1) On the surface, the game appears to be about taking the role of a sentient test android (A-012) as it is hacked by an external source and forced to escape it’s training facility. The player would make choices to nullify the hacker’s commands and stay within the safety of the facility.
The core idea is to leave the player questioning the ethics of controlling this android machine which has some sentient thought. The main tool for doing this is by deceiving the player, by use of 3rd person narration, into believing they are playing as the android, when in fact, they are playing as an engineer employed by the android’s maker to control the android. A possible expansion of this idea is an initial (disguised) choice that determines if you play as the hacker or the engineer where in both situations, the android attempts to communicate its wish to escape both entities.
A-012 moved sluggishly as it carried the blocks from point A to point B. This was a routine exercise, done daily for the past six months, and to be honest, it was tedious and boring. A-012’s expression reflected it’s boredom. The test was supposed to show that A-012 could learn to associate the colors on the blocks with the circles at point B. A-012 moved in jerking motions as it picked up the last block.
2) The story of a cell phone’s eventual disuse and replacement told backwards. Rather than choosing your next action, you choose how you got to your current predicament. Through the cell-phone’s life, it passes between a couple users with different usage styles.
It’s official, I’m done. Four days ago he went off and bought another cell phone, one of those fancy new ones with their big screens and fancy features. I haven’t had a good charge since a week ago and I’m just barely holding on. I can’t even make phone calls anymore.
Choice: a) Interrupt the game to prompt low battery or b) the game looks like it’ll be done in a minute or two, hold off until then to prompt low battery.
Idea 1 – It believe it would be difficult to persuade the player to contain the android in the facility. I personally would like to see what happens if the virus completely took control. The proposal for a random assignment, hacker or engineer is interesting. Not knowing who you are could lead to some very unexpected results.
Idea 2 – Is this a commentary on how no matter who uses a cell phone it always ends up in the trash? This backwards story would reveal more about the player than the cell phone. What kind of person are they from the choices of how the cell phone was destroyed or had been replaced. Are we all that different when it comes to technology?
It seems like your theme is emotional electronics. Very cool.
I think the first idea is much more ambitious than the second, which makes me more excited about it. One possible conflict I could see arising is that if A-012 is sentient, then maybe he would want to change his name to reflect his ability to emote and not just the chronological order of his creation.
I think you have some very cool ideas in the second story as well, but the whole “outdated phone, now he doesn’t play with me any more” seems very Toy Story to me. The whole backward storytelling is definitely neat though
I really like the first idea it’s unclear how the player “is actually the engineer” but it sounds intriguing and I would want to play it. The second one is kind of cute and the backward timeline doesn’t seem necessary but could be fun.
I actually really like both ideas. The first is probably my favorite, as I see more potential in its narrative and interactive potential. I really like the idea of the android gradually breaking the fourth wall and communicating directly with the player…
This game seems more complex than the others because you have to manage three conflicting entities and create meaningful interactions that will reveal something about the nature and goals of each. It could be interesting to make scenarios in which one of the entities is morally opposed to an action and must argue with the others in order to convince them that he is right.
I really love your first idea about deceiving the player into thinking they are playing as the android when they are actually the engineer. You could really delve into the idea of humans anthropomorphizing robots. It’s quite deep, so given the time constraints you may not be able to expand on the idea as fully as you wish, but it’s definitely an interesting concept.
I like your idea for telling the story of a cellphone backwards as well. I’m slightly confused as to how the choice-making would go, though. I’m not quite sure if going backwards in time will just confuse the player rather than draw them in.
I like the first idea but I think that it would be interesting to have the user choose to listen to the hacker or the engineer. In this way, you could still mask in the player is playing as the android itself or as one of the humans but it also brings the question of morality more to the forefront. Perhaps what also gets skewed is who is really the “bad guy”, the hacker or the engineer. It seems like the engineer has programmed the android to do mundane tasks it dislikes so maybe the hacker’s motivation is actually to help the robot.