I had a few thoughts on the idea of "soothing" themes I'd like to share, in response to 1. All these dark maps I keep seeing 2. A Lil' Wayne song It's mostly a half-assed stream of thought, but here we go. The Lil' Wayne song is here: I guess the sample is an alteration that comes from this song: Anyway, I read about Civilization 5 that the developers wanted the game to have a kind of art deco feel to the game, because it was supposed to be relaxing for the player. I think this is especially relevant for a game like Civilization, because the game naturally lends itself to being very stressful. Just like Halo, players in Civilization have to manage many tasks at once, and have maximum awareness, which is kind of draining. I found an interview, but didn't read it at all: http://www.gameinformer.com/games/c...erview-civ-v-art-director-dorian-newcomb.aspx I don't remember if they specified exactly how they aimed to accomplish this, but it seems to me that the game does this by using very bright and cheerful colors, but minimizing the color saturation. Games that use colors that are particularly saturated can look cartoony, or harsh. I saw a presentation where the speaker said that people generally have a calming response to seeing the color green; and that people respond to seeing the color red with increased blood pressure. I notice a lot of greens in Civ 5, and very few reds. I also heard that many prisons paint their walls soft green for this same effect. Okay, next. The Lil' Wayne song starts with a sample that to me, sounds like a children's song, which I think kind of makes it cheerful and non-intense. My response to this part of the song is very similar to my response to the art in Civilization 5 (although the rest of the song is kind of annoying). It's light-hearted, but also gangster. Uh, anyway, I find the idea of making environments more relaxing pretty neat. Put Lil' Wayne in all of your maps. Would love to hear your thoughts.