Asp

Asp is, fundamentally, an exploration of the limitations and advantages of AI opponents.

Each level, you control some number of 'alien' ship squadrons, opposed to some number of 'human' ship squadrons. Their AI is this: turn to the closest opponent and shoot. Your AI is different: move to the next waypoint set by the player, and shoot if the enemy is in the 60 degree arc of fire to my fore.

In other words, the enemy AI is actually superior, except that you get to set the waypoints. At least initially, before you get the hang of the game, the enemy is shooting, and destroying your ships, more often than the reverse, because they don't blindly move to the next waypoint, even when it's irrelevant, and always turn to face the next foe.

And yet, you do get to set those waypoints, and you know and can utterly predict the actions of the enemy AI (albeit looking too far into the future becomes increasingly difficult). Thus, if you are clever, you can out-maneuver them -- helped by the fact that, at least in earlier levels, you have superiority of force.

Asp is not a polished game; it's a student project, and it's entirely silent -- no music or sound effects, which are sorely missed. It does have a fair number of levels in a campaign game with a notional story attached -- but what's interesting, really, is the way it pits predictable opponents against only slightly less predictable ships controlled by the player -- the limits as well as the advantages of AI.

You could almost see this basic structure being elaborated upon and becoming a commercial game, with different AI behaviors for opponents and more sophisticated player squadrons introduced over time. But it's worth playing even without that for its originality and focus on one particular design issue.