At least what I noticed playing: I believe you get a point if you are both allies, or you betray them (maybe two points if you betray them, but they'll catch on if you do it too many times). You lose a point if they betray you. You get no points if you both betray each other.
There is a tutorial menu on the start screen that explains how the characters make a decision on whether to ally or betray, and when you get to each character it states their individual ideals above them. You have to either make a judgment call based on this information or use your chips to persuade them.
You must earn a certain amount of points to beat each threshold (like every 3 to 5 levels they up the ante). If you don't have enough points, game over.
VeryLukley, please let me know if I understood that all correctly?
Yeah pretty much. Making the tutorial not be just a wall of text is something I ran out of time for, and even that leaves stuff out and requires prior knowledge of what the Prisoners Dilemma even is.
Outcomes of the game work out like this (a visual guide in game is included if you flip the paper around, although it’s a bit hard to parse)
You: Ally | They: Ally - You gain 1 point, and 1 chip (Trust with opponent increased by 1)
You: Ally | They: Betray - You lose 1 point, BUT you gain 1 chip (Trust with opponent increased by 1)
You: Betray | They: Ally - You gain 2 points. (Trust with opponent is decreased by 2)
You: Betray | They: Betray - You gain 0 points. (Trust with opponent is decreased by 2)
Chips are the currency used for special abilities and shop items, and also to sort of soften the blow of getting betrayed.
The idea is if that you betray constantly, the opponents will lose trust with you. (In addition to some strategies that will have the opponent betray you after you betray them) So you might power through early on if you only betray, but points will quickly dry up as nobody wants to cooperate with you later on.
Every 5 floors you must meet a quota to keep climbing the tower. It starts at 3 points, and the amount added increases by 1 each time. So the point quotas are: 3, 7, 12, 18, 25, and 33.
You get an ending if you pass the quota for floor 30 (33 points).
If you never betray, you can also get a special ending. (I think it’s more interesting and easier to do a run where you do a mix first, though)
