Which is the better idea for a game storyline?

I’m working on a real time strategy game at the moment and I’ve made a lot of progress, but I’m still on the fence about the storyline. I do need to choose one of two themes because they will have some effect on the art assets I use.
They are both alternative history stories, with the idea of reliving world war II with different circumstances. The idea is that the player can design their own tanks and choose their own technologies, creating a different WWII with similar technology levels but different outcomes.

The two ideas are:

  1. Vinland1939.
    What if the Danes conquered England?
    The Norsemen went on to settle the east coast of America with Saxon and Celtic slave labor while Britain became Daneland. Without English interference on the continent the European nations were brought together at first under the Franks, and then later under various dynasties surviving until the modern era as a kind of Catholic super state.

The story involves an attempt by the European Empire to invade and conquer Vinland. I like this story personally, I think it’s quite interesting and allows me to create a whole new setting and in game universe with invented historical Characters and countries. I don’t have to be too slavish to historical or geographical facts either. But it may be a little too alien and a too generic to find favor with casual gamers.

  1. World War 2.0
    What if America had stayed out of the first world war?
    Germany, France and England went on to fight to a stand still in 1920. There was no clear winner. There was no Treaty of Versailles, no Fourteen points and no League of Nations. Russia is sidelined after a failed Communist revolution while Germany and a Spanish/French Alliance fight out the Nationalist (Autocratic) vs Republican (Social Democratic) political conflict. In 1939 Italy eyes North Africa with envy while great Britain waits for the outcome of the continental war with trepidation.

The story involves Republican forces fighting against the Germans in the occupied low countries. I think this story has a chance to evolve along interesting lines due to player feedback. A community created continuity could be interesting. It’s also easier to relate to as many of the countries and personalties involved will be the same as in our own timeline. WWII is always popular, it never seems to go out of fashion, and the idea of playing a game where things are so similar but different to actual history is appealing.

I have more involved summaries of each storyline but have just posted short descriptions here.

The second storyline.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more the second one is growing on me.
Before posting (and taking the time to write out a basic chronology for each one) I was pretty set on the first one, I’d like to do something a little off the beaten path so to speak.

However, when I researched the second storyline I found the way events play off against each other is quite interesting.

Continue what you like. You need to spend a lot of time and work into the story line and the details of the stories anyway. So skip anything that generates more work that you will not need at all.

First storyline, I feel anything to do with a world war is already old news. Even future world wars just seem well… Repetitive.

Falkbeard you need to vote at the top.

I voted for the first storyline. The second seems so C&C:Red Alert’ish. I guess its hard to pick an original storyline for each of these things. First one is Age of Empire’ish, second seems Command and Conquer’ish. I guess its hard to bring something new to the genre, Can’t do fantasy, thats Warcraft I and II, cant do future, thats Starcraft and Dune. Its hard to do, but I think it would be cool if you could pump something new into the genre.

what about if the romans never left britain?

so when the lower empire collapsed, the upper empire thrived?

what if japan/china never decided to play nice with england?

what if the native americans conquered europe?

Edit: (Deleted)

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll be going with the second one I think.

Any history buffs here? There are a few things in the WW2.0 storyline that I’m having trouble deciding on.

I love the “what if?” scenarios of modern history, Harry Turtledove seems in my mind to be the best of the novelists exploring this genre. I’ve just finished reading The war that came early series, and last year I read all of the Southern Victory books (What if The South had won the civil war?).

I’ve considered both of these storylines but while the war that came early doesn’t have enough of an impact on history to bring forth many new vehicle designs (except for the late model French tanks) the southern victory series is focused mostly on North America.

Anyway, based only on the premise that the USA stays out of WWI for unspecified reasons (perhaps the Zimmerman Telegram was not uncovered, or Germany decided against resuming unrestricted Submarine warfare) there are a number of questions that need to be addressed in assessing the state of Europe in 1940 such as when the war would have ended and how things would have developed after the war. I want to explore a scenario where the Bolsheviks were not successful in the Russian Civil war because I want to avoid making a remake of Red Alert, but there’s a lot of variables to think about.

EDIT: Thinking out loud again. :slight_smile:

for germany to win, all it needed to do, was not provoke russia so early.

the great depression was caused by monopolies, trusts, and swindlers.

the dust bowl happened from unsustainability of farming practices.

Even if germany had kept fighting, not everyone was mad there, and the crimes against the jews and (everyone else)
would have surfaced, also hitler was crazy as hell and on lots of drugs,

I think hitler would have died “of natural causes” (a knife in his neck?) from someone else who wished to take over, with the support of
the people who were afraid / enraged by him.

German technology would have blossomed, as they would not have to hide it’s development if they had total air superiority. (The brits had a hard time fighting back against it let alone bombing raids)

I agree with those points, but they cover the second world war, not world war one.

German technology would have blossomed, as they would not have to hide it’s development if they had total air superiority.

Germany did actually have the key to air superiority I beleive, the Me-262 was ready, but Hitler scaled back production. Nothing could keep up with it. P-51’s were the closest we had. But the p-51 pilots feared the 262. They could turn inside of it, but couldnt keep up with it in anyway except maybe range.

German technology did blossom, but In the USA. Einstien and other german(austrian?-maybe) scientist fled to the US, and worked for the US government.

This is AFAIK

but you cant really do the hitler removed thing. BTW, I dont remember the 20Fox thing when I played.

They were about to use a gas turbine for tanks too. The BMW built engine was like that used in a jet but scaled to fit in a panther tank. It produced 1000 horsepower at a time when other engines of much larger size and weight were putting out a maximum of 500HP.

I think the technological “what if” questions of that period are really intriguing, thats why I want to make a game which can explore those questions from every angle.