There was a topic for the art style, but I think that the style will have to match the setting. It would look weird to have a post-apocalyptic world with really cute cartoony graphics (but that would be funny...). So let's get out some ideas of where the game could take place.

Caves: This was mentioned in the other thread. Good old spelunking.

Post-apocalyptic: It's the end of the world as we know it...

Space/Foreign Planet: To infinity....and beyond!!

Office: Yeah, I'm gonna have to ask you to come in tomorrow....

These are just some crazy ideas that popped into my head just now. The setting can be a place or time, so "Past"/"Future" stuff is cool too. Just come up with whatever you think would make a really cool, exciting game.

Something about caves, but extremely maddening caves, just sounds right to me...

Sounds a little too much like Cave Story though, and all those other Cave Storyesque, 'jump around in a cave' kinda games :P

Some other ideas:

• A shopping mall like Dead Rising.
• A space station or starship.
• A house, but the player is only a couple of inches high.
• Ancient underground Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider style ruins.
• A ship, perhaps sinking.
• A sinster shadowy ghost realm paralleling our own.
• Ninja fortress.
• Pirate fortress.
• A huge tower (with the right hand side of the map eventually looping back around to join the left side).
• A movie set.
• Different eras of the same town you switch between with time travel.

I like the idea of a ship. Perhaps a ship that's been brought back to the surface after a mysterious disappearance years ago?

The tower could be good. Maybe to castlevania-esque, though.

Spacestation is always a winner.

Different eras of one area is totally awesome. :D

I like the house thing, where you're really tiny. It seems a bit like Army Men 3d and Katamari Damacy, but in both, that was only 1 level. If it was the full game in different parts of the house, and we had a cool story on why the main character is that small, it might be really fun.

I also like the time travel one. Time travel always wins, as Turtles in Time was awesome. The same town thing makes it different enough that it won't seem like a copycat of other things. We were talking about Platform RPGs, and what if the player could freely switch between times, like in Chrono Trigger? We could add different secrets that only appear after doing certain things in different time, or you would have to do certain things in the past that affect the future.

Time travel would be awesome, but doubles or TRIPLES the art assets required.

One level, with one theme would be ideal. :)

I really liked these ideas...

After playing SH3 and Dead rising mall settings make me cry! I hate them! But on the other hand... all sorts of mischief and hijinks can happen at malls!

I like the cave idea.

You know in The Simpsons and various other cartoons, when they're panning to the other side of the world, and you see the layers of the earth (And a spaceship, and Hell, and et cetera)? I think it would be cool if it were like that; just a bunch of strange things.

You start in the regular cave, play through that level, fall into a crashed space ship, find yourself in an underground lake, end up in a deep space-like area, et cetera.

My only input into this, is to maybe choose a setting that would allow for a really cool game play mechanic. Because we are aiming for a short game, the re-playability comes from something people could goof around with.

ie;
- If you where to do a cave setting, could do some rope swinging / bungee jumping type thing.
- With a space ship setting, putting in a 'gravity switch' feature to turn off gravity or weaken it could lead to interesting game play.

Atlas makes a good point. We need more reasoning behind the setting. Nice examples too. Really gets the thoughts moving...

The mall setting could really open up different mechanics. Weapons could all be based around things in the mall, and you could have the most absurd, wacko store possible to sell you (or obtain) the one item that makes the game fun, like "Jacob's Bait, Tackle, and Grappling Hook Store". That, and interactivity could come into play, like Dead Rising, you could interact with tons of objects, even if we pull a Sierra Software, and say stuff like "You talk to the wall, but it doesn't say anything back." Secrets could open up a scavenger hunt for things in the mall, so that if you find all the secrets, you get a password or super gun or "fight the boss with invincibility" mode. That would push re-playability, especially if the boss or ending gives secrets of where to find things. They'd have to at least play through it twice or three times just to find the secrets, and then whatever the secret thing does, it would make them want to play again. 4 plays for a 20 minute game is 80 mins. Pretty good for a first attempt. This could obviously work in a number of settings, but the mall seemed like the best option to explain it.