Ludus—Ludeme

Last month, I mapped a working definition of game (ludus) and ludeme (conceptual units of a game and play) in preparation for an upcoming article on ludemes and programming video games. I went through many of the better known attempts for a definition and asked myself where my own perspective differs and what my approach needs to express.

Ludus

Games are an aesthetic practice with its own boundaries of time and space that enables its participants the playful and experimental encounter with rules and constraints.

Going through Hansen’s Parler le jeu vidéo made me aware how many of the definitions for games and game play are from perspectives of researchers and game designers, often missing the players’ point of view. I wanted to highlight this aspect by drawing from Martin Feige’s phenomenological approach.

Many definitions circle around topics of rules and mechanics (ludological approach). Whereas they certainly are a defining aspect, rules are also simply fundamental of the human experience, shaping the structure of society and behaviour. Rules are not exclusive to games, but games offer environments where participants can engage with rule systems in ways that are not possible in other settings. Some more recent (formalist) approaches to game definition have neglected the social dimension of games. Queer theory’s emphasis on performativity and fluid boundaries be useful in understanding games as experimental communal practices and ways of becoming, which enable me to take Avery Alder into account, one of my favourite game designers.

I also needed my definition to appreciate the act of game creation as a form of play itself, which is often overlooked in attempts to define games. Historical practices and the play of children offer a perspective where game-making is not separate from play but integral to it. Games are in a constant state of becoming, undergoing transformation through play, reiteration through design, and reimagination through participation. This phenomenological approach positions games not as fixed objects, but as emergent practices constituted through both creation and engagement. Likewise, this perspective enables the inclusion of cheating, hacking, modding, and rule adaptation, defining games as negotiated spaces rather than fixed systems.

Just recently I saw a video essay by Chariot Rider that highlights this last point quite well. In The Virtual Spaces of Garry’s Mod (GMod) Rider explains how maps (spaces) and game modes (rulesets) are chosen independently. This allows the same map to be experienced in vastly different ways depending on the rules in play. This flexibility reveals different aspects of the same space and encourages creative, emergent gameplay.

Ludemes

My approach to ludemes differ from Hansen’s. Traditional definitions, roughly summarized, see ludemes as verbs, the things you can do in a game (rules and mechanics). Hansen’s semiotic approach positions ludemes rather as objects with an aesthetic representation and mechanics attached to it. I approached my definition closer to Hurel and pulled it towards Feige’s phenomenological approach, with a hint of programmer’s or video game creator’s perspective (design).

Ludemes are the affordances games offer to become playable, organized in semantic sequences and of memetic nature.

I had questions that couldn’t properly be answered in other definitions. Is the game loop a ludeme? Maybe, but a fundamental, infrastructural ludeme that operates at a different level than more concrete affordances like “jumping” or “pushable block”. It’s the affordance that allows the game to exist as a dynamic, responsive system over time. What’s the ludeme when my controls move the background while the avatar stays fixed in the centre and not the other way around? This case represents a specific affordance in how spatial navigation is presented to the player.

The definition of ludemes should illuminate the semiotic transfer between developers and players. By defining them from the player’s perspective (as in Feige’s approach to games), I emphasize that developers must create mental models of player experience, which they then manifest in code. This player-centric approach better captures how game meaning is transmitted and interpreted. I’ve avoided framing ludemes as “smallest units” of games, as this creates unnecessary confusion by inviting comparisons to linguistics and morphemes. Such comparisons distract from understanding ludemes as functional affordances within the player’s phenomenological experience.

The memetic nature of ludemes enables them to propagate between games as recognizable play patterns or affordances that players intuitively understand, while allowing developers to implement these concepts through entirely different programming approaches and technical solutions. For example, how the concept of “jumping” can transfer between games with identical player meaning despite being coded with different physics models, control schemes, or visual representations in each implementation.

The terms meaning or meaningful in this encompasses first and foremost player comprehension and functional significance, referring to intelligible patterns of interaction that players can recognize, understand, and engage with to make sense of the game as a playable system. They can also roam into other aspects, such as semantic relationships and semiotic transfers, cultural contexts and phenomenological experiences.

The text on Rosa’s social theories on resonance, video games, “The Exit 8” and ludemes I co-authored with Arno Görgen is based on these definitions of game and ludeme, and it worked out quite well. I hope the reviewers share my enthusiasm.

References

Feige, Daniel M. 2015. Computerspiele: eine Ästhetik. Erste Auflage. Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft 2160. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

Hansen, Damien. 2023. Parler le jeu vidéo : Le ludème comme unité minimale d’une grammaire vidéoludique ? Parler le jeu vidéo : Le ludème comme unité minimale d’une grammaire vidéoludique ? Culture contemporaine. Liège: Presses universitaires de Liège. https://books.openedition.org/pulg/18941.

Hurel, Pierre-Yves. 2020. “L’expérience de création de jeux vidéo en amateur - Travailler son goût pour l’incertitude.” ULiège - Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium. https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/247377.

Pepper, Lee. 2021. “Game Maker Avery Alder on the Mechanics of Care.” Mask Magazine (blog). May 7, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210507183219/https://www.maskmagazine.com/the-material-issue/struggle/avery-alder-on-care.