Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges

This paper explores contemporary videogames through a semiotic lens, analyzing their meaning-making processes across three distinct case studies: Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020), Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016), and It Takes Two (2021). These games, representing different genres—social simulation, puzzle adventure game, and cooperative action-adventure—offer compelling ground for examining how videogames construct meaning and provoke emotional responses in players. The methodological approach combines technical analysis of game mechanics, narrative structures, and audiovisual design with ethnographic insights into player experiences, including self-reflexive gameplay documentation. This study contributes to a broader understanding of videogames as complex sign systems that mediate emotional, social, and cultural experiences in contemporary digital culture.