At the Switch
On the night shift, the switch is in your hands. This pixel-art game built on railway-switch dilemmas turns the player’s decisions and their own statements into a personal shift report.
WHO IT IS FOR
01 · PROJECT TITLE
At the Switch.
Turkish title: Makas Başında. The name describes the player’s place: the switch operator on the night shift, carrying the weight of the decision.
02 · DESCRIPTION
What it is and who it is for.
A decision game that spreads the classic trolley dilemma across 116 scenes. The player chooses a short (50), full (100) or long (200-question) shift and makes decisions across four chapters: the night yard, the station, the control centre and a mountain pass before dawn.
Instead of a single “morality score”, the game ends with a shift report: eight decision domains, a nine-position character portrait, a comparison of what was said and what was done, context-sensitive changes and answer consistency. The report can be saved as a PDF.
The report is educational; it does not diagnose and is not a substitute for psychological assessment.
03 · ROLE IN THE PROJECT
Role and responsibilities.
Concept and project management
Idea, scope and storyline; managing content, language and design decisions.
Quality control and publishing
Reviewing texts and images, testing, bilingual publishing and integration into the site.
04 · PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
The problem to solve.
- 01
The trolley dilemma is usually asked as a single question and closed with a single answer. Yet people’s decisions change when closeness, an instruction, a personal cost or the wording of the question changes.
- 02
The aim was to build an experience that makes this change visible, places what a person says next to what they do, and does so without collecting any personal data.
05 · STRATEGY
Decisions and approach.
Matched scenes
In ten scene pairs only one condition changes: closeness, group, instruction, personal cost, numbers, default position, role, means versus side effect and framing.
Behaviour and statements measured separately
The eight decision domains are calculated from scene decisions only; statements are measured separately and compared in the report.
Privacy
No account, no server, no analytics. Answers are kept only in the player’s browser and can be deleted with one tap.
Ethical limits
Clinical screening items were removed; no diagnosis and no labels. In identity comparisons the player is never asked for their own belief or background.
Scientific basis
The commentary draws on published work such as the dual-process model, prospect theory, omission bias and social identity theory; sources are listed in the report.
Accessibility
Keyboard use, a reduced-motion option, high contrast and a mobile-first layout.
06 · IMPLEMENTATION
How the idea was put into practice.
01
Item bank
A 200-item bank: 116 scenes and statement items. The short, full and long booklets are nested.
02
Pixel scenes
126 scene images and train animations prepared at 320×180.
03
Scoring and report
Eight domains, matched pairs, consistency indicators and a commentary layer based on published literature.
04
Testing and publishing
Browser tests in both languages, mobile device tests, contrast checks and compliance with the site’s security rules.
07 · RESULTS
Verified outputs only.
- Tests were completed successfully on six mobile device profiles, from iPhone SE to iPad Mini.
- There are no user numbers or impact measurements yet; the project was published on 4 November 2026.
- Payments are not connected yet; for now the game is open as a free preview.
08 · IMAGES
Screens and scenes.
The night yard: the signal is red, a train approaches and the switch lever waits for the player.
The footbridge dilemma: the choice is animated in the scene and the outcome comes over the radio.
Part of the report: shift summary, highlighted patterns and the eight-axis decision map.