Introduction
Room is a click based narrative game developed in Unity. The project explores how social media algorithms may influence young women’s career imagination and self perception in contemporary China.
The game uses the metaphor of “room” to connect historical restrictions on women’s physical space with the invisible influence of digital media today. Through text based storytelling, scene exploration, interactive objects, and visual changes, players follow the main character as she moves from a traditional confined space into a contemporary online environment.
Rather than explaining the issue directly, Room uses atmosphere, dialogue, and interaction to let players gradually experience how repeated information, social expectations, and algorithmic content can shape personal choices. The project combines visual design, feminist media theory, and interactive narrative to create a short but reflective gameplay experience.
Scene Design
Traditional Room
This scene is inspired by the traditional boudoir space. It represents the historical restrictions placed on women’s physical movement, education, and social participation. The room uses a darker colour palette, traditional furniture, books, and window imagery to create a confined atmosphere. Through clickable objects and text based storytelling, players gradually understand how social rules shaped women’s identities and life choices in the past.
Transition Room
The transition scene connects the historical room with the contemporary digital world. It works as a visual and narrative bridge, showing the main character’s movement from a physical enclosed space into a more abstract information space. The design keeps some elements from the previous scene while introducing modern visual signs, suggesting that forms of restriction may change over time but may not completely disappear.
Contemporary Digital Room
This scene presents a modern room where the main character begins to explore the online world. Compared with the traditional room, the colours and interface design become brighter and more digital. However, the space still carries a sense of uncertainty. Through the computer, text messages, and interactive objects, the scene introduces how social media content can influence young women’s career expectations and self perception.
Information Cocoon Scene
The final scene visualises the pressure of algorithmic content. The background becomes blurred and dark, while repeated online messages appear through player interaction. Each click reveals more biased or misleading content about women’s education, work, and value. The strong colour contrast and dense information layout are designed to create a sense of visual pressure, helping players feel how repeated online content can shape personal choices and limit imagination.
Item Design
The interactive objects in Room were designed to support both storytelling and player exploration. Objects such as books, windows, computers, and online messages are not only visual elements in the scene, but also narrative clues that help players understand the character’s situation. By clicking on these objects, players can gradually collect information about women’s education, social expectations, digital media, and career imagination. I designed these interactions to make the player actively explore the space instead of passively reading the story. Each object connects the character’s personal experience with the wider social issue behind the project, showing how physical spaces, social rules, and online information can all influence a woman’s self perception and choices.
UI Design
The traditional UI was designed for the historical room scene. I used a darker colour palette and more decorative frame shapes to reflect the atmosphere of a traditional private space. The dialogue box has a more complex and enclosed visual style, which helps express the character’s restricted living environment and the social rules around her. This UI design aims to make the player feel that the character is placed within a controlled and limited space, rather than a fully open world.
The modern UI was designed for the contemporary digital scene. Compared with the traditional UI, it uses a brighter colour palette, cleaner shapes, and a more direct layout. This creates a stronger connection with digital interfaces and online communication. However, the cleaner visual style does not mean the character is completely free. Instead, it contrasts with the final information cocoon scene, where repeated online messages gradually create pressure. The modern UI was designed to show how control can become less visible in digital spaces, while still influencing the character’s thoughts and choices.
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