Videogames and the Gothic
Kirkland, Ewan (2022) Videogames and the Gothic. Routledge Advances in Game Studies . Routledge, London. ISBN 9780367460228
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This book explores the many ways Gothic literature and media have informed videogame design. Through a series of detailed case studies, I illustrate the ways particular tropes of Gothic culture – neo-medieval aesthetics, secret-filled labyrinthine spaces, the sense of a dark past impacting upon the present – have been appropriated by and transformed within digital games.
Moving beyond studies of the generic influences of horror on digital gaming, I focus in on the Gothic, a less visceral mode tending towards the unsettling, the uncertain and the uncanny. I explore how imagery, storylines and narrative preoccupations taken from Gothic fiction facilitate the affordances and limitations of the videogame medium, and contend that, irrespective of narrative or aesthetic qualities, videogames have developed as an inherently Gothic form of popular entertainment.
Arguing for close proximity between Gothic culture and the videogame medium itself, this book is a key contribution to both Gothic and digital game scholarship; as such, it will have resonance with scholars and students in both fields, as well as those interested in Gothic novels, media and popular culture, digital games and interactive fiction.
Case studies include: Haunting Ground, BioShock, Gone Home, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Night in the Woods.
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