The Final Round of Layoffs

Story premise

Before the workday ends, HR manager Cheng Ruo must confirm the final layoff list. She opens the rankings generated by the “OrderBalance” system and finds herself on the first page. When she refreshes, veteran engineer Gao Yuan is at the top instead. You play Cheng Ruo, investigating anomalies in performance files, chat records, and access logs as your deadline keeps shrinking. Who is changing the scores? Can you trust the evidence supplied by an anonymous whistleblower? When every investigation could push someone else onto the list, whom can you still trust—and for whom are you willing to take a risk?

Content overview

The Final Round of Layoffs is a portrait-format interactive film game of workplace suspense, bringing algorithmic ethics and an office crisis of trust into a single countdown to the end of the workday. Amid austere offices, closed meeting rooms, and the constant hum of the server room, rankings, messages, and access notifications keep changing on screen, turning a layoff list into a looming threat for everyone. You must choose whom to contact first, which records to keep, whether to tell employees that the list is changing, and whether the anonymous whistleblower's materials are worth using. Your responses in meetings, how you preserve logs, and how you cross-check evidence will all affect what happens next. The names and rankings on the list change with your choices, while employee trust, evidence integrity, company suspicion, your own position, and the whistleblower's credibility all become factors you must weigh. Protecting a colleague may put someone else at risk, while preserving evidence may expose your investigation. Whether you disclose information publicly, negotiate internally, or request a review, every step demands that you assess the weight of the materials in your hands and accept responsibility for your signature.

Includes layoffs, the stress of unemployment, and pressure exerted through workplace authority.

Includes data manipulation, fabricated evidence, and betrayal of trust.

Suggested age: General