Khalili, H., Pan, G., 2026.

Videogame spatial cinematics: A theoretical framework for cinematic architecture of videogame spaces

This article introduces Videogame Spatial Cinematics (VSC), an interdisciplinary framework for analysing how spatial design, gameplay, and virtual cinematography converge in videogame environments. While existing scholarship has examined these elements in isolation, VSC integrates spatial organisation, cinematic mediation, and interactive constraint into a unified analytical approach. The framework comprises three analytical toolboxes: Spatial Analysis, Cinematic Narrative Analysis, and Frame Dissection. Each draws on methods including architectural diagramming, cinematic shot analysis, and gameplay sequencing to investigate the spatial-cinematic apparatus of videogames. Developed through a multi-phase methodology combining reflective gameplay, autoethnographic game analysis, structured logging and coding, and cross-disciplinary visual analysis, the framework identifies 11 recurring parameters that shape the player's spatial experience, such as camera optics, environmental storytelling, framing, and spatial organisation. The toolboxes are applied to three selected action-adventure titles - The Last of Us Part I (2022), God of War (2018), and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019) - to demonstrate how virtual cameras choreograph space and narrative through a layered cinematic logic. We argue that the compositional techniques, camera systems, and level architectures work interdependently to guide interaction, frame emotion, and construct narrative rhythm. By making the cinematic mediation of game space analytically accessible, VSC attempts to offer a transferable diagnostic framework for researchers and designers. It is positioned as an interpretive tool rather than a prescriptive design method, with practice-based validation proposed as future work.