verisimilitude problem / ludonarrative dissonance

[plexsoup]

If this game is a shooter, the intro makes no sense.

If this game is a detective story, the gameplay makes no sense.

We should try to better align narrative and mechanics.

[plexsoup]

Our schtick / gimmick / core conceit, is that it's effectively an unfinished product. Hence the names: working team title and working noir game title.

So it's ok if the story is janky, unfinished. It's ok to have missing content. Lean into it. If you can't fix it, feature it!

But, we have to really commit to it. Turn it up to 11.

Maybe as the threat level increases, the game appears to be more and more unfinished. The textures in the boss level could be checkerboard placeholder patterns.

This is a dangerous gambit: If the game appears unfinished, people will assume it's just bad/unfinished, not that it's some carefully crafted meta social commentary, masterpiece.

[plexsoup]

Is there any way the player could appear to "break the game", "fix the indestructible boss", then beat them?

Or maybe that's too much like other 4th wall meta games: Pony Island, Magic Circle, Doki Doki Literature Club, Undertale

Anyways, if you make it so there's only one way to beat the boss, it becomes a puzzle game rather than an action or stealth adventure game.

[plexsoup]

We could put a scene in the debug menu that's a bit "glitched", and lets the player acquire and "accidentally" keep a rocket launcher or something.

[plexsoup]

no one cares