COP3 Research: Different Locations

For this project I also wanted to look into different locations for where my game could be set so that I had some interesting things that could feature in the game level and also be reference. As I knew that I wanted to incorporate snow into my scene, as it is something that I haven't tried before and thought it would be a nice idea to try, I wanted to look at different locations that are all in this kind of environment and would make really interesting game environments.

North/South Pole
When first thing about where to find snow the obvious choice for me was to start by looking at the North and South pole or the Arctic and the Antarctic. This was an obvious choice as is the clear starting point when thinking about where we would find snow and it does have some beautiful scenery. My only concern with choosing this is that it is very barren... there really isn't too much to see and it the colour range for it would be very cold and there would not be too much going on in the scene for me. This is really what is turning me away from it as I wouldn't know what objects could be used as you don't tend to find anyone living out there.

Canada
This area is starting to move back into places where you can start to see more life in the environment and you can start to see how this could be turned into a game level by just looking at the images below. I really like the idea of Canada as a game level but for me it has been done before and is very well known for appearing in video games due to how beautiful and vast the landscape. Although it would be nice to do I think that I will be steering away from it this particular time.

Norway
The location I wanted to look at was Norway as it is a country that I have always loved and always wanted to go and visit. There is something special about this place and it definitely has something to do with the fact that it is one of the best places to see the Northern lights, and this being a technique that I really want to look at for COP what better opportunity than to look at the most amazing lights in the whole world for it.

Iceland
The next location is Iceland and in my opinion is very similar to Norway in it's looks and the fact that you can see the Northern Lights here as well due to were it sits on the Arctic circle. It is a really beautiful place and by just looking at a few pictures you start to get a feel for this beautiful landscape and surroundings. This again would be a really nice opportunity to get stuck into researching this island to see what hidden things it has to offer.

Greenland
The next location that I wanted to look at was Greenland as this is a location that has a lot of history behind it as not a lot of people live there. This is also the problem that I have with this location as there isn't a lot going on in the whole country. It is beautiful but very remote and I want to be able to have quick a fair few buildings which is something that is difficult to come by here.

Alaska
The last place I wanted to look at was Alaska, this is pretty similar to Canada in some ways so again this may not be the best choice in this situation. It is a very beautiful landscape and has a lot of offer that includes a number of different cities and locations that are inhabited and there are also a number of different animals in the environment as well which could be interesting to look at as well.

In the end I decided to go with Norway. I did have a difficult design to make whether to go with this or Iceland but in the end I feel that Norway was the better option. Its an interesting locations that is not only made up of the main land but also many islands around it as well that could make interesting destinations for my game level. I will next look into Norway into more detail, looking at different aspects of it and also what makes it so special as a country.