Garble & Gob features a misunderstood monster and its journey to finally resolving humanity’s assumptions about it — or not! This solo One Pager utilizes a Two Stat system to tell a unique story in the perspective of the mobs you usually try to kill upon encounter. It does not have combat, rather, stats are based on the monster’s desire to communicate and express itself truthfully or adversely, decide to become humanity’s assumptions and maintain its misunderstood reputation. The game, more importantly, explores the significance in understanding viewpoints that are separate and vastly different from your own. 

 

Thematic Significance

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As a designer, I gravitate towards social relationships and all its complexity as the main mechanics of my games. It explores communication in a different perspective. In my previous works, I often explore the lack of communication and how that affects community. In Garble & Gob, it explores miscommunication and misunderstandings instead, taking note of how that influences relationships— a common issue in many social spaces.

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Monsters, Oddity, & A New Perspective

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My love for creatures and their quirkiness inspired most of this game’s core concept. Games that further inspired this work were, once again, Thousand Year Vampire, and a turn-based strategy game, Don't Kill Them All. As you play a vampire that lives through centuries and experiences life much slower than humans, you realize how fleeting life is, and how dull, painful, and lonely it is to walk through life alone.  Meanwhile, Don't Kill Them All offers a unique perspective as you play orcs that are learning a new way of life: they must not lose self-control nor kill. The mechanics of the game SOLELY focuses on staying calm, contrary to how orcs have been perceived in many fantastical worlds.

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Two Stat System

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Players only have two stats to depend on as the monster: Garble and Gob. They are based on how well the monster can express itself truthfully or how well it can bluff. These stats drive the events and conversations within this game, and actively change by the player's or game's will. 

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Significant Human

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Inspired by Thousand Year Vampire’s mortal human mechanic, monsters in Garble & Gob must successfully shift the opinion of the humans they encounter closer to their goal. Whether that is to scare the daylights out of them or offer them flowers, monsters will slowly shift the humans' perspectives of them one by one. This, then, makes for more intriguing and impactful scenes each time a situation is rolled.​

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