SIGNATURE WORK
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2022

Recently, the word “neijuan” (involution), which refers to the endless intense competition between peers, has gained rising popularity in China. As Chinese students strive to achieve higher grades, the possibility for them to get into universities remains the same. They have no choice but to be part of the merit-based system. This project tackles the aggravating peer pressure in China’s education, as Chinese students strive to compete for limited opportunities. This project interprets the situation from the perspective of students themselves through an interactive medium – the video game, to finally build an emotional experience for players to reflect upon. The game will be a puzzle-solving adventure, which is set in a traditional Chinese middle school. The two main characters, a boy and a girl would try to escape the fierce competition from different times and spaces. The signature work team focus on the design of game mechanics and narrative, as well as the artistic style to create an experience about the phenomenon of “neijuan”. In this way, players are encouraged to develop their own critical reflection about this topic through the experiential gameplay, rather than being forced to accept cold conclusions made by others. Meanwhile, we put efforts into level design, artistic design, 3D modeling, and other aspects to guarantee the quality of the game, making it fun to play. During the developing process, we also conducted playtests to evaluate the performance of the game and modified our design based on the feedback.