Great plot, great twist. I would super enjoy watching this story unfold. (I always feel a bit bad in games blasting away a bunch of aliens who are probably just the local wildlife minding its own beeswax.) The robot protagonist and the whole initial setup are very appealing. And you've got an intriguing and well-chosen set of comp titles. It's a clear and well-structured GDD overall, and I particularly like that you've done your research on the theory side.

On the downside, I am not sold that this is a new genre. Like others have said, I see a Metroidvania with a cool plot--and cool it is, but no matter how cool the plot, it does not a genre make. And seeing that list of comps just makes me think that, if there are already nine games in this proposed genre, it's not new.

What you definitely have that is super intriguing is a new theory of game criticism. I would love to read a long-form essay exploring the idea of the perspective game. But that's another project for another time.

I thought this was very evocative. There was an ancient game, Paradroid, where you would take over hostile androids and use them to get around a ship you were invading and this reminded me of that a bit (though note, I last played it more than 30 years ago).

I liked the twist, but wanted more game play. Now that you know, what will you do?

There are a bunch of submissions and I wanted to give feedback to everyone, so I'm going to list some strengths and weaknesses that I perceive from the GDD's in this challenge (take with a grain of salt, I recognize the challenge this jam theme + time limitations, especially during a holiday weekend).

Strengths: This document gets a good examination of all the important thing. This honestly is a really good doc for a pitch, in my opinion. Overall, really clear, lots of images and several diagrams to break up the text and express different ideas.

Weaknesses: There's not a lot of information that specifies how the gameplay feels. There's a good overall idea of the game, but you've also included a list of gameplay elements that aren't explained in your core game loop. Some examples of these elements (combat, exploration, scavenging, and puzzles) would make this very difficult to find issue with.

Overall: Cool concept, could use some more fleshing out in its mechanics. I would absolutely play this for countless hours.

This was a fun read!

I loved the overall structure of the document - it felt concise and readable, and the diagrams and image references added a lot of clarity and brought the game idea to life. Was some of the art made specifically for this GDD?

I especially appreciated the diagrams for the core loop and controls, they helped me understand them in a jiffy. The appendix of comparison games was also useful.

I liked the details about the basic mechanics, world structure, and core loop - but would have liked to know more about specific parts of the gameplay - what do you use other robots’ parts for? Puzzles? If so, what kind? How exactly does combat work against the spiders, and how do you stealth past them?

The narrative seemed interesting, especially the part where you get the memory chips from old robots to try and piece together the world’s backstory.

About the genre - You’ve defined a genre called ‘Perspective Game’ and given a few examples in the appendix, but I don’t see how this game in particular helps to define that genre. It seems to instead fit closely with the existing Metroidvania genre (as Kirk mentioned) and there isn’t enough fleshing out of the knowledge-gathering part of the game and how it affects the core gameplay, for me to recognize it as a genre of its own.

When I read the GDD this game reminded me of a Metroid-vania; a classic among games.

Your GDD was well structured, supplemented with good visual aid to help others see your vision, and sets the stage for a fun adventure!