ERDT - using strangers as a part of your game
I had been thinking about two things for some time. First, I really, really wanted to make a game about space exploration that makes you feel alone up there, piloting a spaceship where only you live. Second, I wanted to try to make a game where you use random people as the engine of your game. What if someone refuses to participate? What if they don't understand the rules? How could a game take that into account?
ERDT has you take the role of a scientist in an exploration space-faring vessel, tasked with retrieving information from various probes in a solar system. The loop is simple, you visit a planet and take cards from a deck to choose the prompts or "tasks" you send the probes orbiting that planet. You then fill cards with those prompts and either hang them on the street or directly give them to strangers, without much explanation, and then leave. You set a time limit and an email, then wait. If you get your answers back, the probes are functional, if not, they're probably broken. In the meantime, you fill your own prompt about how it feels to live on the ship.
The results so far have been varied. I've had cycles with probe responses in the high and low numbers both, but when you do get a really well crafted answer it feels incredible. I'm really looking forward to reading what you guys think about this concept! Thanks for reading me :)