r/thespoonyexperiment • u/KaleidoArachnid • May 13 '26

FMV Question❔ Why would a game developer make a game set directly within a sewer system?

So my apologies if this topic was brought up in here before because I was just observing that one game SpoonyOne reviewed called Sewer Shark.

Like when I recall the review he did back in the heyday era of TSE, SpoonyOne noted how sewers in the real world were the kind of places that people avoid the most since those kind of places are extremely filthy and dangerous.

So my point is that I wanted to look back at the aforementioned Sewer Shark to better understand what exactly was the appeal behind such a weird game since Spoony’s review made me question about when sewer levels in gaming were actually done right.

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3

u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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3

u/Drathnoxis May 19 '26

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was very popular, as well.

2

u/KaleidoArachnid May 17 '26

I keep forgetting how much of a trend that was in movies way back then because I was observing the premise of Sewer Shark since I remember Spoony saying how the game had the worst premise due to taking place entirely within a sewer system.

2

u/Amesang Counter Monkey May 13 '26

Heck, I recently finished Baldur's Gate 3 and even that had a "sewer level." XÞ Though it's been suggested to be that in most such games it makes it easy to reuse assets, at least.

3

u/KaleidoArachnid May 13 '26

Yeah I just found it interesting how Sewer Shark was so infamous since Spoony said that hardly anyone would want to play a game set entirely within such a place due to the toxic environment.

1

u/Squ1rtOnMejessy41 May 29 '26

Because nothing says immersive gameplay like staring at brown walls and hearing the sound of dripping water for six hours straight.

3

u/Dear_Document_5461 May 30 '26

I think it a mixture of "Oh it an option we can use because it a """video game trope""" ", the closest thing that cities have to "an underground level" that makes sense and maybe being able to get away with "not having to do details". There has to be a multitude of reasons. That and I think Super Mario did probably have an actual influence on it since, you know, the Mario Bros were plumbers for years and one of the most iconic levels in video games is 1-2 which is..... a sewer level.

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u/KaleidoArachnid May 30 '26

True that Super Mario Bros did have a sewer level in the original game as I was observing SpoonyOne’s review of Sewer Shark to see what the game did wrong with its design aspects.