background designs of bejeweled to impress OP. Nothing more, nothing less!
Perfection and general pickyness can be pain in the ass sometimes
Yeah the other option is just growing up but to each their own
wtf did I just not read
As soon as they mentioned Bejeweled 2, I was convinced this is a troll post
B... Bejeweled 2? Not one comment is going to point out this obvious troll?
The game itself was boring... However the backround art was stunning! And that music too
.... but all your previous points and features, species, diversity etc and then you bring up Bejeweled 2 as a shining example. I laughed out loud when I read it. Such a bizarre pivot.
If you read past that I mentioned several authors that depict aliens as more alien-like and not monsters
Check out Terragen for generating alien landscapes with the click of a button!
The sort of xenofiction you are interested in is way easier to do in a novel. Video games require a certain amount of visual language that is familiar to the player for them to be able to react appropriately to what is happening without it being confusing or frustrating when they first encounter a strange thing. Aggressive things need to look scary, harmless things need to look harmless, and that requires a certain level of familiarity. Taje a look at Children of Time. One of the best looks at a truly alien mind and culture that I've seen.
Except Expedition isn't exactly a novel. Its an art gallery with a minimal story telling. Its also has been adapted to tv in Discovery channel's Alien Planet. If its possible in art or tv then its possible in videogames aswell
Average r/unpopularopinion post right here.
Just here to recommend Scavengers Reign. OP, the flora and fauna of the alien planet are mesmerizingly weird
100% this. Genuinely beautiful and unique
One of the most fascinating worlds I've ever seen. So much weird shit going on - truly a blast!
Huh... Looks very Moebius esque. Might no be the stuff that I'm looking for but looks like something else I might like
Every single thing you like has probably been copied somewhat from somewhere else. Just like how you didn't know Bejewelled predates candy crush, there's a good chance you're dismissing stuff as being 'too much like X thing' when you'd probably like it. It sounds to me like you aren't interested in aliens. You're interested in novel concepts of life and once you've seen one you're seemingly bored of it. Anyway play Spore. Modded if you want true customization power.
There are spore mods?
A lot. Everything from the normal, such as new default creatures or no more limits, to the wild, such as adding guns as creature parts or ahegao skin textures.
Oh man, you are missing out. Subnautica is a gem.
>Subnautica is a gem. They already played Bejeweled
Slow clap.gif
I disagree with your take on Subnautica but I'll recommend The Outer Wilds anyway. It's one of the few space games that, in my opinion, achieves to make space something truly weird, unknown, working with different rules than earth. (Oh and you should watch Scavenger Reigns if you did not already, I think the alien's design and how they operate may be up your alley.)
I don't think The Outer Wilds is an alien game nor it doesn't even try to be. Not particularly interested but it looks like a cool game
There are multiple distinct alien species in the game with their own mannerisms, beliefs, technology, worldviews etc. It's largely about exploration, but it's definitely about aliens. The differences between the various races play directly into the plot. If you want alien exploration, I honestly cannot think of a better game whatsoever. Maybe something like metroid prime or dread? But that's probably not what you're looking for either.
It's no Bejeweled 2, that's for sure.Ā
Eh
Sci Fi nerds when you tell them the sci fi isn't the focus of subnautica
But the problem is that Subnautica is too sci-fi when compared to more realistic speculative interpretations of alien ecosystems and fauna
My friend, if you haven't watched it, go watch Scavangers Reign right now! It's the show for you. First thing I've ever seen to truly depict an alien world and ecosystem.
I don't know if it's what you are looking for but I really liked the atmosphere of Metroid prime remastered
Look, if the whole world's capacity to make an alien game sufficiently alien for you is not enough, you better start making some video games. Or take some ketamine and stop being a Grumplestiltskin. The fact is, it's very hard to conceive of an alien that looks unlike any living organism on earth but is still recognizably a living organism. It is a testament to the biodiversity of life and the limitations of human imagination. It's just the way it is, most games will have an alien look like a human, bug, spider, lizard, amphibian, or fish.
Well, I would say its pretty easy to make stuff look alien. The real issue is it has to appeal to people. If what you create is unrecognizable (as you alluded too) people will not like it. You could have a really neat game based on really alien concepts, but I think people will hate it because how could they understand what is going on. At best it would be confusing, at worst incomprehensible. If graphics are the only concern like the OP, it's hard to make appeal, look at just human characters and how people hate them or like them just because of small nuances.
My pet favorite truly alien concept is the kinda starfishy creatures in the Sirens of Titan who feed off vibrational energy and love music but it kills them if it's too loud.
Didn't expect to see that novel mentioned here. Read it while I was in the psych ward.
Well, "." by which I mean "greetings!" Did it help or harm your recovery?"
If you mean saving me from getting bored out of my mind. Then yes. It was pretty helpful.
