Agency mechanics: gameplay design in survival horror video games

Abstract

This article proposes the notion of ‘agency mechanics’ as an innovative design element of video games. It begins by exploring the well-documented interactive elements of horror cinema, and goes on to explore how strategies such as the sadistic/masochistic gaze and narrative perspective have been further developed in video games. It then explores work to date on the manipulation of interactivity in video games before closely analysing how agency and control are managed in the survival horror franchise Dead Space. It concludes with reflections on further research in the nexus between film and games, and further possibilities for game design through the explicit management of agency mechanics.