From childhood to career and family: NTU student simulates Singapore life through a game
A homegrown simulation game turns familiar Singaporean milestones into choices – challenging the conventional idea of what it means to succeed.
Mr Zhu Ke Xiong (left) speaking to CNA’s Alexandra Anand (right) about his game that attempts to simulate a Singaporean life. (Image: CNA)
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SINGAPORE: What if you could go back and make different choices in life – from what you studied to the career you pursued?
For Nanyang Technological University (NTU) computer science student Zhu Ke Xiong, those questions have become the basis of a game that attempts to simulate an entire Singaporean life.
Called Singapore Life Simulator, the game can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
The third-year student has spent the past few months mapping out a web of decisions spanning childhood, education, careers, relationships and family life.
“This is like a flow chart of how the whole Singaporean life is mapped,” the 23-year-old said.
The simulation starts with the player in childhood, with each life phase featuring its own scenarios.
“For example, when you are in childhood, your life decisions are very rudimentary, like whether you want to put your mother’s phone in your mouth or not,” he said.
Guess Word
Crack the word, one row at a time
Buzzword
Create words using the given letters
Mini Sudoku
Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser
Mini Crossword
Small grid, big challenge
Word Search
Spot as many words as you can
As the player grows older, the decisions get more difficult – whether to sit for another round of the Gifted Education Programme selection exercise, ask a classmate out, stay in a university hall or take up a part-time job.
Eventually come the adult decisions such as choosing a career and a partner.
But behind those virtual choices was a very real concern: What happens when young people grow up believing there is only one “right” way to live?
A SINGAPOREAN SPIN
Mr Zhu said the local context is what distinguishes his game from other choice-based life simulator games.
“It is based on a unique Singaporean pathway. Everything here is based on very real Singaporean choices,” he said.
Each decision in the game affects four scores – wealth, happiness, family and reputation.
“For wealth, it is one of the more traditional metrics of success,” he said.
“When Singaporeans think of success, we think of money, we think of condominium, car, country club and whatnot,” he added.
But pursuing one measure can come at the expense of another. Working overtime, for example, could increase a player’s wealth, while lowering their happiness and family scores.
Allowing any one of the scores to reach either zero or 100 ends the player’s life, and the game ends.
Players who want to reach the game’s highest tier, the “legendary” tier, may have to do something that can feel uncomfortable in real life.
“You have to take more unconventional life paths,” he said.
WHY THE GAME WAS DESIGNED
The idea grew partly from what Mr Zhu observed among people around him.
“I saw a lot of my friends being very, very stressed out, especially during exam seasons,” he said.
“They would think that life is very deterministic. If you fail an exam, then your life is ruined, or if you don’t get an internship, then your whole career life is derailed.”
It was a pressure he had experienced himself.
When he first entered university, Mr Zhu said he was determined to achieve a strong grade point average and excel in all his academic subjects.
“I became very stressed out. I was studying until 2am every single day, and that really affected my happiness a lot.”
TRYING OUT OTHER PATHS
For other NTU students, the simulation offers a chance to test different possibilities without real-world consequences.
The game currently has 67 possible endings, with characters ranging from “disillusioned banker”, for a player who pursues a banking career but ends up unhappy, to “quiet heartlander”, for a player who ends up with a high score in family but does not possess a condominium.
Ms Delfina Poernomo, a third year-student in the renaissance engineering programme, deliberately made choices based on the mindset she had a few years earlier, when she felt “pressure cooked to perform well and earn a lot of money”.
Her resulting character was the “disillusioned banker”.
“I just wanted to see what kind of life I would have if I retained this mindset. Obviously, when looking at this, this is not the life I want to live,” the 21-year-old said.
Another player, Mr Ethan Leo Ming Quan, 25, a third-year computer science student, ended up as a “quiet heartlander”.
“I think it’s something that I can resonate with as to how I think my life might turn out, maybe in one way or another,” he said.
Exploring various possibilities also shifted Mr Zhu’s mindset about his own future.
“Before I made this game, my whole life view was that I will become a software engineer after I graduate from CS (computer science),” he said.
But working through the many branches he had created had prompted him to consider alternative life paths.
“After making this game myself, I did see – actually, I can do so many things. I can make my own startup. I can even quit university and start my own pet shop, for example,” he said.
“It did make me widen my worldview a lot.”
Source: CNA/oc(mp)
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