Step into the therapist’s chair in Room for Becoming, our illustrated story game about people, choices and mystery. The free beta demo is ready to play in your browser.
I have something a little different to share this week. Alongside my work at Four Pillars Counselling, I have been developing Room for Becoming: an illustrated story game in which you take the therapist’s chair, meet people with complicated lives, and decide how to respond.
The free beta demo is available now. You can play it in your browser at roomforbecominggame.com without an account or payment. On the title screen, choose “Play the free demo” to begin.
This is an early invitation into a project I am excited to keep building. There are people to get to know, choices to explore, an evening beyond the therapy room, and the beginnings of a mystery. Here is what you can try today, why we are making it, and where we hope to take it.
A game about listening and the words we choose
Someone sits down opposite you. They have something they want to talk about, but finding the words is not always straightforward. You choose whether to ask a question, reflect something back, make space, or take the conversation in another direction.
Room for Becoming follows those moments through a fictional therapist’s working day in Auckland. You read scenes, choose dialogue, and see how the conversation responds. Different choices can reveal different parts of a character’s experience, giving you a reason to return and try another approach.
The aim is to make the people interesting enough that you want to understand them. Sometimes that means staying with a difficult feeling. Sometimes it means noticing a detail or realising that your first interpretation may have been incomplete. The story also leaves room for warmth, ordinary conversation, uncertainty, and life carrying on outside the appointment.
What you can play in the free demo
The public beta demo introduces the opening day and the rhythm of the game. You can:
- Create your character and step into the role of a fictional therapist.
- Meet Mara, Elias and Lena, three invented clients with different experiences and stories to uncover.
- Choose what to say and explore how different responses shape the conversations.
- Use an approaches notebook for introductory context as you play.
- Close the clinic door and make choices about your own evening.
- Encounter the opening thread of a mystery that reaches beyond the therapy room.
The illustrated settings include a welcoming therapy room, Auckland’s harbour, and the quieter spaces of the evening. I wanted the game to have a sense of place: somewhere you can settle into, even as questions begin to emerge.
You can take it at your own pace. When browser storage is available, progress saves automatically in the same browser on the same device. Clearing browser data removes that progress, and saves do not automatically transfer between devices.
If you see an optional paid extended development prototype on the title screen, that is separate from the free demo. You can choose the free demo and explore the opening without buying anything.
Why we are making it
Room for Becoming is a passion project designed by me, Jon Kirk, and my wife, a doctor of clinical psychology. It brings our professional perspectives together with a shared interest in people, storytelling, and games.
In my work, I am often struck by how much can sit beneath an apparently simple sentence. “I’m fine.” “It’s probably nothing.” “I don’t know why I reacted like that.” There may be several ways to understand what someone means, and taking the time to listen can change the conversation.
That curiosity is part of what I wanted to explore through fiction. A game lets you make a choice, notice your assumptions, and come back to a scene from another angle. My hope is that it is enjoyable as a story and also gives players something to think about after they put it down.
You do not need a counselling background to play. If you enjoy character-focused stories, dialogue choices, and a mystery that unfolds gradually, there is a place for you here.
The bigger game we are working towards
The demo is the opening of a larger story still in development. Our current target is a full game of around eight hours for a first playthrough, with branching paths and reasons to replay. That is a development goal; the free demo is a shorter introduction.
We are working towards:
- Longer character arcs, with relationships that develop across repeated meetings.
- Choices whose consequences carry into later scenes and affect different outcomes and endings.
- A psychological mystery that gradually connects the working day with events beyond the room.
- More life outside work, including relationships, reflection, rest, and decisions about how your character spends their time.
- More ways to personalise your room and develop your character’s professional life.
- A story worth revisiting to explore another path and discover what you missed.
One priority is making the dialogue feel natural. I want characters to sound like people, with their own ways of speaking, rather than every conversation arriving neatly at an insight. Choices should make sense in the moment and give players a meaningful reason to consider their response.
The browser is where you can try the project now. We are also exploring a future Steam release, with mobile versions a possibility further down the track. The full release date, final price, and additional platforms are still to be confirmed. Story details and features may change as development and playtesting continue.
Fiction informed by practice
The characters and storylines are fictional. The project draws on broad professional understanding of human experiences and therapeutic conversations; it does not reproduce identifiable client stories or actual session transcripts.
The game offers space for curiosity and reflection. It is fictional entertainment, with introductory ideas about therapy, rather than personal therapy or professional training. It does not qualify someone to practise or demonstrate the right response to every real situation.
The demo includes anxiety, exhaustion, bereavement, and unsettling messages. It is intended for teen and adult audiences and has not received an official age rating. Please read the in-game content information before starting; the extended prototype includes additional themes.
Help shape what comes next
Sharing an early version means there will be rough edges. The beta gives us a chance to learn which characters people connect with, where choices feel interesting, and where the dialogue or navigation needs more work.
After you play, I would love to hear which moment stayed with you. Was there a response you wanted to give that was missing? Did a conversation feel convincing, or did something pull you out of the story? Was it clear how to continue?
You can email game feedback to game@fourpillars.co.nz. Feedback about the fictional game is enough; there is no need to include personal health information or anyone else’s story.
I am excited to share this first part of Room for Becoming with you. If it sounds like your kind of game, play the free beta demo and see who you meet. If someone you know enjoys thoughtful story games, please share it with them too.
