Which real-life location would you base a adventure-game on?
 

Dave Gilbert has a great post on his blog where he shows different spots in New York that he features in his blackwell games, many of which is simply "I walk past this place every day, thought it would be a good spot for a adventure-game scene",

Also Gabriel Knight 1 was brilliantly based on the real city.

while I'm glad not every game does this (would be boring in long-run) I think it gives those few games that does a great charm, and is somewhat educational as well, so my question is if you got to pick the location for a adventure-game which city would you pick?
And would you pick a certain theme associated with that location? kind of like how GK1 had to do with voodoo which I believe is a theme part of New Orleans history. or maybe a historical event?

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Ok I'll start:
Stockholm, Sweden.
Probably not the best city at all but I haven't traveled much so I don't know many cities, it has quite alot of history and varied architecture, I'm thinking primarily how the streets gets much smaller as you go into "old town".

I would probably pick Christmast as time as Stockholm can get REALLY snowy sometimes so that would further characterise the location, also streets are beatifully decorated with christmast decoration in Stockholm.

As for theme/story I would go for either:
a) "The stockholm bloodbath", a historical medevial event where the streets were filled with blood, tho perhaps not since it's a very flat story simply a king returned and had many ppl executed, not much depth to it.
b) the recent Annah Lind murder, politician who was stabbed to death by maniac in a cloths-store, he was sentenced as just a mad man, but reading this story I've always thought that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense that this madman would pick such a high politician as he doesn't seem to have any strong feelings about her politics (anti-CIA/911) so it feels to me there must be someone behind the scenes who told him to do so,
however seriously tho it would probably be distastefull for anyone to make a fictional take on such a recent murder.
c) "The Stockholm Syndrome", a term used in physcology but most people don't know of it's origins is from a bank-hostage-situation in Stockholm where the hostages sided with the criminals because of a phycological survival mechanism that's been dubbed "stockholm syndrome", playing through that historical event might be a ok game, altho not really adventure-game.
d) perhaps the infamous Olof Palme murder (sweidsh primeminster in like 1980), altho I'm not sure if games should really be based on real events, I think I rather it should be based on a locations folk-lore or rumours or something like that.

for my tastes any european city that has a lot of history in it still is appropriate.paris and prague are examples.oh an a little gothic as well.but other than that i would have to say that any city would be welcome as long as the artists portray it nicely and with an atmosphere that suits it.

These are locations I like, but never had a chance to visit, in no particular order:
(these would make nice adventure game backgrounds)

The Bulguksa Temple in South Korea;
The Point Reyes Coast in Caifornia(I'm crazy about lighthouses!)
The North Cascade mountains, US ;
Tennessee county in autumn;
The Mississippi river shores;
The Bora Bora islands;
Prague -city just gorgeous;
All landscapes in Scotland.
Andaluzia ,Spain;

(PS: If someone has pictures from this places, please post them!
I'm crazy about them! I got hundreds in my PC that I googled up and I'm still not satisfied! :D)

This are just a few locations I would like to see in adventure games.

I suppose there are a great number of places I'd like to see brought to virtual life in an adventure game, but I think the one that is closest to my heart is my home town of Hamilton. No, it's certainly not the prettiest city, or even the most adventuresome. I just find that, with a bit of imagination, you can take a number of the various sections of town and base quite a bit of interesting fiction in them. With that in mind, I think it would be a spectacular home for some virtual adventuring. I've thought about it quite a bit, but sadly, can't see how I could ever finance or develop such a project on my own, so it will probably sadly remain just an idle whim of mine.

imagination is important...like i said if it's done right then anything's good.if you've seen Gray Matter.....it had Oxford which might be beautiful i don't know but certainly the parts that were shown are not super wow but the way it was painted it was just great.the colours and shades gave it a great atmosphere so it was well worth seeing into a game,so much that i plan to go there at some point.

