Semi-filmic Spaces. The Simulation of Cinematographic Spaces in Video Games

Joanna Sikorska

joanna.sikorska@amu.edu.pl
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1345-3979

Abstract

The paper aims to outline features of the semi-filmic space in video games. The term “semi-filmic space” refers to digital spaces which mediate cinematic spaces in video games. The first part of the paper offers a brief introduction concerning multifarious interrelations between film and video game spaces. The author focuses on the way in which players function in digital environments. She explores the issue of navigating in and modifying video game spaces and characterizes various playing mechanisms and structures. The second part of the paper is devoted to the rules which form semi-filmic spaces. The author also presents a typology of digital spaces proposed by Espen Aarseth and indicates how video game designers create multifarious semi-filmic spaces.


Keywords:

video games, semifilmic space, digital space

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Published
2020-05-25

Cited by

Sikorska, J. (2020) “Semi-filmic Spaces. The Simulation of Cinematographic Spaces in Video Games”, Kwartalnik Filmowy, (109), pp. 177–194. doi: 10.36744/kf.278.

Authors

Joanna Sikorska 
joanna.sikorska@amu.edu.pl
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1345-3979

Assistant Professor at the Institute of Film, Media and Audiovisual Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland). Her research interests include multifarious, intermedial and transmedial interrelations between films and video games. She examines, among others, the use of forms of audiovisual cinematic means of expression in video games, as well as the issue of the players’ immersion. She authored a number of articles in games studies, film studies and transmedial narratology.



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