This is a living document so I am regularly updating it.

The Social Contract

By Steven Stanton aka The Simple Dev
For: The Pirate Software Game Jam 16 - 2025
Theme: You are the weapon

Introduction

Game Summary

The Social Contract is a short dialogue-driven infiltration game. Following the concept that knowledge is power, the character weaponizes their skills and knowledge to gain access to corporate environments. Luckily for the corporations the player character is just a security expert helping make sure their systems are secure. The game aims to show how weak human security can be and how one's words, knowledge, skills, and cunning become the ultimate weapon.

Inspiration

TODO

Player Experience

players will experience a blend of

• Tense decision-making in conversation trees
• Light puzzle mechanics emulating social engineering in real scenarios
• The sense of empowerment from being the weapon using words and cunning rather than brute force
• The gray area that separates those who keep us safe from those they keep us safe from

Platform

Web HTML5z

Development Software and Assets

• Go
• EbiteEngine
• ASCII art
• Sounds from Kenney.nl

Genre

Single-player puzzle/adventure narrative driven

Target Audience

• Fans of puzzle games
• Players interested in short story driven experiences

Concept

Gameplay Overview

• Dialogue as Combat: The primary interaction is conversing with NPCs, Key dialogues offer branching paths that affect infiltration success and trust levels.
• Light Puzzle Elements: Phone calls, tailgating, discovering and exploiting weaknesses.

Theme Interpretation ("You are the weapon")

In The Social Shift, your voice your cunning, and your knowledge are your weapons. While other games may have swords and guns, The Social Shift combines your voice, cunning, and knowledge into the weapon of social engineering. Victory hinges on hwo well you read people and exploit their weaknesses.

Primary Mechanics

• Dialog Trees
  • Multiple-choice responses
  • Consequences for chosen tone, factual inaccuracies, or used aliases
• Learn the setting
  • Which security guards to avoid
  • Who is the weak link?
• Identification Badge Forgery Puzzle
  • Fill in the fields
  • Choose a plausible role
  • Place the correct logos
  • Avoid mistake or trust drops and suspicion raises
• Tailgating Puzzle
  • Time your approach behind an employee entering a restricted area
  • Possibly do a quick micro-interaction. Bump into them, start a friendly chat, take am "important" phone call

Secondary Mechanics

• Resource Management
  • Trust Depletes with suspicious actions
  • Awareness that tracks how many breaches you've mitigated
• Quick Tim Bluff Checks
  • Occasionally timed responses in a conversation to keep an NPC from becoming suspicious.
• Mini-map
  • Explore small environment to locate NPC's with useful info

Mission Layout

1. Lunch Leads: Call the company to find out where employees typically go for lunch.
2. Badge Blitz: Befriend employees at the lunch location and get an image and scan of a badge.
3. Clipboard Confidence: With a prop in hand to make it look important scout the office. (Gossip and papers)
4. Maintenance Mayhem: Create a fake IT Request based on the outcome of 3. Watch out for management!
5. Weak Link: Identify someone who is overly friendly or gullible. Get critical information to move on
6. Tailgate Tactics: Tailgate into a high security area like a server room that requires a pin
7. Loose Ends: Find any last details to get into the VPs office and to his computer
8. Security Showdown: Hope your credentials and knowledge can get you past LaFours
9. Executive Access: Avoid or chat up security as you make your way through the executive suite.
10. Debrief: Reveal it was a security audit and reveal your score and their score

Art

Theme

• A corporate office environment
• NPC sprites with minimal features.

Design

• Scenes are rendered 2D top down
• GUI elements have a sleek modern UI

Audio

Music

TODO

Sound Effects

TODO

Game Experience

UI

• Main HUD:
• Dialogue Boxes:

Controls

• Keyboard/Mouse
  • Keyboard moves the character with WASD
  • Arrow keys navigate choices
  • Space/Enter select choice

Development Timeline