Mimi

Meiyi Zhou

Advisor: Sharleen Smith

Mimi is a narrative RPG exploring how femininity, identity, and performance intersect in an abandoned circus, where costumes dictate power and personhood. By dressing up, players play as Mimi the protagonist, confront the expectations of girlhood, and the contradictions of being seen, masked, and consumed in different roles.

Project Website Presentation
Game start page

Project Description

Mimi is a 2D RPG set in a surreal, abandoned circus where identity is determined by costume. Players play as Mimi, a silent young girl navigating a small society of retired performers who are trapped in roles assigned by the outfits they wear. As players explore this collapsing world, dressing up becomes more than fashion—it’s a means of survival, transformation, and rebellion.

Drawing from magical girl anime, dress-up browser games, and online role-playing subcultures, Mimi reimagines performance as both an escape and a trap. Every garment carries a backstory; every mask offers agency but also erasure. The player chooses what to wear and, in doing so, determines how others perceive and interact with them. The project blends poetic mechanics with an unsettling, nostalgic aesthetic

This thesis explores themes of self-construction, societal costuming, and the tensions between agency and expectation. The game functions as both a personal memory and a collective critique of the roles we are asked to perform—on stage, online, and in everyday life.

Technical Details

Game Engine: Unity (2D)
Language: C#
Art: Pixel art + animation, Aseprite
Sound: Ableton Live
Playable on: PC/Mac
Interaction: Keyboard/mouse

Research/Context

Mimi draws on research into gender performance (Judith Butler), costume theory (Joanne Entwistle), and media like Revolutionary Girl Utena, Yume Nikki, and theatrical RPGs. The circus is a metaphor borrowed from both historical sideshows and digital performance culture, highlighting spectacle, instability, and coded roles.

The game is also autobiographical, reflecting a childhood discomfort with feminine appearance and a fascination with dress-up games. Through a deliberately nostalgic yet decaying environment, Mimi interrogates the blurred boundary between play and pressure. The costume becomes a cipher: both magical armor and social constraint, see dressing up as a power fantasy.

Influences span surrealism, digital femininities, and hauntological design. The research process involved mapping how cultural expectations manifest through fashion and roleplay in digital spaces, and how games serve as both mirrors and tools for negotiating identity.