Playful Poetics: Metareferential Interfaces in Recent Indie Games

Author:

Krampe Theresa1,Lotzow Stephanie2,Thon Jan-Noël1

Affiliation:

1. Osnabrück University

2. Justus Liebig University Giessen

Abstract

Abstract This article sets out to explore the playful poetics of recent indie games in terms of what could be described as metareferential interfaces. Drawing on a range of theories from literary studies, media studies, and game studies, we propose to conceptualize metareferential interfaces as interfaces that foreground and draw attention to their own mediality. They thus allow for videogame-specific forms of metareference and metalepsis to be employed as part of often quite experimental and aesthetically ambitious approaches to videogame design. Using the recent indie games Pony Island (2016) and OneShot (2016) as our core case studies, we offer an in-depth analysis of this metaization of videogames’ playful poetics, focusing primarily on three salient aspects: First, the multiplication of interfaces can lead to mise-en-abyme-like structures that highlight and reflect on the mediality of videogames while also establishing ontological boundaries between different levels of videogame storyworlds. Second, the disruption of interface functionality is a metareferential strategy that can be used to establish specific gameplay challenges and reflect on the design conventions of videogame interfaces. Third, the transgression of ontological boundaries affects not only the borders between subworlds within a videogame's storyworld but also the more fundamental distinction between what is “in the game” and what is “outside it.”

Publisher

Duke University Press

Subject

Literature and Literary Theory

Reference137 articles.

1. Aarseth Espen . 2012. “A Narrative Theory of Games.” In FDG ’12: Proceedings of the International Conference of the Foundations of Digital Games, 129–33. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2282338.2282365.

2. Aarseth Espen . 2019. “Game Studies: How to Play—Ten Play-Tips for the Aspiring Game-Studies Scholar.” Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research19, no. 2. http://gamestudies.org/1902/articles/howtoplay.

3. I Am Error

4. Narrative Rules? Story Logic and the Structures of Games;Backe;Literary and Linguistic Computing,2012

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