becomes more elaborate and already shows a star-studded galaxy in the background. It is not the richness of detail that is decisive here, but the semantization of the game space through the activation of a narrative script. Media scientist HENRY JENKINS calls this strategy of game design “evocative spaces.” He compares the game designer’s work here with the design of an amusement park, in which the attractions are often based on well-known narrative genres and settings such as the “wild west,” a fairytale environment, or a pirate ship. According to Jenkins, game designers use the same strategy. Because one falls back on the narrative competences of the recipients, the design of the world is often subcomplex and can be carried out in a suggestive or schematic way. In other words, games make targeted use of narrative archetypes or genres in order to semanticize space or integrate the game into a narrative context. The old arcade games, in particular, used this design strategy, since computer technology at that time did not allow sophisticated graphic representation. Thus, in Galaga or Space Invaders, not only does the game space contain rudimentary pixel aliens or spaceships, but also the arcade machine itself is decorated on its surface with aliens, comets, and ring planets to communicate to the recipient that this is a game in a science fiction setting, with the corresponding narrative tropes such as alien invasion, space battles, etc. Similarly, Ghost’n Goblins features ghosts, mythical creatures, knights, and princesses, both on the machine itself and in the game space, to situate the game in the fantasy and fairytale genre and thus activate the corresponding narrative scripts, with oppositional pairs such as everyday world vs. magical world, life vs. death, noble knights vs. dangerous mythical creatures, and beautiful princess vs. ugly monster.
However, there are other possibilities of semantization in the sense of an evocative space that do not necessarily have to resort to existing narrative genres. The handheld game Candy Crush Saga is one of the most successful casual games in history. The idea of the game isn’t new in itself. It’s a so-called “match three game,” (Juul 92) which is all about combining three game pieces of the same colour or shape. Shariki is the first computer game to use this game mechanic. The game is about exchanging neighbouring orbs on the playing field in their places so that three balls of the same colour are combined horizontally or vertically, whereupon they explode and make room for new balls. The game mechanics of Shariki were often copied, e.g. in Tetris Attack, Bejeweled or Candy Crush Saga. Bejeweled was a great commercial success and is considered one of the most important pioneers for the casual games. What is the difference between Shariki and Bejeweled, which both follow the same game mechanics? Apart from minor innovations, Bejeweled stands out for its more complex and sophisticated graphics. The pieces now differ not only in color but also in shape. Furthermore, they are not only abstract shapes or orbs, but Bejeweled game pieces are shaped like jewels. Candy Crush Saga continues in the design of the game space and the game objects. The game pieces differ in colour and shape and are based on sweets. Childlike characters in cartoon style, designed like puppets, lead the player through the setting, where places like the “Pastilles Pyramid,” the “Gingerbread Glade” or the “Bubblegum Bridge” are located.
Tiffi and Mr. Toffee, two of the characters from Candy Crush Saga, with a pot full of jewels. All elements of the game conform to the childlike and colorful design. © Nguyen Hung Vu, 2013 on flickr under CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/vuhung/10405325514
In the course of the game, cut scenes introduce the problems of the inhabitants of the country: a unicorn has lost its horn, Lemonade Lake has dried up, the Yeti has gotten caught in a sticky-sugar mass. In short: all elements of the game space and the associated world, which were not yet present in Shariki or Bejeweled, are consistently committed to a childlike, colourful, innocent design. Here, too, one can speak of a semantic space, even if at first glance no second, complementary semantic space is realized and no border crossing takes place. But in the form of obstacles, which restrict the recipient in the combination of the game pieces, an oppositional principle breaks into the world of the Candy Crush Saga: black liquorice blocks the movements of the players; colourless jelly surrounds the game pieces and makes them immobile; dark brown chocolate appears in the playing field and restricts freedom of movement. The oppositions colourful vs. colourless, mobile vs. static, light vs. dark are realized here. It should be emphasized that Candy Crush Saga does not tell a real story. Nevertheless, many narrative design elements are used, most consistently spatial semantics. It is not conclusive to determine to what extent spatial semantics are responsible for the success of the game. Nevertheless, it is striking that the same game mechanics become more and more popular with increasing semantization.
In visual narrative media, this semantization can also be applied on a formal level, in which not only the narrated space is designed, but also the space in which the narrative is presented, such as in the first season of the TV series Homecoming. The series takes place on two time levels, in 2018 and four years later, in 2022. In 2022, the protagonist Heidi Bergman has lost her memory and no longer remembers the events of 2018, when she conducted a psychological experiment with war veterans. The two time levels are thus in opposition to knowledge vs. non-knowledge. The formal presentation space is also semanticized because the 2018 story is staged in the conventional 16:9 image format, while the plot in the future is presented in a smaller, square format. Moreover, this time level is desaturated and darker in color. In the 8th episode of the series, Heidi’s memory returns in 2022, followed by a transformational turn (see Chapter 6 Transformation) from non-knowledge to knowledge, which also changes the image format, back to 16:9 as in the past. When Heidi, in the tenth episode in 2018 takes the medicine that caused her to lose her memory, the opposite transformation from knowledge to non-knowledge is realized, thus changing the picture format again from 16:9 to the small, square picture. The different image formats thus not only serve to visually differentiate the time levels but also semanticize the states of knowledge vs. non-knowledge on a formal level.
The semantization of space as a narrative design strategy can thus take place on many levels and go beyond topographical and topological categories. Therefore, it does not have to be adapted to the reduced specifications of Lotman’s model. Nevertheless, it remains Lotman’s merit to have theoretically grasped and specified narrative spatial design and to have shown that the representation of space in narrative texts is different from that in purely descriptive texts. The semantization of space, one can formulate in relation to Lotman, is a distinct narrative strategy that can be applied transmedially.
3.3 Hierarchization of Spatial Events
Actions concerning space and its order obviously have a special meaning in narratives, when Lotman makes a border crossing a definitory prerequisite for the narrative form and the role of the hero. On this basis, the narratologist MICHAEL TITZMANN defines further spatial events and prioritizes them. According to Titzmann, an even higher significance than a border crossing is a so-called border shift. We encounter this motif again in many Westerns and other narratives in the United States that glorify the movement of settlers to the West. There, the white man not only changes the border, but with courage, energy, and determination, also brings law, order, and civilization into a country that was previously described as “uncivilized” – a semantization strategy that many narratives of colonial literature follow. The murder of the indigenous people, which went hand in hand with the moving of the border, was presented as a necessary price to pay for the establishment of the new order. This, of course, is a question of perspective: the rearrangement of the border can also be portrayed as a cruel invasion if it is depicted from the point of view of the indigenous people, as happens in Blue Bird. The myths and stories surrounding the Christian crusades also depict the history of border shifts. From the point of view of the western world, Christianity was brought back to the Holy Land in the course of the border shift, while many modern Muslim stories still portray the trauma caused by the foreign aggressors. But regardless of the reception, the destruction of a border is dramaturgically even more powerful than a shift. Stories that describe the liberation from a tyrannical despot or a totalitarian