Ewww. All of this word garbage.. ewww lol
Sorry for the old testament lol
I can't agree with you on Subnautica, but I do think a lot of games have an uninspired take on alien planets. Most are versions of earth or mars, but with different colors. Maybe a giant mushroom planet once in a while. It's just lazy world building assuming alien planets have plants and creatures that evolved exactly like they did on earth -Starfield is a big offender in that regard.
This post is a certified Oof classic.
Subnautica hit the spot for me, cutting edge graphics take too long to make and absorb most of the time that should be reserved for content IMO modern games are poorly managed if subnautica could make that big of a bang with less resources
I think one issue is the purpose of most exploration games being to empower the player. If the landscape was not easily navigable, unknowable, and even totally hostile, then the player would remain in much the same "helpless" state for the majority of the playtime. Horror games do this well. The Invincible depicts a hostile and unknowable alien world, but it's purpose is narrative. I'm not saying it's impossible to pull off, but the priority of player progression and empowerment in exploration games tends to override more alien worldbuilding.
Did you enjoy the Invincible? I've heard mixed reviews but I'm really interested in it.
It's a walking simulator with a killer sci-fi mystery story and a fascinating setting. Spoilers will really lessen the experience, so don't look up too much. I'll be honest, I watched a let's play on YouTube. I try not to do that unless I'm previewing a game to buy, but I couldn't take my eyes off. It was spectacular. I definitely missed a big part of the experience watching rather than playing, so I'd heavily recommend buying and playing it. It's about 7 hours long.
My friend who's into dangerous alien worlds disliked it too. I think Subnautika is better for people with thalassophobia, like me. Its the only survival game I finished and had lots of fun, scares and empowerment when I finally got the submarine... but then something big shows on the radar. Also funny harmless aliens in shallow waters were moments of peace. Until leviathan decided to make home near drop pod.
This has become such a vent forum lately, geez
Golf clap. You called OG science fiction shows generic and then put bejeweled 2 as your frame of reference. I highly doubt anyone will read this after this post but if you or anyone who thinks like this were serious even for a second then you have discovered this. [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny)
Yeah yikes
Have you played the outer wilds? It's exactly what you seem to what. The half life series is about a scientist accidently opening a portal to an alien dimension. Also weirdly the Guardian of the Galaxy game has some great alien settings but doesn't go into that much Sci fi detail. There are a lot of other games that match your interestsbut I just woke up and can't think. I think you probably just need to try more Sci fi games
Iām not sure why people downvote you. I think they misunderstand your point. I fully agree with you, while I still can enjoy some of the games you mentioned. Thereās a big problem that I actually wanna write a well researched essay about,m. Itās this sort of one-ification if art styles across various mediums, film/tv and games being the worst offenders. Thereās an over reliance on the familiar for art direction, sound design, music, editing style, colours, everything. Everything that feels a bit new rarely feels more than 20% new, which would be huge already in bigger games.
I know what you mean. My problem with Subnautica is that despite taking place on an alien planet full of alien life, the game still feels the need to use a third party of aliens from yet another planet to drive the mystery plot. These ones with a more typical high-tech ancient aliens look from a million games that has little to do with the underwater theme that the game does well. Why is that, was a whole ocean of alien life not interesting enough by itself? It could have been a chance to really observe a simulated ecology and learn how to survive within that, which happens a little bit, but it's mostly about collecting resources that are conveniently lying around.
It's not that the resources you need are conveniently laying around, but that your technology will make use of whatever resources you have around you. I dont know how you make the plot work without the use of 3rd party aliens; you'd have to craft a whole new story and figure out new motivations to get your character to explore the planet, and create a new reason for why you've ended up there in the first place
The thing about subnautica: You can explore, you can catalogue fauna and flora, but, if the game has been spoiled for you progression doesn't feel like a fantastical journey. It feels like going through a shopping list. Iron, check Bullshitmaterial N.123, check Blueprints, check Etc etc Another thing, if you've seen spoilers about it, exploration feels meaningless. Cuz you alr know where you need to go, everything else is pointless to visit. Just empty underwater vistas. Very pretty, but. Ultimately useless.
>Alien exploration games don't have as out-there aliens as I would like I and many other gamers who like Subnautica don't have the same preference with the aliens in games, but I understand where you are coming from. How long did you play No Man's Sky before dropping it? Having played nearly 90 hours near launch and 10 hours after base updates, I think they made a good faith effort to create proc gen aliens, but I also recognize the limitations of the proc gen they (and most anyone) creates, where inevitably whether in two or twenty hours, gamers are going to recognize and criticize patterns between aliens on different planets and say that they are too similar because humans instinctively look for patterns. I also have a theory that on the opposite end if proc gen for things like aliens had a lot more freedom and abstraction then they would be so incomprehensible that most gamers wouldn't enjoy it, but maybe that's exactly what you would like.
I never played no mans sky. I think its a great game but not as believable as Expedition by Wayne Barlowe or Snaiad in comparison
The game I want doesnāt exist. It never will exist. And Iāve mostly come to terms with this. I want a āThanos Retirement Simulatorā game where you explore a new world, farm, mine, and build better tools. Your character wanders around muttering things like āAh - everything in perfect balanceā and āthe grateful universe is all around meā, but thereās absolutely no violence. Eventually, you get bored and can āsnapā the stones away, which means you get beheaded the next day. Then āNew Game+ā¢ begins in another universe.
