Architecture as Narrative in First Person Level Design : A Reading of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

Sammanfattning: The video games industry is rapidly developing as technology allows designers to create increasingly comprehensive worlds for their players to explore. Acknowledging the experience gained by architects designing similar structures for the physical world, this thesis explorescross-disciplinary research. The relationship between architecture and level design is here utilized to further the understanding of architectural space within first-person video games. A textual analysis is performed on Mirror’s Edge Catalyst to investigate ways in which architecture may contribute to the narrative of a game. This reading embodies the aspirations of precedent studies, used by architects to understand and analyse the components within an architectural composition. The thesis is guided by the question “How can architectural space support the narrative in levels of first-person video games?” and manages to uncover multiple layers to the design of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. The research conveys that the expectedgameplay experience guides the composition of the architecture within the level. Here the horizontal and vertical planes that define space may be utilized to facilitate the narrative throughtheir shape and configuration. The spatial segments are then arranged into linear or centralizedorganizations emphasizing the narrative of the level. Finally, throughout these spatial organizations monumental architecture is applied which provides stages that assist in conveyingthe focal point of the narrative.