Tiny Room Story: Town Mystery (ages 4+) is an isometric point and click mobile game created by Kirary Games Ltd. You play as a private detective who explores the empty town of Redcliff to search for your missing father and the rest of the town’s inhabitants. Each level is a different story chapter that involves rotating around a 3D isometric room and solving puzzles to escape the room and advance the investigation.
“How is narrative woven into the mystery through its mechanics? How does the architecture of the setting control the story?”
The narrative of the story is communicated through a combination of narration and character observations. At the start of each chapter, you’re provided with narration to provide context to move the narrative forward and situate the player in the new level. This narrative mechanic helps players make narrative connections between levels and add layers to the mystery.
The point and click mechanic and character observations also contribute to the mystery. For example, in level 2, you solve a series of puzzles to find a gun in a drawer of the detective’s father’s house. Although you’re unable to pick up the gun, the detective is shocked that his father would own a firearm. From moments like this, players slowly discover and unpack the mystery alongside the detective.
Additionally, the architecture of each level controls the level’s constraints, puzzles, and player expectations. For example, the single office room featured in level 0 is a great choice to introduce to new players to the game since it features a limited space with common office items to solve puzzles with. In contrast, level 3 at the bank features multiple banking floors full of clues and complex vault code puzzles. The type of room chosen for the level helps control the story by dictating common puzzle props and level difficulty.
The architecture of each level also helps conceal clues and control the flow of exploration. Familiarity with each location utilizes the player’s common sense to dictate which expected and unexpected places to conceal clues. For example, a bedroom may hide clues in a clothing drawer and a bank may hide clues inside financial reports and vaults. Additionally, the physical architecture of the level guides the player to explore in a directed manner. For example, you can’t get into a certain room without the appropriate key, which pushes players to explore the current room in order to advance to the next one.
Analysis & Ethics
The Tiny Room Story embeds a variety of mechanics to aid players and guide their exploration. As an escape room-esque game, it helps manage players’ active memory by storing detailed clues such as passwords and notes in their inventory. This inventory mechanic helps players focus on the broader objective of solving the level instead of getting too lost in remembering multi-digit passwords.
In addition to the architecture of the level, the game also controls the flow of exploration through the detective’s hints. Remarks such as “there is nothing of interest here” and “there seems to be something behind the couch” can help redirect players to other noteworthy clues.
A side note about clues and hints: the game offers a simple first order optimal strategy through the hint button, which gives players a hint after they watch an advertisement. As the levels get difficult, the hint button is a great way to encourage players to continue puzzle solving when they’re frustrated with the level difficulty.
As for accessibility, the game’s narrative heavily relies on written text and subtitles, which can be helpful for people with hearing loss. One accessibility feature I would suggest would be to embed alternative text for screen readers to narrate the features of the room for people with vision impairments or low vision.
