Select Your Game's Setting and Location
An important step in the pre-development phase is defining the temporal and environmental settings, as well as the specific locations in which your game will take place. These settings may be based on real-world elements or entirely fictional. You may also choose to blend real and imaginary elements—for example, by placing a fictional location within a real-world setting or vice versa.
Temporal Setting
This refers to the era, year, or time of day in which your story unfolds.
Environmental Setting
This denotes the broader geographic area where the narrative is set. The environment may be natural or man-made. Natural settings can include caves, jungles, mountains, oceans, or savannahs. Artificial environments may encompass countries, districts, territories, or settlements created by a civilization.
Location
This refers to the specific place within the broader environment where the story takes place. Examples include:
Region.
District.
Building.
Room.
Your game can also be set across multiple locations.
Examples
Below are examples of games with their respective themes, settings, and locations:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Theme:
Survival, isolation, post-apocalyptic exploration, and the consequences of scientific experimentation. The game heavily explores themes of human ambition, danger of the unknown, and moral ambiguity.Temporal Setting:
The game is set in an alternate timeline, specifically in the year 2012, several years after a second fictional explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.Environmental Setting:
A hazardous, irradiated wasteland known as “The Zone.” The environment is filled with anomalies, mutants, abandoned structures, and remnants of military and scientific operations.Location:
The Zone of Alienation, a fictionalized and heavily expanded version of the real Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine, including iconic locations such as Pripyat, Chernobyl NPP, and underground laboratories.
Company of Heroes
Theme:
War, heroism, sacrifice, tactical combat, and the harsh realities of military conflict.Temporal Setting:
World War II, specifically during the Normandy campaign in 1944, beginning with the D-Day landings and progressing through major military operations in Western Europe.Environmental Setting:
Realistic, war-torn European environments including beaches, towns, fields, and fortified zones.Location:
Primarily set in Western Europe, focusing on France—including Normandy, Carentan, and St. Lô—with later missions extending to Germany in the expansion packs.