I have an idea for a game: It's the usual "a princess is kidnapped by a dragon and a brave knight is on a quest to rescue her" story. But you (the player) plays as the princess, who is somehow helping the knight on his quest.

The issue is that since the player is playing as a trapped character, I want to make the player feel trapped, but I don't know how to do that.

My original idea is that the princess telepathically communicates with the knight and tells him what to do. But this doesn't work, the gameplay is identical to the player playing as the knight. How can I make the gameplay feel like the player is playing as the princess (and thus feel trapped) instead of the knight?

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

This sounds similar to another game I've seen (never played) that you are trapped in a security closet and trying to assist another person in both freeing you and escaping the dungeon you both find yourselves in using the door locks and CCTV cameras and things of that nature that you have access to in your prison. I think it even came before Five Nights at Freddy's, but I don't remember the name of the game.

In a way, the game play ends up being like Lemmings or ICO, where you're solving a puzzle indirectly for another character to get beyond.