Interface Games as Microgenre: Definition and Thematic Investigation

In this article, we identify and define an emerging microgenre of videogame we call the interface game. While all videogames contain interfaces, “interface games” as a microgenre refers to videogames that remediate user interfaces such as desktops and mobile screens, making entire game worlds that are oriented around interacting with these interfaces. Interface games are underexplored and often come out of independent production. Through close textual analysis, we analyze three broad thematic preoccupations in interface games—surveillance, nostalgia and digital identity—and show how they interrogate the underlying sociality of digital interfaces in contemporary capitalism. We demonstrate how videogames are uniquely positioned to question the aesthetic, social, interactive, political and playful dimensions of user interfaces, and their significant role in our everyday lives. In doing so, we show how novel approaches to videogame microgenres are necessary to fully understand the variety of contemporary games production.