World Annihilation Operations Database
Keywords:
Contradictions, impossible worlds, video games, fiction, research-creation, logic, game developmentAbstract
This paper recounts the first part of a larger research-creation project on perceivable logical contradictions in video games. Inspired by research on impossible worlds theory, which is a derivative of possible worlds theory, as well as similar research mainly in literature, it seeks to expand the concept within video games, mainly from the standpoint of a creator. The paper begins by acknowledging the already significant presence of perceivable logical contradictions in popular video games. It then describes an inductive process that led to the elaboration of a database of operations capable of intentionally generating various sorts of logical contradictions in a video game world. From this database, it details a 2-layers typology which simultaneously offers insight on the range of aspects logical contradictions can affect in games and specifies general technical means of exploring those contradictions as a video game developer. Finally, it offers a range of functions that such logical contradictions may serve, both in terms of traditional game design and more artistic endeavours.
References
Alber, J. & Heinze, R. (2011). Unnatural narratives - Unnatural narratology. De Gruyter.
Alexander Bruce. (2013). Antichamber [Windows]. Demruth.
Ashline, W. L. (1995). The problem of impossible fictions. Style, 29(2), 215–234. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42946279
Badura, C., & Berto, F. (2018). Truth in fiction, impossible worlds, and belief revision. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 97(1), 178–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2018.1435698
Berto, F. (2017). Impossible worlds and the logic of imagination. Erkenntnis, 82, 1277-1297. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-017-9875-5
Berto, F., & Jago, M. (2019). Impossible worlds. Oxford University Press.
Bit Rot. (2022). Recursive ruin [Windows]. Iceberg Interactive.
Björk, S., Lundgren, S., & Holopainen, J. (2003). Game design patterns. DiGRA Digital Library. https://doi.org/10.26503/dl.v2003i1.60
Cartlidge, J. (2024). Non-perceptual representational immersion in video games: A response to David Chalmers’ Reality+. Philosophy & Technology, 37(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-024-00767-3
Chalmers, D. J. (2022). Reality+. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Cheng, W. (2014). Sound play: Video games and the musical imagination. Oxford University Press.
CodeParade. (2024). 4D Golf [Windows]. CodeParade.
CodeParade. (2022). Hyperbolica [Windows]. CodeParade.
Ducky Dev Games. (2019). Kyle is famous: Complete edition [Windows]. Ducky Dev Games.
Ebner, M., Lucas, S. M., Schaul, T., Levine, J., Togelius, J., & Thompson, T. (2013). Towards a real-time game description language. Dagstuhl Follow-Ups, 6, 494–499. https://doi.org/10.4230/DFU.Vol6.12191.i
Ensslin, A. (2015). Video games as unnatural narratives. In M. Fuchs (Ed.), Diversity of Play. Lüneburg: meson press.
Faucon, T. (2017). Gestes contemporains du montage : Entre médium et performance. Berlin: Naima.
Feral Cat Den. (2021). Genesis noir [Windows]. Fellow Traveler.
Garg, A., Fisher, J. A., Wang, W., & Singh, K. P. (2017). Ares: An application of impossible spaces for natural locomotion in VR. Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 218–221. https://doi.org/10.1145/3027063.3048416
Gündüz, E. N., & Özener O. Ö. (2024). Digital surrealism: Video game space. JCoDe: Journal of Computational Design, 5(1), 139-162. https://doi.org/10.53710/jcode.1419955
Hawreliak, J. (2019). Multimodal semiotics and rhetoric in videogames. Routledge.
Hewitt, S. T. (2020). Need anything follow from a contradiction? Inquiry, 65(3), 278–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174x.2020.1762728
Juul, J. (2011). Half-real: Video games between real rules and fictional worlds. MIT Press.
Mobius Digital. (2019). Outer wilds [Windows]. Annapurna Interactive.
Modern Storyteller. (2021). The forgotten city [Windows]. Dear Villages.
Nolan, D. (2021). Impossible fictions part I: Lessons for fiction. Philosophy Compass, 16(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12723
Northway Games. (2022). I was a teenage exocolonist [Windows]. Finji.
Ohori K. A., Ledoux H., & Stoter J. (2017). Visualising higher-dimensional space-time and space-scale objects as projections to ℝ3. PeerJ Computer Science 3. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.123
Orbons, E., & Ruttkay, Z. (2008). Interactive 3D simulation of escher-like impossible worlds.
Osudin, D., Denisova, A., & Child, C. (2025). Non-Euclidean video games: Exploring player perceptions and experiences inside impossible spaces. IEEE Transactions on Games, 17(1), 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1109/tg.2024.3386816
Patrick Traynor. (2022). Patrick’s parabox [Windows]. Patrick Traynor.
Pillow Castle. (2020). Superliminal [Windows]. Pillow Castle.
Priest, G. (1997). Sylvan’s box: A short story and ten morals. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 38(4). https://doi.org/10.1305/ndjfl/1039540770
Ryan, M.-L. (2013). Impossible worlds and aesthetic illusion. In W. Wolf, W. Bernharn, & A. Mahler (Eds.), Immersion and Distance, 131–148. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401209243_006
Seraphine, F. (2016) Ludonarrative dissonance: Is storytelling about reaching harmony?
Square Enix. (2020). Dragon quest XI S: Echoes of an elusive age – definitive edition [Windows]. Square Enix.
Teske, J. K. (2015). Contradictions in fiction: Structuralism versus jacques derrida and deconstruction. Language Under Discussion, 3(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.31885/lud.3.1.235
Thoss, J., Ensslin, A., & Ciccoricco, D. (2018). Narrative media: The impossibilities of digital storytelling. Poetics Today, 39(3), 623-643.
Valve. (2007). Portal [Windows]. Valve.
Velho, L., da Silva, V., Novello, T., & Lucio, D. (2019). Visualization of non-euclidean spaces using ray tracing. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.21910.91201
William Chyr Studio. (2020). Manifold garden [Windows]. William Chyr Studio.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Jesse Aidyn
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright for papers and articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the University of Glasgow. It is a condition of publication that authors license their paper or article under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