How about an adventure based on "The Lost City of the Incas" - Machu Pikchu
The 15th century Inca site in Peru. It has lots of history which many tales could be spun.
It would be the most beautiful backdrop to any game. And You could add other hidden Forts, Temples and Cave systems. Almost any story loosely based on the incas would make a great game. mmm... just a thought!

isn't there an abundance on games that use those kinds of civilizations?although i'm not too sure about incas in specific.just wandering.......i think Broken Sword 2 is loosely based on them.and the town of Quaramonte and the pyramid afterwards were just great.

Chicago! City of the Big Shoulders, Hog Butcher for the World! I know Still Life took place in Chicago, and while it detailed the cold, snowy winters we face in my hometown, it wasn't terribly detailed or accurate. I'd like to see an AG detail it in the same manner that The Fugitive (film version) did. Extra points if the game has scenes on the El;)

*points at icon* England? lol I lvoe Jonathan Boakes' games, like 'The Lost Crown' locations were based on a real town in Cornwall, Polperro. I would love more games set in England, even though I know it's been done...a lot.

Yeah I guess there is but I mean a game solely set in that area.
Maybe you are an explorer...archaeologist...scientist...adventurer or just a
tourist and you start by getting off the plane at Cusco which is classified as
a world heritage site in itself... it has some amazing scenery. Then maybe the story
takes you through the Peruvian territory, across the Urubamba Valley into the mountain to machu picchu. Because the Spanish never found it and consequently did not plunder or destroy it there could be dozens of secrets still no discovered and this
could be incorporated into the different locations. I don't know I'm just rambling
but I believe it could work as an adventure.

Kate me says:

"The Point Reyes Coast in Caifornia(I'm crazy about lighthouses!)"

That must be one of the foggiest places on earth wedged between the pacific and the Tomales Bay. If you drive towards the shore you literally hit a wall of fog that's driven from the ocean by pretty strong winds. Standing on the edge of the cliffs you can practically see how the fog forms over the ice cold water. Sometimes there are gaps so you can see part of the coastline with wisps of mist rising to the top of the cliffs or hanging in the bays. It is quite spooky but very beautiful, too. I believe there's a splatter horror movie set in or around the Pt. Reyes lighthouse or rather the hostel in front of it. I don't think it is operated as a hostel anymore, though.

If you want diversity in settings I think nothing can beat the San Francisco Bay Area (that's just a 1 1/2 hour drive from Pt. Reyes). You have a hub of sprawling cities of different characteristics, woodlands, ocean, lakes, wineries, uni-campuses (yay, Berkeley!), different cultures (several huge "Chinatowns", Japantown ...), Hippies in Bolinas (you get really good sandwiches in the town convenience store), Ghetto dwellers in Oakland, rich folks in the hills and in Marin, Jazz clubs, opera houses, parks ... what have you. A little further to the south there are beautiful Monterey and Salinas (both of which inspired John Steinbeck).

But there's even one single building that has great potential for any kind of adventure but maybe the most for ghost stories. I'll just try to find it real quick ...

Here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House

http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/

(Make sure to google for additional pictures. It's amazing (in the true sense of the word)).

With the history of this mansion I see great potential for flashbacks and I can see ghosts complaining about the weapons industry ...

Unfortunately I missed out going down there when I lived in Berkeley so I'd definitely play a game that takes place there.

Northumberland, the most northerly county of England, and where I lived most of my life, is a magical kingdom of castles, old towns, rugged coastlines, legends and historical and mythological gold. It has a beauty too, with the golden beaches of the coast, to the patchwork crop fields and on to the rolling green hills of the Cheviots. We also have a real gem in the form of Lindisfarne (otherwise known as Holy Island), the birthplace of Christianity throughout the UK. We also have standing stones, iron age hill forts, pre-historic art, army barracks, the fantastic Elizabethan ramparts of Berwick upon Tweed (my home town for many years), abandoned churches, Castles, folly's, ancient towns and villiages, castles, numerous wars, vikings and castles.

