PhD Candidate Sabrina Sgandurra Presents at DiGRA

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

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PhD Candidate Sabrina Sgandurra (English Language and Literature) presented at the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) 2023 Conference which ran from June 19 鈥 23 which took place in Seville, Spain.听

Her presentation, titled 鈥淥ur Player Friend Here鈥 They Already Hold the Key鈥︹: Redefining Genre Limits in Inscryption鈥, focused on the game Inscryption, a rogue-like deckbuilding game with escape-room style puzzles to the tune of psychological horror. Sgandurra notes in her presentation how Inscryption blends multiple genres of gameplay to create a larger puzzle that expands it to other games the developer Daniel Mullins Games has published. To this, Sgandurra examines how the narrative of Inscryption is influenced by these different genres and use of multimedia to tell an engaging story.

The central argument of Sabrina鈥檚 presentation sought to categorize and synthesize how 滨苍蝉肠谤测辫迟颈辞苍鈥檚 use of genre-blending establishes its lore through media-mixing, also known as intermediality. She categorizes mechanics and gameplay elements in terms of what is present, what is hidden and made clear through additional playthroughs, and what is hidden in the game鈥檚 code. All of this contributes to the overall horror of the game鈥檚 story and is greatly enhanced by the game鈥檚 community, who come together to examine the source code and speculation on the game鈥檚 lore鈥攅nhanced by intermediality when presented in this form.

If you'd like to stay up to date with Sgandurra's research,