{"id":2500,"date":"2016-11-18T03:25:35","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T19:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/?p=2500"},"modified":"2016-11-18T03:28:30","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T19:28:30","slug":"lucid-architecture-the-space-of-video-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thesis.arch.hku.hk\/2016\/lucid-architecture-the-space-of-video-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucid Architecture – The space of video games"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/em> of playing video games. Therefore, I propose that video games are best conceptualised a navigable, spatial approach. <\/span><\/p>\n I also regard video game space as paramount. Game designers ultimately create user experience through the articulation of a game\u2019s 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. <\/span><\/p>\n SPACE in videogame<\/b><\/p>\n Game designers don’t simply tell stories; they design worlds and sculpt spaces. <\/span><\/p>\n 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. \u201c<\/span>The level design of a game world can present a fictional world and determine what players can and cannot do at the same time<\/span><\/i>.\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n In this thesis, I wish to present video games as fundamentally spatial.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>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 \u00a0between levels, to see what spectacle awaits us on the next screen<\/span><\/i>.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n It is the desire for mastery of space, led by the gameplay framed by rules and fiction, that drives games and contribute to player\u2019s pleasures; from traveling from different towns in <\/span>Pokemon franchises<\/span><\/i>, first person shooter view gameplay of <\/span>Call of Duty<\/span><\/i>, to experiencing cities in a whole new way, such as climbing walls and walking on rooftops in Renaissance Italy in <\/span>Assassin’s Creed II<\/span><\/i> and bird eye\u2019s view gameplay of <\/span>Tropico 4<\/span><\/i>. With spatial experiences dominating the gameplay, I have chosen to engage primarily with the internal space of video games for analysis. In this experiential\u2010spatial medium, spatial strategies and tactics serve to illustrate the relationship between designer and player, as well as architects and the buildings they design.<\/span><\/p>\n