First Ideas

So I have two ideas for my final major project.

I will describe the first:
I would like this to be based loosely on Warwick Castle, I have had this idea for a while so it is more developed than the second one. The story goes that there is an abandoned castle, in ruins due to an event long ago. Once, this castle was full of like and the small kingdom was thriving. Until one day, while they were building more lower levels for extra storage, a man discovers a chest, and inside it contained a silver goblet. It was cleaned and presented to the king, little did they know that the goblet was cursed. When the king drank from the goblet one night at a celebratory banquet, suddenly tremors shook the castle, parts of the structure collapsed completely, the earthquake caused giant tooths of jagged rock to shoot from the ground from fissures, ripping the center of the castle apart. Many died, and the few survivors fled the kingdom never to return, believing the land to be permanently cursed.
And so, 200 years later, you are here to discover the truth, to explore the castle ruins and perhaps even find the legendary silver goblet.

This would be an adventure or action/adventure style of game, for PC. Focus will be on getting the environment to look natural and interesting. I want to show the detail of the damage to the original castle structure and how it was effected my the rock protrusions. I would have a few different areas to allow the player to explore in and around the castle, possibly including an underground part.

My second idea is less developed but explores a different direction for the project.
An environment on another planet. Based on the Amazon rainforest and other tropical jungle types of environments. There would be many strange and interesting plants and animals. It is a research trip, based in the future, and environmentalists are here to study and record they findings on this new planet. There would be a few research tents and facilities scattered within the jungle.

I would focus on creating small details, I could spend a lot of time making the environment look believable, having lots of small creatures and bugs, and unique plant life. 

I will be putting together some mood boards and some concepts for both of these ideas to present them.