Experiencing Gameworlds : Understanding Zelda and Mario Through the Lenses of Art History and Phenomenology

This thesis examines the immersive experiences of players in video game worlds, focusing on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. Drawing on art historical concepts such as perception, reception and perspective in academic painting, as well as phenomenological insights into embodied perception and atmospheres, the study explores how visual design, game mechanics and narrative structures cultivate a sense of presence in gameworlds. By analyzing the interplay between the sensory elements of games and the player’s ability to project themselves into these virtual environments, this research provides an understanding of how gameworlds foster engagement.The thesis argues that the immersive quality of a cohesive gameworld is shaped by the player’s engagement in three intertwined modes: Play, Place and Story. These modes correspond to the player’s main activities: following rules, exploring environments, and uncovering storylines embedded in the designed gameworld. Furthermore, the study highlights parallels between traditional perspective drawing and the three-dimensional modeling techniques used to construct gameworlds, illustrating common challenges and solutions for visualization. By considering video games as complex, interactive images, this work places them in a broader historical context of visual storytelling and shows how they extend a tradition of immersive visual narratives.