I'd like to leave a comment about why and how our game relates to the theme:
At its core, "Unintended Effect" is made up of 2 parts: The "intent" of the player to execute something with an "anticipated effect". So we decided to subvert that way of thinking in the frame of an FPS game (a medium in which all our team members shared familiarity).
e.g. Red Barrels in video games are typically used to explode and destroy your enemies. You shoot one with the intent of blowing your enemies to pieces. In our game, you are instead met with the unanticipated effect of getting vacuum-pulled into it. In this sense, we are subverting the player's expectations of a typical FPS shooter.
Note that while this may be "unintended" the first time, it becomes intended in future instances and turns into a basic game mechanic. This is because when the player understands the true nature of the game's mechanics, it stops being unintended. This nature of no-longer-unintended-after-the-first-instance seems to be unavoidable due to the nature of intent.
e.g. This can also be briefly seen in the final part of the game, when it is revealed that: while you initially intended on saving the world, you were actually helping a darker evil force called the rebels to fulfill their path to power and eventual tyranny over the galaxy. This story-beat sort of came out of left field, and is somewhat unearned. But, we wanted to pack in as many instances of the theme as we could!
We then tried to frame the "Unintended Effect" from the perspective of the enemies. The game's story goes: you are infiltrating an enemy supply base. It is primarily used for storage of weapons, robots, sentries, etc. So to save on space, the enemy would grow/shrink their equipment as necessary.
e.g. In this instance, the intent of the enemy is to use these grow/shrink devices to facilitate easier storage. But the player uses it to their advantage and utilizes it to get farther into the enemy base. In this case, the intent comes not from the player, but rather from the enemy. The unintended effect was that the protagonist used it in a way that the antagonists didn't intend.
Then is the final case of "Unintended Effect" from the perspective of the developer. There is a design philosophy called "Emergent Design", where as you introduce more and more simple mechanics, these mechanics can interact in a way not initially intended. Producing more complex gameplay elements.
e.g. Although it may not be easy to tell from the gameplay, the idea that: bullets bounce, bullets knockback, and bullets can hit yourself; are 3 independent ideas that were born out of game-feel and simple design. But when implemented together, we realized that this can be used and exploited to the players advantage. Usually allowing the players to skip parts of the game rapidly. In this sense, the player exploiting the game's physics is the final implementation of an "Unintended Effect" from the perspective of the developer.
You might notice that one of the simpler low-hanging-fruit of "Unintended Effect" was not used in this project: Randomness. Randomness is the ultimate Unintended Effect. Because you as the player do not know what the outcome of your actions will be at any moment, there is a significant chance that the effects of your actions will be unintended. But randomness takes power away from the hands of the player. It is important to keep the game fair, balanced, and in control of the player. There is no easier way to cause the player frustration than placing the player in a situation where they have played to the absolute best of their ability and still fail.
Some of these ideas may not be immediately evident in gameplay, especially when you're busy dodging bullets and trying to get a good time in the final stat page. That said, I hope you had fun playing our game and wish everyone the best of luck with their submissions! I'll be playing through the other games soon was a little occupied with a 12 hour road-trip yesterday!