Project Unassisted
Game Design
Core Design
The core design of this game can be summarized by its two main mechanics:
1. The Ineffectual Allies Mechanic:
This system intentionally subverts the traditional role of NPCs in games. Instead of providing useful aid, allies offer comical, useless assistance. This drives the player to ignore them and rely on their own skills and intelligence. A player will initially, and for a period in the beginning of the game, attempt to use the aid offered by allies (for example magical crystals that end up doing nothing). But eventually it becomes comical that none of the offered aid helps in any way.
2. The Unexplained Controls Mechanic:
This system rewards player curiosity and experimentation by not teaching new abilities. Players must discover new moves on their own, usually out of desperation and confusion when the offered aid does not help. This makes these abilities feel more valuable and a direct result of their own actions.
There are special moves available to the player but they are not taught, much like old games used to be like when I was growing up.
In essence, the game's core design is a deliberate deconstruction of standard gaming tropes, forcing the player to find their own solutions and derive satisfaction not from handed-down help, but from personal ingenuity.
Comedy when you don’t need it.
Tense, time sensitive, and threatening situations create a need that is met with comedically useless help and the requirement for the player to problem solve and figure out their own problem through exploration and experimentation.
Eventually the player companion offers will be outright ignored and laughable, driving home this presence. This repetition can be broken by a random fluke actually helpful move by them along the way or at the end, which is cathartic and resolves some dissonance and annoyance.
Gameplay Loop
Problem scenario > Need for solution > Useless help > Player exploration and problem solving > Found solution and/or new mechanic self taught. Found solutions should be similar to each other so the player feels more capable in the next trouble scenario.
