The International Journal of Computer Game Research

Our Mission - To explore the rich cultural genre of games; to give scholars a peer-reviewed forum for their ideas and theories; to provide an academic channel for the ongoing discussions on games and gaming.

Game Studies is a non-profit, open-access, crossdisciplinary journal dedicated to games research, web-published several times a year at www.gamestudies.org.

Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focused on games and gaming is welcome. Proposed articles should be jargon-free, and should attempt to shed new light on games, rather than simply use games as metaphor or illustration of some other theory or phenomenon.



Game Studies is published with the support of:

The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet)

The Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences

Blekinge Institute of Technology

IT University of Copenhagen

Lund University

If you would like to make a donation to the Game Studies Foundation, which is a non-profit foundation established for the purpose of ensuring continuous publication of Game Studies, please contact the Editor-in-Chief or send an email to: foundation at gamestudies dot org
Loops, Spirals, Kennings: Metamodernism in Alan Wake 2

by Steven Conway

This article analyses Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake 2 as an exemplar of metamodernism in game design, tracing three trajectories: metatextuality, meta-mediality and metalepsis. The studio’s aesthetic evolution from postmodern to metamodern is detailed through the adaptation of the kenning, embodying a design evolution from game loops to spirals. [more]
Too Afraid to Go Deeper: Creating Pervasive Dread Through Blended Design Structures in Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero

by Monica Evans

This article explores how Subnautica and its sequel create pervasive dread in players by blending core aspects of three design structures in modern digital games: atmospheric design from horror games, exploratory freedom from open world games and player vulnerability from survival games. [more]
Gravity = Culture: Trans Liberatory Potentials and Limitations in Heaven Will Be Mine

by Niamh Timmons

This article builds upon game studies scholarship on transgender representation in video games by looking at the visual novel game Heaven Will Be Mine. It does so by focusing on the game’s narrative themes of queer and trans liberation, and addresses how the game’s narrative perpetuates settler colonial logics. [more]
Mythological Comedy through Incongruity in Immortals Fenyx Rising: Humor and Playfulness in Antiquity Games

by Alexander Vandewalle, Maciej Paprocki

This article examines mythological comedy in Immortals Fenyx Rising (Ubisoft Quebec, 2020) through the lens of incongruity theory. Specifically, it argues that the game offers an experience of mythology comparable to Lucian of Samosata’s Dialogues of the Gods, and offers a first step towards identifying languages of humor in mythological games. [more]

 

©2001 - 2024 Game Studies Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the journal, except for the right to republish in printed paper publications, which belongs to the authors, but with first publication rights granted to the journal. By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are free to use, with proper attribution, in educational and other non-commercial settings.