I have an idea for a game: It’s the usual “a princess is kidnapped by a dragon and a brave knight is on a quest to rescue her” story. But you (the player) plays as the princess, who is somehow helping the knight on his quest.
The issue is that since the player is playing as a trapped character, I want to make the player feel trapped, but I don’t know how to do that.
My original idea is that the princess telepathically communicates with the knight and tells him what to do. But this doesn’t work, the gameplay is identical to the player playing as the knight. How can I make the gameplay feel like the player is playing as the princess (and thus feel trapped) instead of the knight?
You could do part puzzle game, part rts. What I mean by rts is that you can give the knight commands but you can’t control him directly. And maybe he doesn’t always do what he’s told, and you have to account for that somehow?
Could make for an interesting roguelike, too, as you try to help this endless stream of knights rescue you.