Game Design · Second Fully Specified Design
Untamed Shadows
Open Social System · Faction Trust · Choices That Lock
Design Context
Untamed Shadows is the second of two fully specified game designs that preceded the current doctoral framing. It is not one of the proposed study sites; it is documented here as design practice on the same underlying questions, approached from the side of play. Where Prison Sandbox is closed and individual, Untamed Shadows is open and collective: territory instead of a building, faction-level trust instead of personal trust, and choices in the middle of the game that permanently decide which allies exist at the end.
Design Rationale — A Contrasting Social System
Open Territory — Social Topology Contrast
Prison Sandbox uses a closed, bounded population. Untamed Shadows uses open wilderness territory with permeable faction boundaries. The contrast is the point: the same questions about trust, information and consequence look different when the social space is open rather than closed.
Faction-level Trust — Group Propagation
Prison Sandbox models trust as an individual-level construct. Untamed Shadows models trust at the faction level — information credibility is mediated by group membership and inter-faction history. No faction shows a visible alignment score; full trust is granted only after direct aid to a faction leader, so trust is earned through action rather than bought.
Act Structure — Consequence at Scale
Choices made in Act 2 permanently restructure Act 3 — faction alliances, available territories, and agent relationships. Consequence permanence operates at the level of narrative structure: killing a faction leader closes that alliance path for the entire run and reshapes the ending.
Engine Change — Portability
The agent simulation layer is designed to run beneath Unreal Engine's C++/Blueprints architecture as beneath Unity's C#. The design treats the social layer as engine-independent, the same stance the live system takes toward the games it administers.
Two Designs Contrasted
| Dimension | Prison Sandbox | Untamed Shadows |
|---|---|---|
| Social topology | Closed bounded population, fixed agent count | Open territory, permeable faction boundaries |
| Trust unit | Individual-to-individual personal trust | Faction-level group trust propagation |
| Information flow | Rumor chains through close proximity | Territorial intelligence across faction domains |
| Consequence scope | Moment-to-moment: NPC death, route closure | Structural: Act 2 choices reshape Act 3 world |
| Engine | Unity · C# · top-down 2D/3D | Unreal Engine (planned) · third-person |
| Role now | Synthetic environment for RQ4 | Design practice; not a proposed study site |
Faction Architecture — Social Agent Groups
The Wolves
Trust: Territory-bound
Share information freely within pack, withhold from all others. High intra-group reliability, near-zero inter-group. Models tight social trust with sharp external boundary.
The Pumas
Trust: Transactional
Information exchanged for territorial access. Reliability is contingent on reciprocity. Models market-mediated trust — honest when it benefits them, misleading otherwise.
The Lions
Trust: Hierarchical
Information flows downward accurately; upward information is filtered and aggrandised. Models how hierarchy distorts information reliability through social propagation.
Human Research
Trust: Observer
Holds accurate environmental data but its own agenda — scientific access — shapes what it discloses. Models institutional information control as a reliability variable.
Design Variable Mapping
| Inter-faction information gaps | Different factions hold incompatible information about shared territory. The player cannot verify without traversal. Models information reliability variance at the group level. | Reliability |
| Faction trust accumulation | Trust built through side missions and sustained presence. Trust with one faction affects credibility with rivals. Models how group-level trust propagates and conflicts. | Trust |
| Act 2 → Act 3 consequence | Structural narrative bifurcation based on accumulated faction choices. Irreversibility at the scale of the whole story rather than the single encounter. | Permanence |
| Cross-engine framework layer | The social simulation layer is specified independently of the engine, so the same rules could sit beneath either game. | Portability |
Implementation Status
The game design document (v0.4) is complete, with a tracked list of open design questions. Implementation is not part of the proposed doctoral work.