Overview
For my critical play, I played The Room. This game is developed by Fireproof Games, and is (allegedly) available on Steam, Mac, and Windows. It unfortunately wouldn’t open for me on Steam, so I had to re-buy on my iPad. After seeing the way I was expected to interact with this game, I think being on a iPad actually enhanced my game-playing experience. I would say this game is a bit too hard for children, so I would estimate the target audience is 12+, especially if they are fans of embedded narrative games with a complex critical thinking component. I would argue this game is not the best fit for someone looking for a mindless game they can checkout and play.
Mechanics
One thing that set The Room apart from other games I’ve played recently is the strict physical scoping of the game. You a confined to a single room (who would have guessed?) at each level. I think this singular focus on one object in the middle of the room was a great way to encourage deep engagement and interactivity. Unlike Tiny Room Mystery, which had simple tapping as an interaction mechanism, The Room requires the user to physically swipe, lift, or rotate the objects that they are trying to investigate. This created an additional layer of complexity and fun, because even if I was staring at the right clue, I needed to seek context clues to effectively resolve the puzzle. The rich fidelity of the visual designed coupled with the heightened attention to detail required to advance helped me feel truly embedded in the narrative of the story, and I was surprised at how quickly an hour of playing this game passed by.
Another mechanic that helped influence game play was the persistence or disappearance of inventory objects. Some objects would disappear after use but other objects almost served as mini puzzles themselves. The first room features a skeleton key that had to be reconfigured to fit subsequent keyholes and a telescope that needed its lens cap rotated in order to fully expand. But this wasn’t always explicitly stated, it was only when an object had been “used” and remained in inventory that I was inspired to take a second look. There was an eyeglass that persisted not only across puzzles, but across levels! This “second vision” mechanic added so much richness and complexity to the existing game play. It was almost analogous to having two rooms in one.
Ethics
I thought The Room did a great job of having inclusive puzzles. I don’t recall ever feeling that I needed some existing knowledge to progress through the challenges. In addition to the traditional puzzle components of letters and numbers, the game featured a host of symbols, which mimicked to me the experience of someone who isn’t used to the Arabic numeral or English number system. Many clues were denoted by slight outlines of panels on the box or hinges that featured obvious ware upon close inspection. The liberal inclusion of hints made this puzzle an all-around wonderful experience.
One area that I think this puzzle has room for improvement is potentially in the accessibility. The secret eyeglass showed the world in varying colors of green and red that I think could be difficult for someone with low color vision to experience fully. While I also enjoyed the dexterity associated with having to physically manipulate the objects in the game, I think this would be a significant barrier for a mobility-impaired user. It would be nice to have accessibility featured to address these two areas. An onboarding popup that let you toggle color contrast or game interaction mechanics would make this game top tier.
Evidence Appendix
The puzzles featured a nice combination of English letters, symbols, and number-based clues.
The reg/green contrast could be pretty inaccessible for someone who has trouble distinguishing the two.
Even after completing the first puzzle component of finding the clue, you need to inspect the tool to learn that further interaction is required.
