Here's the Pitch, Slow and Straight.

Behold! My pitch. Basically imagine something like Crimson Skies, or some other console flight sim, but UNDERWATER. Genius.

Why underwater?

Firstly, as far as I can tell it hasn't quite been done before. A quick google search of "underwater flight sim" revealed only videos of people playing Microsoft Flight Simulator and trying to fly underwater but not succeeding. If you're willing to take some serious liberties with the concept of just how submarines work, this could maybe be "physically possible" and somehow believable. Uberrealism, while great in games like Arma II and Gran Turismo V, doesn't translate too well to casual little games like what this class usually produces.

Secondly, I think an underwater setting would just be prettier than just sky or space or wherever else flight sims have been set. You can get all sorts of beautiful things like giant spires of rock or volcanoes or trenches or seaweed or animal life and so on and so forth. It would create a much more memorable experience, visually and aurally. You can have all sorts of old timey nautical textual references everywhere, like saying "Aweigh" and "Avast" and "Starboard". This means we can make it a bit silly and whimsical. Nobody hates a funny game.

Thirdly, along with the new visual stuff comes more potential for gameplay, like for instance fighting giant sea monsters or navigating tiny trenches or grottos. A submarine can stop to do things like explore wrecks. Naval mines can be released behind you. All of this could still be reasonable within our time and hardware constrains because...

Fourthy, we can cheat. An underwater setting essentially allows us to turn down the draw distance to make the developmental rendering process easier and quicker. Also the game will run more smoothly on xbox graphics allowing us to focus more on object detail to make things prettier. I had the idea to split the game areas into open world nodes connected by essentially empty stretches of open ocean. Enter one of these designated loading areas and you'll just swim through nothingness for a few seconds while the next area loads, like the elevators in Mass Effect.

I'm sure there are more reasons hidden in my mind right now but I'll remember them later. For now know that THIS IS A GOOD IDEA DAMNIT.

It's the future (or is it the past?) and people now live underwater. The oceans are covered in an ice cap, so you can't surface (but light can still get through. ingenious, no?).

Imagine docking at a seafloor station, repairing your damage and buying that new torpedo launch tube you've had your eye on for a while before setting off on a quest to clear out some pirates, or hunt down the Kraken, or loot a wreck. The possibilities are large, and I think it might even be reasonable for completion within our time and resource constraints.

and sorry about the "UNFATHOMABLE" font. Typography is hardly my strong point.

Here's some more versions of the pitch picture without the scribbles of a crazy person or the header if you want. It's not terribly beautiful right now and the submarine looks positively derptastic. I promise the final product will be a magnificent piece of engineering, if I get to make this.

Now to have my brainchild absolutely torn apart by my professors and peers tomorrow. Will update with a picture of my devastated face immediately afterwards.