The game follows the player's custom character as they work through a fictional social media account as they try to "climb the ladder" on a space station.

Mitu Khandaker was inspired to create Redshirt after her experience from working at a social media startup.

Redshirt is a social simulation game, where the player controls a new character on a fictional space station in the future who is obsessed with "Spacebook" (a satire of Facebook).

[6] Red Dwarf was a large influence in the tone of the game, along with Star Trek references and social media in general.

[6] In a review for IGN, Rowan Kaiser felt that Redshirt was a "generally successful experiment in social simulation", but noted that there were some glitches (although they also commended the developer for quickly patching them).