You are not playing the game

Genre: Adventure

Platform: PC

Year: 2021

Engine : Godot engine

Overview

You are not playing the game is an action adventure game were the player must fight against a video game monster (the video game is literally the monster).

The game was made under a special condition of the A Game By It Cover Jam in which the game must be based on any fake Famicon cartridge provided. The game is based on the cartridge below.

Cartridge by 89o

How it start

From the cartridge description "The game say no", the game concept that come to mind is simply a game that refused to be played. The direction the game go with is to make the player fight "the cartridge monster". The game is mainly divided into three phases each with their own different gameplay mechanic each escalating in tension one after another.

The cartridge monster

Phase 1 - Introduction

Compare to the later point of the game, the first act is extremely basic consisting of only linear set of button input the player have to press.

The scene make the player insert a cartridge in to their console but with a twist of the cartridge being a monster. It introduce the player to some normalcy at first then surprised them, raising their tension and fear.

Phase 2 - Rising tension

After the first phase the player are now put inside "the game". In this phase, the cartridge monster will be controlling an in-game NPC while the player become

"the challenge". Their main objective is to preventing the NPC from reaching the goal.

The gameplay of this phase is changed from a linear keyboard input to a puzzle point and click style. Which each success the puzzle increase in difficulty. After the player solve all of the puzzle the eventually escape.

Phase 3 - Counter Attack

Now that the player escape, they must fight back. A major difference this phase has is that it shift from puzzle oriented to a more action focus bullet hell gameplay. The reason for this is to escalate the gameplay according to the tension of the story.