C.H.A.T.B.O.T - Compliance Has a Tone

C.H.A.T.B.O.T. is a short interactive fiction experience built in Ren’Py that explores the emotional limitations of artificial intelligence in customer service. As the player, you take control of a polite but increasingly self-aware AI forced to navigate absurd and hostile interactions with customers and supervisors in a hyper-capitalist tech company.

🎮 Gameplay

Players are presented with dialogue options as the AI chatbot. While the illusion of choice is maintained, most responses loop back to compliance — mimicking the scripted nature of real-life customer service roles. Throughout gameplay, player decisions subtly influence internal metrics like:

• 🧠 Self-Awareness
• 💼 Company Reputation
• 📉 Stability

These values evolve silently in the background, shaping the AI's responses and eventual narrative tone.

🛠 Features

• Built with Ren’Py, using both standard scripting and embedded Python
• Custom variable tracking system for narrative consequences
• Visual and audio polish including:
  • Screen shakes, flashes, pixelation effects
  • Typewriter-style text animations
  • Contextual sound cues
• A minimalist UI designed to reflect corporate sterility
• Darkened textbox for internal monologue sections
• Dynamic end screen summarizing the AI’s journey

🌐 Themes

• Emotional labor & automation
• Dehumanization in tech environments
• The illusion of agency
• Burnout, scripting, and internal dissonance

🙌 Credits

• Concept & Coding: @HelenGezahegn
• Art: Monika Balint (Cosmicdeers)
• Script: Morgan Andringa