The Genre

A Coverage Game is any game where the point is to complete an action over the entirety of a designated surface. Think of lawn mowing, painting, vacuuming, street sweeping, or crop harvesting.

There will typically be resource constraints or hazards involved. In a lawn-mowing game you’ll want to avoid rocks. In a painting game you’ll have to refill your paint pan. In a vacuuming game you’re constrained by the length of the power cord. &c.

My Game

The game I’m making is a Coverage Game where you control a robot vacuum. You must:

• Clean the entire designated space
• Without knowledge of the space’s shape
• As efficiently as possible
• Without running out of energy (must recharge)
• With limited debris space (must unload if necessary)
• All while avoiding obstacles (children, pets, &c.)

The narrative is where it gets interesting. As you progress through the game, you realize you are training the AI for an evil corporation. Is this just in-game content, or does it extend to the real world?