In this Gamelab session, we will explore the design of video game characters. When does an avatar become a character? How do “simple” video game characters - like 16-but sprites - convey meaning and expressiveness? How do these design affordances shape the representation of, for instance, gender and race? To explore these questions, we suggest the following two readings: 

• Matsunaga Shinji. “A Philosophy of Pixel Art No. 3: Representing Characters in Pixel Art Narrative | MACC - Media Arts Current Contents.” Media Arts Current Contents, 2023. https://macc.bunka.go.jp/1927/.
• Russell, Chelsea. “Designed to Be Held: Gynoid Bodies, Storage Politics, and the Gendered Aesthetics of Containment.” Critical Studies in Media Communication 42, no. 5 (2025): 407–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2025.2583277.

Please think of a video game character you would like to discuss during the session. 

This topic has been selected to prepare the Game Lab’s contribution to the Weekend van de Wetenschap, which takes place on October 3 at the University Library. Here’s the teaser for what we will be doing there:

Early video games and video game characters (October 3, 12-5pm, University Library)

Description (50 words): During this Gamelab session, you can do two things: Learn about the history of video games by playing on historical gaming consoles and design your own video game character. What kinds of heroes are featured in early video games? And what kinds of characters do you want to see in video games?

On the Game Lab

Project leaders: Toni Pape, Irene van Driel, Claire Stocks, Karla Zavala Barreda

This Game Lab provides a forum for UvA researchers and students to critically and analytically engage with video games and gaming culture. The core aim of the Game Lab is to understand and promote gaming literacy on three different levels:

Play literacy: By examining modes of interaction, player experiences, and the social dynamics of play, the lab fosters critical and reflective engagement with gaming as a cultural practice. Play literacy also includes an awareness of the positive and negative health effects of play behaviour. Our goal is to promote forms of play that support wellbeing.

Socio-cultural literacy: The lab explores games as expressive forms that shape imagination, identity, and community, revealing their significance within contemporary culture and society. This literacy includes the histories of games and gaming (including issues of access and inequality), the economics and business models of the game industry, and the governance frameworks that order gaming ecosystems (legislation, regulation).

Technological and design literacy: The lab demystifies the tools, processes, and creative collaborations that shape game production, empowering participants to experiment with design and development. This literacy also involves recognizing dark and deceptive design patterns that incentivize excessive play or blur boundaries with gambling.

Our meetings are announced in the ASCA calendar. If you’d like to join the Game Lab’s WhatsApp group and/or present your work during one of our sessions, please contact t.pape@uva.nl.