I'm not sure if that is how it would best translate in english as I am french but it is something I was musing about recently. Recently I read an article about how inspiration in gaming sometimes seemed stale and that anything "new" would generally always be inspired by the same sources(Aliens, Lord of the Ring, Zombies) or ultimately falling in the trap of only being able to seek inspiration from it's own past or other games in general rather than cultural works or life experiences that are wholly from outside of gaming culture. Now as a result I found myself feeling that a lot of suggestion I've seen in the past for this game often fell into a similar trap. For example I've stopped counting the amount of times I've heard suggestions of zombies planet or biomes. So instead I tried to go as this article suggested and think of works that aren't games(or have rarely been related to such) for interesting biomes suggestions. And.... thinking back upon it I found myself wonder why the hell Jules Vernes' "Travel to the Center of the Earth" is not something that has been made into a true biome yet. Mind you, I'm not talking about something like merely an "underground jungle"; we already have the occasional layer/region of dense folliages/vegetable matter and the like... but in practice those are nothing more than caverns of a different type. I'm talking about something like digging down to the core of a planet... only to find a large open space literally akin to an underground version of the surface with actual trees and plants and even dinosaur-like creatures or other macro-lifeforms. Not formed as a bunch of caverns but itself a wide open space with it's own "surface'( of which the core of the planet would be just underneath) and even artificial "sky" in the actual ceilling of the "underground world". Something that could be permanently lit by an "artificial sun" in the background instead of the usual dark caverns. You could accss the place by either breaking through it's "ceilling"(and thus have to be careful not to die from the fall) or by climbing down something like an artificial tower(perhaps ancient ruins left by the creator of this articifal world long ago) or natural rocky pillar linking the surface of this "world at the center of the earth" with the regular caverns above that eventuall lead to the surface. Because, thinking about it, I don't think I recall -any- crafting games out there, especially the 2D ones for which vertical exploration/travel is an important feature, that have anything similar to this. Yet they would be the -perfect- genre to tap on that kind of inspiration so I am almost surprised none yet seems to have tapped into this. Like I said, I'm not just talking about a different set of caverns visuals or microdungeons scattered across the underground layer. I'm talking about a literaly Jules Vernes-esque -"world"- at the center of the planet that could replace the actual core layers of some worlds. It could even be a feature of late game worlds. Maybe even a reason to setup a "core layer colony" beyond just actually mining for core fragments. An environment that should be "impossible" yet would still exists and even basks in the glow of this forementionned artificial daylight. It could even take many shapes, from the "artifical vegetation rich wilderness where jungle trees grow under the gaze of an artificial sun at the core of the planet basking this hidden world in constant daylight" to something like the entire core of a planet being an artificial space station-like structure riddled with traps or ancient automated bots defending the place millenias after the creators have left.
I love this suggestion. I am a huge fan of the works of Jules Vernes and I would love to see underground biomes (or underwater biomes) inspired by his works. I especially like the idea of replacing the fiery core of a planet with something different like suggested above. You wouldn't be so sure to just find more lava deep underground.
I like this idea quite a lot, being a fan of Jules Vernes' work However, the artificial sun leaves me sceptical: I think it'd be a great occasion to instead make an eternally-dark jungle dimly lit by bioluminescent trees and fungus - besides, the idea of an artificial sun is weird to me. As for the antique run-down space-station-like dungeon defended by millenia-old robots idea, you have all of my yes. Not only does that sound really good on paper, but that's also something that would tie in really well with the lore (an ancient, overgrown Avian temple/space station guarded by avian "golems" perhaps?) All in all this sounds very doable and cool.
Thanks, I'm definitely glad to see I'm not the only one enthused by this idea! Personally the lighting could go either way, true, but I think I like the idea of an artificial miniature sun or similar structure in the background because it feels exactly like the kind of things the Ancients might have made when creating such an hidden underground creation(actually, if tying those to the Ancients it might actually be a good place to implements some ruins of their own that players COULD scavenge and loot from). Plus, specifically in mind is the fact that "global ambient light" is definitively the last thing people digging underground expects. Imagine digging down a mineshaft in complete darkness only to suddenly find what might as well be sunlight piercing into your tunnels when you break into the ceilling of this forgotten hidden land? It certainly feels like it could be an interesting place to setup an hidden colony at least ^^
Jules Vernes is basically what I had in mind with this suggestion. "Digging to the depths of the planet to discover a new hidden world" is the kind of stuff that feels like it would be a perfect fit with these crafting sandboxes games.
