PARSONS SCHOOL OF
DESIGN PRESENTS:

Tong Shao

Interactive Designer, Creative Technologist
Tong Shao is a digital designer and technician who is proficient in Interactive Design, Game Design, Graphic Design, 3d Modeling, to Creative Coding. He is always enthusiastic to learn new technologies and create innovative design works with a variety of techniques.
Tong Shao is a digital designer and technician who is proficient in Interactive Design, Game Design, Graphic Design, 3d Modeling, to Creative Coding. He is always enthusiastic to learn new technologies and create innovative design works with a variety of techniques.
Thesis Faculty
Justin Bakse, David Carroll, Jessica Marshall

SOLONE

A narrative game providing insight into the social ecology of the introverted

SOLONE is a mobile game that aims to gamify the subtle yet significant social challenges that introverted individuals face in their daily lives. Through dramatic storytelling, symbolic visual arts, and a playful card game system, the game provides players with a safe and engaging virtual environment to experience and interact with introverts’ social activities, and gradually learn the embedded narratives.

By having players explore and acknowledge different kinds of social dilemmas that introverts encounter in their social lives, such as being understood or feeling overwhelmed, SOLONE is expected to serve as a tool for visualizing introverts’ difficulties and informing more audiences of their stories.

Scene-based Storytelling

In the game, you will take on the role of Househead, a typical introverted character, and walk into his life to see his difficulties in a series of social activities. You are going to explore the scenes, talk to other NPCs, and play a card game with them.

Fig 1. The basic outline of the story

Symbolized Visual Arts

The game uses a monochromatic sketchy art style which conveys a sense of indifference towards the outer world. Each character is drawn in cartoon anatomy and their heads are all replaced with symbolic objects to indicate their personalities. The overall scene combines reality and virtuality – the realistic background quickly puts the player into a familiar daily situation while the symbolized characters impel the player to think of the underlying narratives behind them.

Fig 2. Game Scene
Fig 3. Dialogue

Playful Card Game

The card game is a simulation and metaphor for a real conversation. During the play, you will be able to gradually learn about an introvert’s conversational difficulties in a playful way.

Fig 4. Card Game 1
Fig 5. Card Game 2

Hopefully, SOLONE will help non-introverted people understand introverts’ inner thoughts and their reactions so that they will be able to get along better with their introverted acquaintances.

On the other hand, for introverted people, I want to acknowledge and validate their experiences and their introverted nature to encourage introverts to be more confident in their social lives.

Writing -> SOLONE: A narrative game providing insight into the social ecology of the introverted