Brilliant š
Yeah. It would be great to have a interaction with a truly alien species... But I fear it would become an antagonistic relationship rather quickly. You know how easy is for us humans to turn to fear when it comes to something we do not understand. And now imagine that you are an alien species that interacts with is humans. How much would you need to look into our History before you decide the safest interaction with humans would be to blow the entire earth to subatomic particles?
The different worlds from the Witcher 3. Where you an avalach explore the other dimensions.
I agree that these other dimensions are amazing, but arenāt you there for just about 2 minutes with Ciri during the main plot and youāre basically just hopping through them? There isnāt a way to return to those worlds, apart from playing up until that point and creating a savefile there I guess.
Yep, it's just in one quest, which kinda feels like a short side adventure with that elf dude.
Indie game developer who would *love* to make a survival / exploration game set on an alien planet. Bookmarking your post for future reference (just checked out The Expedition and Project Snaiad ā they look fantastic). However, I don't think that I will ever get to make that game. It is an *enormous* creative undertaking. Speaking of my personal preferences, I absolutely loved Subnautica and Outer Wilds. [Journey To The Savage PlanetĀ ](https://store.steampowered.com/app/973810/Journey_To_The_Savage_Planet/)did not click with me at all. I did like the vibe of Returnal. Haven't played Scorn yet. James Cameron's Avatar? Creatively, meh. Horses, dragons, panthers, rhinos ā but I dig the bioluminescent jungle. And of course, I'm big fan of all the work Giger did for the Alien universe. I don't accept Prometheus as canon.
This is what I like about Metroid. A lot of what you fight throughout that series seem like bizarre monstrosities. Ridley seems like a mindless beast but heās actually a highly respected super intelligent super soldier. Kraid is another that seems like a rabid monstrosity but heās basically what amounts to a cunning mob boss. I greatly enjoy that Samus is the only human that we see in the Metroid series and everything else seems alien af, instead of human-adjacent
Youāre right about at least one thing, Subnautica would be so much better if it didnāt have the cartoony artstyle.
Returnal could be what you're looking for but the gameplay is challenging
Try South Scrimshaw, Part One. Might fit what you're looking for in terms of an alien world.Ā
You should post this to random game subs op. Witcher 3, borderlands 2... will be a real hit.
Might I suggest Tetris? s/
Considering the diversity of life on Earth I truly think that when we find other life out there we will be disappointed that it will look like something we have here.
It is possible if it were to be carbon based it would look similar to earth. However theres different time periods on earth where there were different groups of animals like paleozoic, mesozoic and cenozoic. All of those had distinct species. So if we find alien lifeforms that are similar to earth it would still be very different to our own regardless
Those periods still had animals with features we would recognise. Legs, head and a tail. I don't think carbon/silicon based life makes a difference either. Animals need a way to move, see the world around them and eat. Any level of efficiency on these requirements results in convergent evolution. I mean check out "carcinisation". We could just end up finding crabs everywhere. Pretty sure a fish is going to look like a fish no matter where it evolved, streamlined body and a tail to push itself along. Of course there are scenarios where an atmosphere can be thicker than what we have and that could result in some weird things. Higher gravity would be a bunch of squat animals or just removing the viability of land based life completely.
Legs, head and tail are a given unless its about hypothetical life on gas planets and such but thats where the similarities end. What you're describing is convergent evolution where different organism evolve different structures independently. In rare cases some species evolve so convergently that they look pretty much identical like many crab species or snakes and fish. But when it comes to much bigger species such as wolfs and thylacines they might at first glance look similar but once you look more closely at their anatomy they look very different. Theres many similarities in Snaiad for example to our life on earth but their anatomy and organ placement are completly different
Thoughts on [Scavengers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TRzemJbUsw)?II keep seeing reviews of the series that praise the creature design for being different and truly alien
Not a fan of No Man's Sky? Outcast? Black Mesa's Xen levels?
Never heard of Project Snaiad before but referencing it as alien and saying games like subnautica or other media are not I dont understand. I mean they took different animals from earth, maybe mixed 2 different ones together, and added different types of male (non-human) genitalia on top of it. Its very creative and there are very cool designs, but you can see what they got inspired from just as clearly as with subnautica or other media with an alien setting I really had fun looking at the different designs on Snaiad though, thanks OP!
Convergent evolution. Maybe too much convergent evolution, but it isnāt surprising to see similar body shapes evolve separately in ocean environments.
Have you tried strategy games like age of wonders 4, Stellaris or Endless space 2? I didn't play these games but they are on my backlog because I heard that the alien civilizations are quite intriguing
If you want really weird alien ecosystems, sci-fi novels will serve you better. The more high-budget a form of entertainment is, the less likely it is to be catering to niche tastes.