The game world is an Earth-like planet, where the continents are arranged like on Earth. There are seven continents.

This planet also has a moon and seven neighboring planets. There are the same animals that are on Earth, and there were even dinosaurs. The planet has the same history as Earth as well, and by the time it was discovered in the year 3000 on Earth, this planet was already the same age Earth was when humans appeared.

The people who discovered the planet settled on its moon. 50 people were on board the ship when it landed, and there was also a large capsule containing 160 frozen adult humans whose brains had been manipulated so they had the skills and knowledge of people from 3000 BCE. This experiment was intended to test the “magic number” for space pioneers.

The capsule was launched and it landed onto the surface of the Earth-like planet, in a desert by the planet's equator. Upon landing, the humans inside were thawed out and began to build villages. Every 10 years, the scientists from the moon would secretly check on the Earth-like planet's human population, and history on the planet played out in much the same way as on Earth. The scientists who checked on the population had an underground base on the moon to hide from an inevitable space program, and there was also an underground city so the scientists could have kids who would grow up to be like their parents, which was the same for every generation living in the underground base.

How do you like this game world/backstory? Any feedback?

@undefined This is just a game world used for multiple games as an alternative to Earth to avoid having to deal with using real countries (especially given what’s been going on in the world lately). So the player’s role depends on the game.

I love it.

Sounds horribly contrived. Bad enough to put me off playing the game.

If you want a setting that's like Earth without actually being Earth, then just create a setting like Earth without actually being Earth. Don't try to connect it to this universe. Don't give it a weird ancient astronauts backstory. Don't create voodoo sharks. Just create the setting.

I guess pretty everybody has such space colonization backstory in mind. It's pretty ideal, allowing non realistic things aiding game design, and easy expansion to full blown franchise / universe / space opera. (If we allow us some wishful thinking : )
To me it's at least one of my favorites.

But i don't like the earth likeliness either. To me, the whole point of moving to another planet is to discover and explore something new and different. So there should be at least subtle differences which actually matter and catch interest.
If you promise me a game on another planet, and then it's just like earth, i'll end up disappointed.

I like the idea of secret observation on the progress of the new colony. This enables conspiracy, some dark side, and technology vs. primal society comparisons. That's always nice and the proper topic of science fiction.
As the initial idea is so generic and overdone, you'd need to focus on such details to make it unique and interesting.

Why does the planet have to be so close to earth? I mean 7 continents and 7 neighboring planets? What's the purpose of that? I agree with a light breeze in that it sounds a bit contrived. If you have an explanation for it, I think it might be better. Perhaps the planet and solar system was terraformed in some way to look like ours. That of course would require super high technology however.

I am afraid that if I use actual Earth, I risk being insensitive when it comes to Russia and Ukraine. I guess I will just have the games take place on Earth but with those two countries renamed and their borders changed and say there is a bit of alternate history involved. Does that sound good?

@BradleyAuerbach I'm not getting it. It's either a different planet or it's Earth. If you want to make it Earth, I'm not sure why Russia and Ukraine are such a big deal. Russia and Ukraine are FAR from the only countries to fight a war in recent decades. Just put the game some time in the future. IMO renaming only two countries out of hundreds just makes things worse. If you are that concerned about it, just create your own world similar but not exactly like earth and be done with it.

@Gnollrunner OK! I will say it takes place in the future. But what is a good way to justify having to research technology (like new ways of farming) that will probably exist in the future? Maybe technology progresses slower in this world?