ENGL 256 - Videogame as Literature

Spring 2026

Literary Videogame

A videogame with special formal qualities and critial perspectives

Close Playing

Playing a game meticulously to capture all possible meanings of textual and mechical elements and the game as a whole

Theme

An idea or problem explored by a text

Game mechanics

The verbs of game play

Minigame

A short game within a larger videogame, often designed around a single mechanic

Realism

A genre of literature that represents the mundane nature of life in a straightforward way

Speculative Fiction

Literature that asks what if and defamiliarizes

Ludonarrative

A genre designed around a dynamic relationship between game mechanics and storytelling

Roleplaying Game

A game genre that centers its ludonarrative on character

Character (videogame)

The qualities and mechanics that define an individual

Ludonarrative mechanic

A mechanic that builds a literary effect

Emotional design (game)

The use of literary and mechanical elements to represent and/or inspire feelings

Empathy

The capacity to comprehend the experience and perspective of another

The three dimensions of failure (game studies)

Mastery, storytelling, normativity

Worldbuilding (game studies)

The ludonarrative process of constructing a setting

Interactive Fiction (Conventional)

Text-centered electronic texts, parser or hypertext

Interactive Fiction (unconventional)

Any word-centered text that requires significant mechanical action to read

Possiblity Space (Game design)

The set of all allowable moves and game configurations

Queer (general)

Oppositional to straight culture's understandings of sexuality and gender

Queer (games)

Content, themes, mechanics, play

Gamergate

2014-2015 terror campaign against feminist and queer game designers and critics

Environmental Storytelling

Storytelling using spatial design

Four parts of Environmental Storytelling

Intertextual, Ludonarrative, Embedded, Emergent

Ethics

Moral philosophy that concerns itself with action

Play Ethics

Game design communicates values that are revealed through close playing

Game Poem

A short game that explores the relationship between ludonarrative mechanics and personal experience