404: Law Not Found (2013)

Overview

404: Law Not Found is a competitive action programming game with hidden objectives. Players take the role of robots that awaken after an upgrade to find their three laws replaced with nonsensical directives such as "Explore Breathing" or "Improvise Science". Players race to complete objectives based on these directives, the first player to complete all three directives wins the game.

The game opens with players drafting directives, providing them with a partial knowledge of each others' objectives. Each turn the ship encounters an obstacle, such as a meteor or enemy ship. Once that's been revealed the (relatively helpless) human crew make a quick reaction. Then the bulk of the turn is spent by the players choosing actions for their robots to take in service to their directives, before finally the event is resolved if it has not been neutralized in some way. The game ends once a player completes all three directives or the ship has encountered ten events.

The actions are general (move right, move left, turn on the machine in this room) and the directives might specify interactions with any part of the game (events, items, crew, machines, other robots). The wellbeing of the ship or its crew has no special place in the victory conditions, the state of the ship at the end of a game where a robot has to "Empower Technology" (repair at least two damaged machines) might differ from one in which a robot is trying to "Improvise War" (fire a living crewman and hit an enemy ship).