Initial Ideas

One thing that is getting a lot of attention from media but not from video games is the melting of the ice caps and rising of sea levels. Given the scenario that the ice caps fully melt, the ocean could rise 230 ft according to howstuffworks and usgs, though another point brought up by howstuffworks, is that water is at it's most expansive at 4c which would raise the height even further. This height is enough to flood all coastal cities.

A film that explores a very similar idea is Waterworld, a film by Kevin Reynolds in 1995. The film itself was a flop which, according to Screenrant, was due to an excessive budget matched with a slow pace, however this article also says that in recent television streaming, it is started to garner a cult following due its timeless appeal and unique setting.

Gene manipulation is another thing that is explored within this idea, which is very common within sci fi, specifically though, Barotrauma's gene splicing, in which the players can use an item to 'splice' genetic material into their system and gain a semi permanent bonus or ability. This idea would be really interesting to implement because it could lead to multiple gameplay styles, say other creatures have evolved to new habitats and are almost unrecognisable, so you can 'steal' their adaptations to give you new abilities or strengths that relate to a style of play. For example, a cat like enemy that has enhanced its stealth to allow them to entirely camouflages within flooded urban environments but also can use octopus like suckers to climb up wet surfaces. 

In my very initial idea I noted down, I mention a separate species of human adapted to water: an idea not uncommon to settings such as this. However my favourite style of these, are the Trench of dc's Aquaman, a savage race of mutated fish people. Though i'm also going to take inspiration from Elden Ring's Albinaurics who are the result of an attempt to create life forms, however they are plagued with various ailments such as the first generation having ineffective and slowly disappearing legs and the second looking quite... pathetic. With these two inspirations in mind, it would be very interesting to have a few variations of this aquatic branch of humanity: savage piranha  minded creatures like the trench who had their minds destroyed by the genetic manipulation process, intelligent but vengeful creatures who were transformed against their will and so detest humanity for creating them (similarly to the super mutants from fallout). Lastly, perhaps a third species who were willingly transformed and are just like humans who can survive underwater, and they can be just as diverse as the rest of the human npcs.

I've conceptualised these species and the tensions between them the way I have to allow creative freedom and potential storylines, for example, we could have an NPC that breaks away from the vengeful fish people to live with surfaces dwellers. They could be philosophical and help explore the game's themes, which could get quite interesting with this idea: the degree necessity of human experimentation in a desperate situation, and can the vengeful fish people (better name coming soon) blame humanity for making mistakes when the clock was ticking? They would obviously be treated unequally by the denizens so their story can have multiple ways it could potentially go.

Character creation is also a feature I would explore as well, giving options for species which affects both visuals and stats, such as a humans who breath far better on land and move faster on land or friendly fish men that thrive underwater but struggle on land without equipment. This is done so that the player can feel represented the way they want to. additionally, this allows for replayability.

The main inspiration for this actually comes from John Wick, an action film shot and produced in a unique way which breathes new life into an otherwise stagnating genre.  The club scene is the best example, although the scene is good enough to anaylse for the outstanding cinematography, I'm referring to the combat scene where Wick comes face to face with his enemies and does these 'takedowns' to incapacitate them and then kill them (or killing them whilst incapciting.). This in turn inspired the takedown animations from Watch Dogs Legion,  which are more relevant to my research in this case. They are snappy, relatively short and uncomplicated which keeps them efficient in combat, adding to its fun factor whilst also keeping it viable/balanced. I would definitely  take the snappiness of the takedowns but I'd limit that these efficient takedowns to during combat, maybe if its the last enemy they could go for something more like Skyrim for a more satisfying end.

Skyrim's killcams were a very strong influence, they sometimes play on the last enemy in a combat encounter. There are both first and third person killcams, though you can get dragged out of each and put in the other perspective randomly which can sometimes feel jarring if you go from 3rd to first person for a killcam. In Skyrim's nature, they don't always work and sometimes actors die before they get hit if they collide with a wall, which is intentional to avoid clipping and bodies/loot from falling out of the game space, but it activates unnecessarily at times. I would take the idea that they happen automatically to give a bit of combat flair, however i would find a way of executing a sort of 'lesser killcam' within combat to make it more visually appealing and satisfying to partake in, something like the soulsborne's critical attacks. 

In particular,  I think the demon souls ps5 remake critical are the coolest, because they are all unique per weapon type and also just have the most flair.  They are activated by breaking an enemy's stance and then performing a standard attack on them, if executed correctly your character will play a slightly different animation which if hits will trigger the rest of the animation to follow. They are usually extremely damaging and typically kill most normal enemies within a single hit. From this I'm going to take inspiration for their implementation, mixed with Skyrim's implementation. Say criticals are executed on staggered targets that are in the damage range for a killcam, but you get a fully cinematic camera shot for the last enemy if they are staggered, that way you still feel the weight of every kill but the last one would not only tell you that combat has finished, but also provides a satisyfing end to an encounter.

Elden ring's trailer quite obviously worked, with 20 million copies sold. The purpose of a gameplay trailer is to appeal to the target audience and make them want to play the game, achieved through inciting excitement, intrigue via mystery or otherwise applying some other hook.  Gameplay trailers differ from other trailers because they (unsurprisingly) focus on the gameplay when its visually at its best, Elden ring's trailer takes this to another level by utilising different camera angles and mechanics that look cool and are accessible but don't necessarily get used in that moment of gameplay being showcased. This method is one that I should definitely adopt because it allows more creative freedom and elevates the cinematic potential.

Like a lot of gameplay trailers, Baldur's gate 3 uses a narration by J.K Simmons to build tension and deliver exposition to the audience. If possible I would like to include a narration for the effect that they have, however getting one that doesn't sound mediocre is going to be pretty difficult.

Overwatch 2's gameplay trailer I can use as a structure guide, as I believe that it is structured in a way that makes the sequel look massive. Unfortunately, it wasn't, half the content didn't make it to the game but that's irrelevant. 

What I want to learn:

I have never created a swimming animation, nor have have I ever animated anything that is underwater (with like one exception) so that would be very cool to learn!

I also haven't modelled a base humanoid mesh that didn't look like the videos on the right (though that was the first thing I ever modelled), so although I can see it being difficult, creating and then rigging that would be a great thing to learn.