https://gamestudies.org The international journal of computer game research Steven Conway https://gamestudies.org/2404/articles/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. Monica Evans https://gamestudies.org/2404/articles/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. Niamh Timmons https://gamestudies.org/2404/articles/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. Alexander Vandewalle,Maciej Paprocki https://gamestudies.org/2404/articles/vandewalle_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.