Non-Euclidean Video Games: Exploring Player Perceptions and Experiences inside Impossible Spaces

Daniil Osudin; Alena Denisova; Christopher Child

doi:10.1109/TG.2024.3386816

Non-Euclidean Video Games: Exploring Player Perceptions and Experiences inside Impossible Spaces

Daniil Osudin^*, Alena Denisova, Christopher Child

^*Corresponding author for this work

Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Non-Euclidean geometry has the potential to be used for novel interactions in video games and create virtual spaces that are not physically possible in the real world. To explore how players perceive and experience them in video games, we have adapted two well-known 2D games, Snake and Asteroids to create two versions in addition to the conventional virtual space – with hyperbolic and spherical environments – and conducted a within-subject design user study on all three versions of these games. The results show that experienced Mastery and Control are lower when playing the two non-Euclidean versions while perceived Immersion and Challenge do not differ significantly between these three conditions. We also report on the qualitative findings from our participants, which provide further insights into the perception and experiences of these environments.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	115-124
Number of pages	10
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Games
Volume	17
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TG.2024.3386816
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2025

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Non-Euclidean Geometry
Player Experience
Impossible Spaces
Video games

Access to Document

10.1109/TG.2024.3386816

Non-Euclidean Video Games: Exploring Player Perceptions and Experiences inside Impossible Spaces
© 2025 IEEE. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the University’s Research Publications and Open Access policy.
Accepted author manuscript, 1.99 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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