Lucid Architecture – The space of video games
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This thesis is a theoretical study towards ludic architecture, that is an analytical understanding of video games through the lens of architecture paradigms. The approach is not concerned with gaming coding or technologically-inclined topics. While many theorists have accurately described aspects of video games as a medium, this thesis seeks to study towards a holistic method of engagement with the experience of playing video games. Therefore, I propose that video games are best conceptualised a navigable, spatial approach. I also regard video game space as paramount. Game designers ultimately create user experience through the articulation of a game’s rules, the guidelines that constrict player movement within the world they created. This arises questions such as could game design be adopted as a supplement to the design of contemporary buildings to create more consistently dynamic architecture. SPACE in videogame Game designers don’t simply tell stories; they design worlds and sculpt spaces. While describing the experience of a video game to one single aspect, if I were forced to choose just one aspect, I propose it should be that of space. Game space represents a fundamental result between fiction and rules. “The level design of a game world can present a fictional world and determine what players can and cannot do at the same time.” Therefore, game space is a powerful tool for designers to apply many aspects of a game through a single means: fiction, narrative, ludic concepts, rules, solutions, emotions and even meaning. In this thesis, I wish to present video games as fundamentally spatial. “Once immersed in playing, we don’t really care whether we rescue Princess Peach (Super Mario Brothers) or not; all that matters is staying alive long enough to move between levels, to see what spectacle awaits us on the next screen.” It is the desire for mastery of space, led by the gameplay framed by rules and fiction, that drives games and contribute to player’s pleasures; from traveling from different towns in Pokemon franchises, first person shooter view gameplay of Call of Duty, to experiencing cities in a whole new way, such as climbing walls and walking on rooftops in Renaissance Italy in Assassin’s Creed II and bird eye’s view gameplay of Tropico 4. With spatial experiences dominating the gameplay, I have chosen to engage primarily with the internal space of video games for analysis. In this experiential‐spatial medium, spatial strategies and tactics serve to illustrate the relationship between designer and player, as well as architects and the buildings they design.  Unova in Pokémon Black and White  Call of Duty: Modern Welfare screenshot  Assassin’s Creed ii gameplay  Tropico 4 Modern Times screenshot SPACE in architecture Human behavior can be affected by space in architecture. In the earliest known work on architecture, Vitruvius’ ancient De Architectura, there is the suggestion that a good building should satisfy the principle of venustatis; a combination of beauty and delight, derived from Venus, the Roman goddess. There are also architects, such as Peter Eisenman, who intentionally build hostile buildings, such as the holocaust memorial in Berlin, that makes users feel uncomfortable on site, to be post-humanist. While the decision is perfectly appropriate as a memorial to the holocaust that was very post-humanist and beyond the understanding of humanity. Narrative is important in architectural space as well. Narratives or other symbolic meanings allow buildings to have contexts that reach far beyond the physical spaces of the structure and site, and into the culture that surrounds the building. Problem Statements:
Arcade centre/kindergarten / theme park / campus / theatre / casino
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