In videogames gameplay takes place in a specially constructed space, a game-space. Like architecture game-space is a built space and like architecture game-space has a special relationship with what goes on inside it. Game-space is constructed for gameplay. To understand videogames it is essential to understand how their spaces are implicated in play. What then are the relationships between gameplay and game-space? This thesis seeks to answer this by looking at architecture in game-space and by analysing game-space as architectonic.

This thesis argues that game-space both forms and influences play through its construction and representation. As a corollary game-space is shaped by the demands of play, producing singular spaces that both reflect on and extend the spaces we live in, representing architecture as experiential or symbolic. The creation of game-space is an act of dissociation enabling game-space to be reconstituted for the particular purposes of play, where recurrent patterns of spatial use are based on fundamental connections between game-space and play. Game-space operates as a terra ludus and a terra paidea, one a land of games the other a land of free play, but equally game-space prescribes our choices, operating as a terra prefab. Space becomes the architect of play.

Units of Spatial Enquiry

Components of Videogames

Dissociation & Reconstitution

The Construction of Game-Space

Space & Objects

Representation & Abstraction in Game-Space

Situations of Play

Patterns of Spatial Use

Terra Ludus, Terra Paidea, Terra Prefab
Spatialisation of Play in Virtual Worlds