The Ephemeral Nature of the Playable Instant in Virtual Worlds: Spatiality and Temporality in SuperHOT and SuperHOT VR
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Abstract
The construction of diegetic time and space is essential to storytelling in any traditional narrative medium. Video games—particularly those that develop narrative elements, whether through emergent or structured storytelling—also generate their own temporality and spatiality, forming what are known as ludofictional worlds (Planells, 2015). Unlike traditional media, these worlds must operate in conjunction with the game’s own playability—that is, the set of mechanics and rules that enable gameplay.
The aim of this article is to analyse how time and space function within the game world, and what resources are employed in building the narrative, paying particular attention to their relationship with the game’s system of playability. To do so, we focus on a case study of the video games SuperHOT (SUPERHOT Team, 2016) and SuperHOT VR (SUPERHOT Team, 2018).
We apply a methodology based on game analysis (Fernández-Vara, 2014; Navarro-Remesal, 2016) and narrative analysis in video games (Planells, 2015), complemented by concepts from traditional narrative theory (Gómez-Tarín, 2013). The analysis yields insights into the degree of interrelation between time, space, and mechanics in the construction of ludonarrative experiences, as well as the ways in which virtual reality technologies reframe and resignify spatiotemporal notions.
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