The Island As Game Setting
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Has anyone seen any interesting uses of an island as the setting of a game? I'm thinking that it provides a nice natural boundary for the gameworld, and the small size is nice because it allows for dense, intense worldbuilding. Marooning stories are perennially popular: Lord of the Flies, Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, Gilligan's Island, the anime Uninhabited Planet Survive...
I think it would be good to do a FPS come RPG like Deus Ex where you are located on an island, trapped or whatever. There is lots of scope for a game like this. Since Deus Ex is a quite hi-tech based game, maybe there could be a primitive technology 'version'. Crossed with farcry maybe.
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I've seen islands been used in a few games, I think, although the only ones I can remember are strategy games; Tropico 2, Sacrifice, and something set in the New World I played years ago. The island is useful because, as you've said, it comes with a preset boundary. It also allows easy integration of several levels, as you move from island to island. A similar (and more popular) strategy with space sci-fi/fantasy is to have different planets that you move through; this was used in Populous 3, Magic Carpet, Gene Wars, and probably heaps others. This allows an explanation about how you can have different worlds, but allows the game to have no boundaries.
I can't remember any marooning based stories set on islands in games, apart from the Monkey Island series, of course.
I can't remember any marooning based stories set on islands in games, apart from the Monkey Island series, of course.
Farcry is the main one that springs to mind.
The storyline sucked and it had no real worldbuilding at all.
Another game that springs to mind is Myst.
The storyline sucked and it had no real worldbuilding at all.
Another game that springs to mind is Myst.
I think there is some good sense in using islands. Look at the detail and consistency of the Myst series.
The RPG I'm working on takes place on an island. Or at least that's where their home town is at. An island is a good setting because, as you stated, is small, but also the fact that islands can be isolated. Because its isolated from the rest of the world, you can form a pretty interesting story base.
Shining Force II began on an island. Kept things small until they wanted to expand the story and move to the big continent, and the island became important again later.
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