Copyright 2016 Douglas P. Fields, Jr.
symbolics at lisp.engineer
https://symbolics.lisp.engineer/
https://github.com/LispEngineer/
https://twitter.com/LispEngineer/
The player is actually a (mostly) disembodied artificial intelligence. Something akin to an Iain M. Banks "mind," stripped to its most minimal possible configuration - a real-space quantum computer kernel the size of a basketball with a minimal "effector" - a way of slowly propelling itself and weakly manipulating objects through EM/gravity, or alternatively projecting a weak protective shield. It's powered through a very tenuous link to zero point energy that provides just enough to maintain a minimal consciousness and operate said effector.
The player's mind will usually be ensconced in several layers of equipment that the player will acquire and upgrade through the game. The first layer is basic computer hardware which will allow the player to improve its computational speed and capabilities, allowing the player to control more physical hardware (drones), do more things at once or with less latency between actions.
The second layer is to improve the software the player runs on this external computer hardware, such that targeting could be more accurate, more targets tracked, more body parts effectively coordinated, or even multiple drones/waldoes controlled concurrently.
The third layer is a robotic body (drone/waldo) that the mind and attached computer hardware will reside in. Over time, the player may be able to have multiple bodies controlled in a wired or wireless fashion of various sizes and capabilities.
The player's goal is to get out of the prison wherein it finds itself and escape, defeating the final boss in an epic fight. Once that is accomplished, the player ascends to the next level of difficulty (think of a Vernor Vingian higher realm of thought) whereby the game is repeated in a harder fashion.
The player will have a variety of statistics determined by the computer hardware (which is upgraded by finding/crafting items), software (which is upgraded based upon a more traditional system of XP/level/use points). On top of these the player's equipment (in the form of robotic bodies and attachments) has additional stats, much like a standard set of inventory in an RPG. Finally, there will be numerous types of genre-appropriate consumables which will serve in a fashion analogous to potions, scrolls, wands/rods/staves, etc., in a traditional RPG.
A hybrid of the 1988 Apple //gs game Alien Mind and the modern brightly colored tileset of Cogmind.