This game is centered around two ideas: First, no number goes above 10, including the number of types of things, such as there being only ten things which can be upgraded, and there are ten of each resource, ten ways to die, ten new game plus unlocks, each of which increases the speed of the subsequent playthrough, and so forth. There are a total of ten things of ten which there are only ten of, to continue to belabor this game's secondary goal for tension-building purposes.
Secondly, throughout the game there are ten Paradigm Shifts.
If you've played Candy Box!, a free game (google it) and at some point your lollypop farm exploded with candy, you know what a paradigm (PAIR ah dym) shift is. It's a subversion of the expectations of the player. Specific to this game, paradigm shifts are subversive in two ways: First, they come about as a result of the player attempting to solve a problem. Second, they suvbvert the method used by the player to achieve that goal in some way, whether by causing a second problem, or becoming a secondary problem, or --- THIS PART HAS BEEN REDACTED - NO SPOILERS ---.
With these two ideas in place, the current attempt is to create a dense UI which trains the player to perform actions using functions they create on the UI using clickboxes. First, the player is given the option to toggle on and off a resource supply. Second, the player is given the option to click repeatedly upon the supply to speed up the rate of supply. With these base functions in place, the player learns income and eventually unlocks the ability to spend those resources.
The resources can be used to generate resources more quickly in an investment which is nonrefundable. Certain choices will be optimal, others less optimal, up to perhaps five methods. Through the course of the game, the player will learn these methods by visaul signals in the form of glow effects over buttons of particular shape, text explaining these functions, and demonstrated usefulness of the functions for creating more resources.
At this point in PARADIGM ZERO, the player builds a robot to collect energy, mine ore or create processors from metal, which is created from 10 ore. Ore creation can also be toggled and clicked, meaning the player can set up an automatic 'farm' of resources which also increases efficiency as they spend the resources.
Now for PARADIGM ZERO's transition to the shift: Robots cost power per second to own. If they don't have a power to drain, they explode. This is also true of the things the robots can build, like factories and more mines, up to 10 of which can be owned (the proportion being up to the player, a mining-heavy economy being more condusive for idle play (run the game in a browser tab while working to accrue easy resources slowly) or a processor-based economy which allows rapid growth. These two modes will be equally efficient as the player will be queued into the UI via signals and symbology as well as text and demonstrated usefulness.
The shift occurs when the high per-second cost of a Factory is discovered, which demonstrates that the player needs 10 robots in order to power a single Factory OR a number of robots upgraded to a level equaling 11, as it requires 11 levels worth of robot power to power a single factory.
To be continued later/revised later.