Game Summary Pitch
At the 14th Pirate Software Gamejam we submitted this game after 2 weeks of development for the Gamejam theme „It’s Spreading“. In Cobra Effect, the player has to face the name-giving effect, which means that solutions to one problem lead to new problems. We called this genre „Turncoat Tower Defense“ because your units will be your enemies in the next wave.
Inspiration: The Cobra Effect
The Cobra Effect refers to a situation where an attempted solution to a problem actually makes the problem worse. This term is derived from an anecdote about British colonial rule in India. The British government, concerned about the number of venomous cobras in Delhi, offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially, this was a successful strategy as large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. However, it eventually led to some people breeding cobras for income. When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped, causing the cobra breeders to release the now-worthless snakes. As a result, the wild cobra population increased even more than before, making the problem worse than it was at the outset.
Player Experience
The player is thrown into a room with a plague of rats in it and has to solve the problem by choosing one of the options from the user interface. All options are new "prolutions" (combined wording for problem & solution). Prolutions are solutions to previous problems, which then become bigger problems. With each prolution, the player dives deeper into the Cobra Effect. Making the wrong decisions can have dramatic consequences.
