Emotions to Evoke:
- Ethical dilemma
Players have to choose between maximizing points for the algorithm, keeping characters doomscrolling, or breaking the rules to try to prevent them from getting addicted. This should create a conflict over which path to take, forcing players into a moral decision.
- Regret from realization
When a player optimizes reels to boost their score, they may not immediately realize they’re causing characters to become addicted and detached from real life. As the story progresses, players who follow the rules will start seeing the impact of their algorithm ripple outward: people becoming more politically divided, more conflicts erupting, relationships deteriorating. This delayed realization is meant to foster a sense of regret, an emotion that’s rare in gameplay.
- Mirror reality
I want players to feel like they’re observing their own manipulation by algorithms from the outside, gaining a new perspective that makes them reflect on their own doomscrolling habits.
Mood Board
Playlist
Directions for the Game:
- Curating content for cats based on their interests The core gameplay mechanism is for players to choose between different options to curate a running list of reels that character cats will scroll through. The content should span a wide variety of topics. Players can explore a cat’s room to find clues about what they like and cater to their interests. They could also choose to send instigating, polarizing content over peaceful and motivational ones. The stronger the emotions evoked, the more points the player earns—and that’s considered better performance as an algorithm designer.
- Discovering interconnectedness between the characters you curate for Over time, players will discover that the different cats they curate content for are connected in real life, and that their feed selections are impacting those cats’ real-life decisions. For example, a player might send a misinformation video claiming yellow fish is bad for health, and then watch as the livelihood of a cat vendor who sells yellow fish gets significantly affected. These storylines and consequences all reflect something real about how social media impacts people’s lives.
- Observing changes in the world as your algorithm gets implemented
As players continue curating content, the world around the characters will gradually shift to reflect the cumulative impact of their choices. If players consistently push polarizing content, they might notice cats in the neighborhood arguing more, community spaces emptying out, or characters becoming increasingly isolated and glued to their screens. These changes happen slowly and in the background, so players may not immediately connect their feed choices to what’s unfolding, as per how algorithmic influence works in real life. This gives players a chance to step back and see the bigger picture of what their “good performance” is actually doing to the world.
