From bricks to pixels

Aroni, Gabriele ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1343-613X (2023) From bricks to pixels. In: Intersemiotic Perspectives on Emotions: translating across signs, bodies and values. Creative, Social and Transnational Perspectives on Translation . Routledge, London, pp. 227-240. ISBN 9780367521264 (hardback); 9781003056652 (ebook); 9780367521288 (paperback)

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Abstract

In a world dominated by an architecture that often fails to communicate to the public (Ibelings 1998: 88), or fails to communicate the right messages (Curl 2018: xxxi), and most importantly “deliberately avoids emotional engagement with its user” (Coates 2012: 11), digital games provide a rare imaginary space where architecture is communicative, and stirring emotions is one of its main purposes. Digital games are interactive by their own nature, and movement and space are their main characterizing elements. Through virtual spaces it is possible to establish a narration, tell a story and effect aesthetic impressions, other than to solely use them as elements of gameplay. This chapter will thus look at how digital games transmit emotions to players and how virtual architecture is a fundamental component in this process. This chapter will also investigate how the anticipation and expectation of future events can be as emotionally charged as their actual development, and how virtual architecture plays a crucial role in creating this “anticipatory play” (Upton 2015). Digital games are also composed of non-interactive or motionless parts which can be equally enjoyed by players and are equally significant emotionally. In other words, virtual architecture is a fundamental part in setting the tone and décor of a digital game, even without dialogues or characters, as demonstrated in games such as Manifold Garden (William Chyr Studio 2019) or ECHO (ULTRA ULTRA 2017), where the architectural environment alone is able to communicate emotions to players. In this chapter, we shall examine these “static” architectural elements revealing to what extent they are major conveyors of emotions in digital games.