Xiran Yang
My thesis project “Blind Date” is an interactive story with game elements in the format of a phone-based website. It features a 28-year-old single Chinese woman’s struggles with enormous pressure on young Chinese women to get married early. It is a reflection and critique of the conventions surrounding marriage in contemporary Chinese society.
https://xiranisabear.com/blind-date
Description
“Blind Date” is a storytelling project that talks about marriage in the format of a web-based interactive story. A user plays the role of a 28-year old Chinese single woman who is being pressured by her friends and family members to get married.
There are three chapters in this game. The first chapter features the protagonist’s conversation with her best friend Lorna about the wedding of her younger friend Cici. Along with the conversation, Lorna encourages the protagonist to date someone and warns her about the danger of becoming a leftover woman. In chapter two, the protagonist will have a WeChat talk with her mother in the second chapter. Marriage is also brought up in this conversation. And the resistance from the protagonist to get married angers her mother and leads to a fight between them. The protagonist compromises in the end and agrees to go on blind dates with several different males. That introduces the third chapter of the game.
In the first two chapters of the game, the user will be clicking through different buttons and graphics to follow the storyline. In the third chapter, the user will have to make some decisions before she goes on blind dates and the choices she makes will effectively change the ending of the whole story.
The user will be able to feel the increasing level of pressure the protagonist feels as the story goes on and hopefully he or she can take some insights away after experiencing this story.
Classes
Thesis