It was a wonderful place to live, especially if you loved the outdoors.

Check it out here and tell me there couldn't be a prime location for an adventure game here...

Also my birthplace of Edinburgh would be brilliant too, but I would need to write an essay to describe all the wonderful locations of it.

http://www.northofthetyne.co.uk/index.html

I wasn't going to post anything in this thread thinking I didn't have any special preferences when it comes to locations, Ive always been more of a theme/story-centered gamer, but then I got to thinking about it, and found I actually have quite a few wishes for game locations, that really inspired/s me.

First I must explain that I love Sci-fi (especially cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic), Steampunk, animatronics, and cold, crisp and lonely winter towns (but in third person perspective), so Syberias landscapes are one of my absolute favourites. Because of this, my locations are linked to time periods and themes.

Victorian Europe
Yes, Victorian England is one of the most used game locations, but I wish developers would be able to see past the bleak, grey vision of England presented by Charles Dickens, and give us a more colourful version, bustling with life, and let us visit other cities that were prosperous during the victorian age.
Cathedrals and Church architecture
Together with the one mentioned over, I would love more visits to old, famous architectural structures like Notre Dame, Nidarosdomen, St. Peter's etc, being able to see examples of the Gothic, the romanesque and the early christian styles.

The World's Fair
God, I would love to play a game sat at the World's fair, especially with a steampunk flair. Even better if you could play as a fair manager and travel to France, Spain and all the other countries that were just starting their industrial revolution.
The industrial revolution would be amazing to visit in its own right, factories, automisation, advertisements, changes in buying patterns - the birth of our current society.

Futuristic cities
Cities that have gone through an extreme economic and population growth, like Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Jakarta, cities where everything is new, clean, high and extreme in every way. I would love this in a sci-fi setting, in recent future, where you complete technical and computer-related puzzles (last half hour of Entrapment?). I would also love to see it coupled with
Cities in decay
As an extreme opposite I would also love to visit cities in Romania, Serbia, etc, where the poor areas are in decay, apartment complexes in ruins, schools, hospitals and shops left without maintenance... Amazing scenes from abandoned buildings all over the world really, some amazing pictures can be seen at abandoned-places

White and colourful
St. Petersburg is at the top of my list of places I would love to visit, because of the amazing and colourful architecture they have. I love cold winter towns (though not to visit in person, that I would prefer to do in-game) and would love to see places like St. Petersburg in the winter, eastern Europe and India, Middle-eastern cities (I'm assuming there are places in Asia that has both snow and colourful architecture). The contrast between beautiful architecture, colours and snow is such a serene and beautiful sight.
This type of environment seems to lend itself best to quest games ala Lost Horizon

Thanks, Lots of cool answers :)
(I may give more detailed answers later, I have crappy internet so I only google-image when I'm at wifi-cafes so will take a while to properly check out each one.)


Agreed, so many movies are shot there, but still no games :) should be plenty of dark secrets to discover in old cities like this or like budapest.
Did some quick googling and found there's a legend of a Clay Golem that existed there long time ago crafted by 3 jewish wizards, could be a potential theme :)

if you mean a whole game yeah i also don't know of one.but i think an Art of Murder game had a part in prague though i don't remember which.

The Gus McPherson segments of Still Life are set in Prague.

Edit: Oh, and that Mozart game too though I haven't played it.

isn't Post Mortem the game with Gus McPherson and a prequel to Still Life?

Well yes, but he turns up in both games. Still Life switches back and forth between Gus 1920's Prague and Vic in present-day Chicago.

yeah i remember that ,just haven't played Post Mortem so i wasn't sure

I'd like to see modern day Shanghai recreated in a game.

I would like to see someone take a shot at making a game set around the aristocratic class in the late 18th century. Perhaps a protagonist not unlike Barry Lyndon worming his way up the social ladder. It's all good.