There's been a couple of mainstream games in the last few years that have done well with 4th wall breaking as an element of narrative (characters aware they are in a video-game or of events outside of what occurred in their "save file", characters talking directly to the player, etc).
Some of them use coding to do fancy things to make the illusion stronger (recognizing when the game is being recorded, getting the player's "real" name assuming the username for their PC is the same, etc. I've seen a horror game with a unique transition into the game booting up rather than just cutting to a black screen).
However, are there ways 4th wall breaking can be done as a mechanic of the game?
There are obscure games that teach coding via you modifying the game's code to achieve goals, or some game that deletes your files as you shoot them or you get hit. But how far could this go?
> Characters beg you to modify their stats/abilities in their files, but increasing them too much causes the game to become extremely hard in retaliation.
> The game learns how the player plays, and adapts to it (adaptive AI is a meme and years off from non-security or military use, but is possible if the game is simpler IMO).
There's not much I can think of, it's hard to see how the gimmick wouldn't get boring after a few hours, and the idea only comes back in one or two good games every few years. But what do you think Alex?
That's worth it for the one or two anons called Alex who read this.