Unfinished World
Works of fiction can be beset by issues that really mess with the development process. Schedule Slip, Executive Meddling, Hostility on the Set, Christmas Rushed, the list goes on. The troubles don't start after launch either, as it can turn out to be an Obvious Beta if it's software, or something ends up making its merits get lost in the noise of debate and controversy. For the most part, these things tend to be out of universe, having no effect on the world in-story outside of fumbling with plotlines.
However, such things can indeed happen in-story... to an entire environment.
An Unfinished World is a setting that was being worked on by other entities, only to never be finished and left abandoned. Whether it be dimensional weirdness, the local gods just not being interested, or some other otherworldly happenings, it's clear that the world has been left incomplete, and this can have disastrous effects on any residents or visitors. A World of Chaos is a common result, as not being completed means it can have entirely random and nonsensical features and geography because of its beta state. An Unfinished World need not be totally chaotic, though, as it can have some sense of order and stability even though it hasn't "gone gold" as it were.
Consider it an In-Universe form of Obvious Beta for an entire setting.
Examples:
- Anthem (2019) has the planet of Coda, where humanity struggles to survive in a world the gods never finished. The eponymous Anthem of Creation, being what the gods used to forge Coda, occasionally unleashes its power upon the world, causing devastating disasters for any caught in the radius.
- A downplayed example with No Man's Sky, and also a Walking Spoiler. While there are countless planets to explore and countless more people to interact with, there's never any established cities or home worlds despite characters making references to such. It turns out this is because the entire universe is a simulation, one that's starting to fall apart due to the computer running it being in the process of dying. The world can't be finished because the computer that could do so is starting to fail.
- Played with in Ratchet & Clank (2002). Chairman Drek intends to create an entirely new planet out of chunks of other planets he's destroyed, to replace the pollution-wracked mire the Blarg homeworld has become. While nobody actually lives on it yet, it indirectly threatens the galaxy due to Drek destroying planets to put it together, and part of the titular duo's journey is to stop him from achieving his plan. It ends up truly unfinished due to the duo stopping him from destroying Veldin. There's also the fact that Drek never intended it to last long anyway, as he was all set to overpollute it all over again and repeat the cycle.
- Halo 3 has a partially reconstructed replacement for the Halo that John destroyed back in the first game, being made on the Ark. John and the Arbiter, alongside a newly rescued Cortana and Sergeant Johnson, go there to get to the Control Room and fire its galaxy-scouring weapon early, so it can rip itself and the Ark apart and finally end the Flood. The only areas traversed here are a snowy mountain range leading to the Control Room, then several long sections of scaffolding as John, Cortana, and the Arbiter rush to escape the Catastrophic Countdown.
- Sonic Prime has The Grim, a Shifting Sand Land that contains nothing but dunes and crystals dotting the landscape. It's explicitly stated to be unfinished, and when Sonic first arrives, he's not able to use whatever new function his Tricked-Out Gloves and Tricked-Out Shoes have there, as he's never in a situation where he has to do so. Nine intends to reshape it into a paradise for himself.
