Our phones and laptops store every secret, yet culture rarely dramatizes that digital intimacy. Video games, however, are perfectly suited to turn the screen into a stage where apps and icons become narrative spaces — a micro‑genre scholars call “interface games.”

Desktop Explorer casts you as Guppy, inheriting an uncle’s PC; the whole game unfolds on a simulated desktop where you click folders, solve puzzles, and uncover a family trauma hidden in corrupted files. The 1:1 mapping of mouse clicks deepens immersion, making glitches feel unsettlingly personal.

Unhinged, Netflix’s hybrid game‑show, uses your mobile phone as both controller and Ava’s phone (voiced by Zoë Kravitz). Calls vibrate the device, bloody thumbprints appear on the screen, and the familiar UI becomes a horror tool, blending gameplay with a 40‑minute episode.

Beyond horror, titles like Sam Barlow’s *Her Story* and *Immortality*, Hypnospace Outlaw’s 90s web simulation, the Emily Is Away trilogy’s AOL chats, and the upcoming Limerence explore deduction, nostalgia, and AI romance — proving that everyday tech interfaces are rich narrative terrain.