Introduction
I played The Room, a puzzle game designed by Robert Dodd and Mark Hamilton and published by Fireproof Games, which was available on iOS via the App Store. The game is targeted at players who enjoy escape rooms and tactile puzzle-solving and are motivated by the mystery of the unknown. Throughout the gameplay experience, players are challenged to break into elaborate boxes which contain hidden mechanisms that must be solved or deciphered in order to advance to the next level. The game blends environmental storytelling with tactile puzzles to create an experience that shapes how players think, feel, and interact with the mysterious, yet beautiful world within the box.
Thesis
The core mechanic of The Room is the interaction with the puzzles through touch. Players can swipe, rotate, tap, and zoom into different clues and mechanisms that closely mirrors how people engage with objects in the physical world. This physicality is what develops an intimate connection between the puzzle and the player, shaping a deeply immersive atmosphere where the manipulation of space creates the dynamic of progression that allows the story to unfold.
Analysis
One of the elements that makes The Room stand out is the tactile realism that is used to ground challenges in mechanical logic. This tactile realism is conveyed through the mechanics of touch-based interaction, object manipulation, and lens-based hidden clues which create the dynamic of emergent discovery, trial-and-error, and perceptual shifts. An example of this dynamic was highlighted in a complex, multi-part puzzle consisting of riddles, perception puzzles, and shape recognition. As seen in the screenshot below, the narrative began with the uncovering of a riddle. While the player explored the physical space, the riddle provided the foundation for initial progression in the game.
As the player rotates their point of view, the bottom legs of the box are unveiled through a perceptual shift. The player soon realizes that each leg represents a different element (“fire”, “water”, “earth”, “air”) and is left to draw a connection between these elements and other clues in the room. 
Eventually, it becomes clear that “fire” is the answer to the puzzle. Upon solving this clue, we are given a key with a swiveling head that can fit into different types of keyholes. As seen below, there is an element of trial and error with fitting the key into the right keyhole as the 2-D keyhole pattern is tricky to match with the 3-D key head.
This sequence of different types of puzzle-solving and progression through space carries significant cognitive load (but not too much!) that challenges players throughout the game, adding weight to every discovery that the player makes. The discovery of new viewpoints or hidden elements is what creates an aesthetic of mastery as the player gains familiarity and control over the system; however, to balance out the risk of boredom associated with mastery, layered puzzles and hidden narrative clues evoke the aesthetics of mystery and tension that continue to drive player curiosity. Ultimately, it is the combination of tactile manipulations, spatial reasonings, and perceptual shifts that define the player relationship with the puzzle space to encourage lateral thinking and reinforce the overall idea of the game that not everything is as it seems.
Ethics
Although some of The Room’s puzzles are as straightforward as putting a key in a keyhole, other puzzles are more complex, requiring visual pattern recognition. For example, as depicted below, one of the puzzles requires the alignment of celestial symbols in a circular pattern that required familiarity with astrological knowledge.
This highlights a larger issue of cultural marginalization; many of The Room’s clues are Euro-centric which excludes players whose knowledge and familiarity lie outside of European history and culture. When an “a-ha” moment is rooted in memory recall rather than reasoning, the designers of the game block the “V-8 response” (as described in the “Designing the PUZZLE” reading) which replaces the moment of intended cognitive clarity with frustration and alienation. If I were to improve The Room, I would include an in-game dictionary that could explain culture-specific references including patterns, words, and other imagery. Players would have the option to access the dictionary at-will in order to cater to both players who may enjoy individual interpretation of symbolism and those who may be completely unfamiliar with the reference. By grounding the game more in logic than memory, The Room becomes a more accessible game to those of all cultural identities and elevates the dynamics of exploration and interpretation for greater sensational and discovery-based fun.
