Meet half way?

I think before we think about the environments we need to have concrete idea of how the game mechanics work. For example, perhaps we could use a different medium than a mouse and keyboard to communicate with the game, or use the mouse and keyboard to communicate in a different way. I know James wants us to push things to be more than a game. If we were to do a 2/3d game, the mouse and keyboard could simply represent a method of "turning the page of the story." I say this because just like We could for example have a character run across the screen in a particular environment with a narrative/text of writing. When he crosses the line to the next environment (by exiting the right of the screen) it will generate a new environment for the character to interact with. In a sense it combines reading a book with a game. Pages could be unlocked and joined together to complete the book bringing a sense of drive to keep playing and unlocking pages. More so leaning towards the story rather than actualy gameplay. The animations and interactions don't have to be extremely complex. They will just be used to help the player visualise the story. I love the style of machinarium, and this is kinda the style I intrigued by. We could use the snow environment easily here, (i would imagine digital painting a lot of scenes in snow would be much easier than darker shades). I think focusing on the environment and imagery within the game would really benificial rather than spending heaps of time on the character because it would help viewers visualise the environment and world to which the story is based.

We can still incorporate 3d modelling in this concept also for houses, chacaters etc etc even though it is rather 2d.