2021
Struggles of a Teenage Menstruator
A choice-based game about navigating periods at school
{research, narrative design, interaction design, illustration}
Overview
An interactive game about navigating menstrual stigma at school
Struggles of a Teenage Menstruator is an interactive narrative about the everyday decisions a schoolgirl may face while managing her period at school. I began with secondary research into menstrual shame, access to support, and period poverty. It showed how an experience treated as private can affect whether someone asks for help, leaves class, or improvises with what is available.
These findings informed the four scenarios and their branching choices. The game places players in ordinary school situations where the available options are shaped by the environment around them, as much as by the period itself.
Game Context
Choices under social pressure
The card-based game moves through four scenarios, beginning with a period arriving unexpectedly at school. Each scenario presents a decision shaped by access to support, privacy, and the possibility of being seen.
Drawing on Tomkins's affect theory, I used branching choices to frame shame as an affect that can prompt withdrawal or concealment. Players experience those responses through the decisions they make.
Visual System
An illustrated card system for each scenario
I developed the visual language through sketches and a card-based interface. The illustrations give each scenario its own mood while keeping the choices easy to scan on screen.
