I keep calling it a Snake Farm sequel but at this point I've overhauled nearly every major system to create a completely different gameplay loop. I'm really excited by it!
Basically imagine Snake Farm but with no snakes, no oil, no teeth, no buying enemies, a completely different economy, and no farm, BUT it's still a recognizable evolution of the exact same premise
This is enrichment for game designers. Completely change as many systems as possible while keeping the same incentive structure and thematic core
So obviously the big romance in SNAKE FARM is between the oil drone and Goose. Another designer might also make some snake romances to round out the cast, but we're not here for a protagonist with tons of options; we're here for a protagonist with no options that must somehow make one.
You play as the oil drone trapped in a purgatory of buying, fighting, killing, collecting, and buying, day after day after day as you're killed and reborn and killed again for the sake of money. You don't realize you're conscious yet, but you know that there's only one escape.
You need to fuck your boss.
Goose (your boss, and the love interest/antagonist) is currently experiencing second thoughts about this whole oil drone thing. Every morning he wakes up at 6am to give pretend coins to a death-bound drone in exchange for oil that he can sell for real money to his higher-ups. Or, he's pretty sure it's real money he's getting. It might just be another layer of scrip; special middle management coins to inflate his assumed value. He's tired, there are noises in the night he can't explain, and he only has a faceless, non-sapient oil drone for company. As the endless weeks go on, these doubts start to coalesce in his head.
He would leave if he had someone to leave with.
He would run away with you if you were in love.
He would fall in love with you if you were alive.
But you're not, and he can't -- there's oil to farm and snakes to sell -- so he throws your lifeless non-corpse into the back of his truck and starts the long drive back to his shop to repair and start over. He wonders if you remember any of this. You do. You see his vulnerable moments, talking to you as he runs through your boot cycle, always making sure you're put together just so.
You -- you, with your faceless face, your body built for fighting, your rudimentary synth box only built for debug statements -- must convince this enigmatic masked figure who only speaks in half-jokes and riddles that you are alive.
Over days, months, years of being thrown to the snakes, you must convince him (and yourself!!) that you can love.
