The Wanderer's Digital Escape
A narrative browser game about attention and digital wellbeing
- Category
- Web App
- Status
- Live
- Role
- Solo build
- Date
- 2026-04-26
- Built with
- React, Babel Standalone, Web Audio API, Web Speech API, Canvas, GitHub Pages
An interactive wellbeing experience disguised as a 15-minute game. You play a wanderer crossing four worlds that mirror how social media reshapes the mind — Echo Chamber Swamp, Dopamine Arcade, Validation City and Nomad's Trail — and every choice shifts four meters: Focus, Dopamine, Oneness and Tranquility. Reach the beach and you get a Digital Flourishing Score with a personal action plan.
Problem: Advice about screen time is easy to nod along to and forget. Reading that reels erode focus does not change how it feels to reach for the phone.
Solution: A story where each choice has a visible cost: meters move, the screen distorts when dopamine runs high, and the ending scores your choices and turns them into specific habits to try.
Outcome: Live in the browser with no sign-up or install — React from a CDN, no build step, progress saved locally.
- ~40-scene branching story with a boss encounter per world
- Four live meters; Dopamine above 75 triggers a Ghost Mode distortion
- Six procedurally synthesised soundscapes — no audio files
- Interactive moments: 60-second silence timer, Instagram deletion flow, algorithm profile reveal
- Flourishing Score across 8 NIRMAN dimensions, downloadable score card and report
- Keyboard choices, text-to-speech narration, dark/light mode, auto-save