Visual and narrative analysis: reinforcing the game structure The structural analysis into three separate game layers is reinforced through other modes, e.g. the game’s visual style: the game uses three distinctly different visual styles. The consistent use of these styles strengthens the internal coherence of the game, clarifying the game structure. The visual styles also reinforce the two distinct chronotopes in the game, in the Bakhtinian sense (‘time–s paces’; see also [3,40]): there are different tempos of action, and different movements from place to place throughout the game. The story layer and the 3D world layer construct the same chronotope (the game narrative, with the player moving towards the central
opponent). The arcade game environment, however, is different: it presents very different game universes, such as space
environments. The distinct visual styles serve as an additional visual cue where the game layers merge into each other. Where one layer ‘intrudes’ in another game layer, every message is consistent with the visual style of the original layer. For instance, in the Bridge of Death levels, the exercises belong to a different game layer. The Bridge itself is located in the 3D world (Fig. 5), but the exercises on the Bridge are offered in the visual style of the arcade games (Fig. 6).