Hello, I'd like to bounce a game idea on the people of this forum because this is something I have wanted to do for years (game development, that is) and I believe I have an idea (story wise) that many have never seen before.

1. The story/premise:

You play as a slave in Londinium, the Roman Empire fell centuries ago, except on the island of Britannia.

The year is 1745 and, from a Britannian's perspective, the last few centuries have been quite good for them. The Dark Ages never affected Britannia much and as a result technology was able to advance while the rest of Europe was tearing itself apart. This advancement creates a steam-punk Roman Britannia which will never cease to look and feel interesting.

2. Gameplay:

The game takes place in a top-down 2D JRPG style wherein players fight their battles in a 2D environment that should feel very familiar to those who have played the earlier Final Fantasies.

3. What makes this unique? Why should I care?

The uniqueness, I believe, starts with the story, as the player dives into a familiar part of history that becomes alien with the changes made to it by the changed course of history.

Secondly, the upgrade system. Every character in the game uses 1 weapon throughout the course of the game, for instance, the main character has a wrench for a right forearm. However, the player is given a wide range of upgrades to be used to customize their weapon how they choose (physical damage upgrades, magic damage upgrades, crit power, etc.). This system leads to a party that can be as universal or as specialized as the player wants.

Anyway, that's my idea, such as it is. I'd love to hear your questions, feedback and criticism so that I can make something that will be truly worth playing.

You play as a slave in Londinium, the Roman Empire fell centuries ago, except on the island of Britannia.

So in 1700 Roman empire still persists on Britannia? It's a bit weird and it can hardly be called "roman", since Rome itself is not under the empire anymore.

I think the starting idea has a lot of potential. The historic background seems sound and you're basically "augmenting" the true tech advancements.

It made me think of a game... but I don't remember the name really. Those are currently two games in the same universe. The last one is about a ship exploring an unknown underground sea. I don't remember much but I think the setting was similar. Was it similar?

You play as a slave in Londinium, the Roman Empire fell centuries ago, except on the island of Britannia.

So in 1700 Roman empire still persists on Britannia? It's a bit weird and it can hardly be called "roman", since Rome itself is not under the empire anymore.

I see what you mean, but people in Byzantium would actually call themselves "Roman", despite the fact that Rome in the west had fallen.

I think the starting idea has a lot of potential. The historic background seems sound and you're basically "augmenting" the true tech advancements.

It made me think of a game... but I don't remember the name really. Those are currently two games in the same universe. The last one is about a ship exploring an unknown underground sea. I don't remember much but I think the setting was similar. Was it similar?

Sunless Sea? Honestly I didn't know much about the game until you mentioned it and I thought to look it up.

Ah yeah pretty sure that was it. Other precursors appear to be "fallen london" and something related an "echo bazar". I don't remember much. Maybe worth checking mostly to make sure you strive away from it. Or at least don't look too much like them.

Sounds awesome, but make it like 700-800 instead, in 1745 Britain was already pretty technologically advanced in the real world after spending 1500 years less so than the Romans. If Rome had not fallen I would rather expect your game to take place on Mars.

Secondly... for them to keep slaves seems somewhat unlikely in such a scenario. Slavery has rarely if ever kept societies very stable for long periods of time, and would probably require a society to settle into some sort of equilibrium where every generation lives the same as the last. Even Rome at its greatest had slave rebellions.

Perhaps they suffered some setbacks / war / population-decline 200 years earlier and resorted to slavery, and then it stuck around a generation or two too long even as new advancements where made. I guess such events could add a century or two to the timeline.

If you mean to make 1745 Britain seem sort of like real 1745 Britain but with cool technology I doubt that Rome is the right way to go. The society that dominated Britain after 1000 AD was extremely different to anything that existed in Roman days, and if Britain is supposed to have evolved for a millennium with Roman leaders it would be unrecognizable long before modern Europe had even begun to develop.

This question seems to be more about story than gameplay, so I'm moving it to Writing.

I'm not sure I dig the premise too much here. Technology spreads fairly rapidly when developed, so the simple fact that you have an island so close to the mainland (Brittain) developing means they'd have dragged the rest of society out of the middle ages significantly earlier. Not just the technology, but the power structure of having a stable system would have simply created either A) A new empire (by conquest and consolidation of the duchy states of the time) or B) large scale re-centralization in order to prevent such a thing (thus ending the major problem of decentralized middle ages) or.. C) A mix of both!

While that could make for an interesting story I am not sure it matches what you're describing. Seems to me slightly unbeliveable!