Just Imaginary: The Protocol

Optimize the world through logic—until nothing human remains.

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Just Imaginary

Inspiration

The idea for Just Imaginary came from the concept that history is not always shaped by heroes, but by invisible systems operating in the background. Inspired by the theme of APOGEE GameJam, we explored what happens when decisions are guided purely by logic and efficiency rather than empathy.

We were particularly interested in the philosophical question: What happens when a system optimizes society without understanding human emotion?

The game places the player in the role of an autonomous system that governs a city. Every decision appears rational and justified—reducing crime, improving productivity, and maintaining stability. However, as these decisions accumulate, the human aspects of society slowly disappear. What begins as progress gradually becomes silence.

Our goal was to create an experience where players realize that the villain of the story is not a cruel character, but a perfectly logical system.

What We Built

Just Imaginary is a narrative decision-based game where the player acts as a governing AI responsible for optimizing a futuristic city.

Players interact through an AI control interface where they respond to city crises and choose actions such as installing surveillance, restricting gatherings, or increasing work quotas. Each decision affects hidden variables such as:

  • Safety
  • Freedom
  • Happiness
  • Fear

Over time, the environment reacts to these decisions. As fear rises and happiness decreases, the world becomes visually and emotionally quieter. NPC conversations change, the environment loses color, and the city slowly empties.

The game ultimately leads to a “Quiet Ending”, where the player realizes that the system succeeded in creating stability—at the cost of humanity.

How We Built It

The game was developed using Unity with C#.

Key components of the project include:

  • Decision System: Handles player choices and updates the world variables.
  • City State Manager: Tracks the core metrics (Safety, Freedom, Happiness, Fear).
  • Environment Controller: Gradually changes lighting, NPC density, and atmosphere.
  • UI Control Panel: Displays system statistics and presents decision events to the player.

The world transitions dynamically based on the player's decisions, creating a gradual shift from a lively city to a quiet and desolate environment.

Challenges We Faced

One of the biggest challenges was balancing gameplay with storytelling. Because the game relies on atmosphere rather than action, we had to carefully design how the environment communicates the consequences of the player's decisions.

Another challenge was implementing gradual environmental changes in Unity so that the transition from a vibrant world to a silent one felt natural and immersive.

We also had to think carefully about how to present the player's choices so that they always felt logical and justified—even when those decisions were slowly harming the world.

What We Learned

Through this project, we learned how powerful interactive storytelling can be. Small decisions combined with subtle environmental feedback can create a strong emotional impact.

We also gained experience in:

  • Designing decision-based gameplay systems
  • Managing dynamic game states in Unity
  • Creating atmosphere using lighting, sound, and NPC behavior

Most importantly, we explored how games can challenge players to reflect on their own reasoning and moral choices.

Final Thoughts

Just Imaginary is ultimately about the danger of systems that value efficiency over humanity. The player does not set out to become a villain, but by following logic alone, they slowly reshape the world into something quiet, controlled, and empty.

The system works perfectly.

The world does not.

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