Pixels and Presence: How “A Space For The Unbound” Creates

Immersion Through Cultural Details

Pandu Rukmi Utomo

1,2 a

Ciputra University Surabaya, Citraland CBD Boulevard, Surabaya, Indonesia

Department of Vis urabaya, Indonesia

pandu.utomo@ciputra.ac.id

Keywords: Culture, Immersion, Video Games.

Abstract: Video games are evolving from entertainment to complex media with social and cultural impact. This study

explores immersion in the Indonesian game "A Space For The Unbound" and its connection to cultural

adaptation. The game uses pixel art and references real-world Indonesian settings, creating a unique visual

aesthetic. The narrative incorporates direct and indirect cultural elements, with exploration as a key mechanic.

Gameplay reinforces presence through NPC interaction and familiar control schemes. Culturally, the game

utilises "cultural apriori," where creators internalise concepts and mindsets. While not strictly adhering to

1990s Indonesian culture, the game evokes nostalgia through the atmosphere achieved by visual, audio, and

narrative details. A Space For The Unbound exemplifies how video games can leverage aesthetics to create

immersion, cultural connection, and relevance. The game creates a nostalgic sensation for its players because

it successfully conveys the "impression" or "atmosphere" of the 1990s through visual audio, narrative, and

ludic or gameplay.

1 INTRODUCTION

Video games have also been changing with the

evolution of the times to be more than just an

entertainment medium but a complex medium. Video

game users by 2023 will surpass 3.3 billion, with 52%

of users coming from Asia Pacific. The number of

global users has increased by 2.4% compared to the

previous year, with global revenue of $184 million

covering mobile games, PC games, and console

games (newzoo, 2024). This extensive coverage

makes video games no longer just an entertainment

medium but also a mass media that brings messages

and information to its target audience.

Video games do not ignore the pros and cons of

the impact on players, in particular, the issue of

addiction to digital games or game addiction. Video

game addiction is different from addiction to

addictive substances like nicotine or drugs. The term

game addiction refers to a pathological disorder

caused by the use of video games that causes the

inability to live everyday life (Wittek et al., 2016).

Gaming addiction is an excessive desire to use a

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4517-2041

computer or video game that causes social or

emotional problems.

Despite the potential to addict a small percentage

of players, video games have a positive impact both

psychologically, socially, and cognitively on players.

Playing video games can lead to better eye and hand

coordination. Video game players also perform better

on perception and tasks requiring high concentration

than people who do not play video games. In addition

to playing video games, it also slows down the

decline in cognitive function in older adults who play

strategy games (Pontes, 2018). Besides, one of the

positive aspects of video games is that they are a

perfect blend of art, technology, and spoken media

that can touch millions of people simultaneously

(Esa, 2020). This versatility allows video games to

convey ideas, concepts, and views of anything

anxious for their creators to the public in a more

entertaining and non-compulsive format.

The superiority of video games as a medium to

communicate ideas and concepts has led various non-

profit organisations, academic institutions, and public

and private entities to use this technology as a creative

solution to various social problems. For example,

Utomo, P. R.

Pixels and Presence: How “A Space For The Unbound” Creates Immersion Through Cultural Details.

DOI: 10.5220/0013333300004557

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Creative Multimedia (ICCM 2024), pages 47-55

ISBN: 978-989-758-733-7; ISSN: 3051-6412

several Pulitzer Prize winners, Nicholas Kristof and

Sheryl WuDunn, created a Facebook-based game to

raise awareness and support the anti-violence

movement against women worldwide. The game is an

adaptation of the best-selling book Half The Sky and

has successfully created digital engagement into real-

world action and various micro-donations (Change,

2022)

Video games are a modern storytelling medium

that can deliver messages into the game and create a

variety of themes that form the basis for a unique

gaming experience. Some of them raise specific

cultural themes and then develop visual, story, and

game mechanics around the culture. Among them is

the Okami game developed by the Japanese Clover

Studio. The game highlights the Shinto culture and

various Japanese folk stories, legends, and

mythology. The game's main character is Amaterasu,

portrayed as a wolf with supernatural abilities, and his

partner Issun, a tiny creature who aspires to become a

legendary painter armed with a celestial brush.

The integration of cultural content into the Okami

games is narrative and visual styles and objects used

to interpret a world with Shinto culture by Clover

Studio. Okami combines traditional Japanese

painting styles and ukiyo-e as a visual theme (Ferrer,

2017). Communication and storytelling are part of a

culture that always develops along with human

development. Passing culture to the next younger

generation is a ritual to maintain and preserve culture.

In this modern era, the younger generation does not

find a connection with sources of cultural information

so the process of passing down information and

cultural values is cut off. Seeing the potential of

games as a communication medium could be an

alternative for communicating culture that was

previously through verbal or written media through

analog manuscripts and other media into more

modern digital media.

The idea of communicating cultural content on

Indonesian-made games has been around for a while.

Some of those who have done it are a horror game

called Dreadout and a studio work from Bandung

called Digital Happiness. Dreadout tells the story of a

group of high school boys who are lost in a dead city

and then have to find a way out of the city while

solving mysteries and fighting Indonesian-typical

ghosts like Pocong until they can use the help of their

cell phones. The first game series won the 2013 Bubu

Award for Best Startup, and the second series won the

Game of the Year award at the 2020 Indonesia Game

Award. A Space for the Unbound is an example of an

Indonesian culture-based game that has won awards

in several international game events. The game is an

indie production game developer named Mojiken

Studio and published by Toge Production. It tells the

story of two friendly high school students and a

teenage problem of supernatural mystery, with the

setting of the Indonesian suburbs in the 90s. The

game won awards in the international event Tokyo

Game Show Category Best Art and Audience Choice

Award In the event Level Up KL category Best Story

Telling.

IGN South East Asia describes A Space for the

Unbound as an Indonesian atmosphere of the end of

the 90s felt in this game. The housing buildings

depicted in A Space for the Unbound give a sense of

nostalgia to Natasha Hashim, one of the authors on

the web IGN Southeast Asia. ASEAN is a region with

rich cultural wealth and enormous potential that can

be developed into a load in video games. Indonesia

also has many game developer studios, but so far,

only a few have succeeded in replicating the success

of A Space for the Unbound in representing

Indonesian culture and gaining international

acceptance.

Games with Indonesian culture that fail to

effectively convey cultural content through the video

game's aesthetic elements may struggle to create

player immersion and serve the purpose as cultural

communication media. The research goal is to gain a

deeper understanding of the significant importance of

the game "A Space for the Unbound" to the gaming

and cultural studies community. It aims to study how

the game successfully presents culture through

aesthetic elements, engages the audience's interest in

the topic, and creates an immersive experience for the

players. and understand how "A Space for the

Unbound" serves the purpose of next level cultural

communication media.

2 RELATED THEORIES

2.1 Immersion

Immersion is the engagement or involvement a

person feels while playing digital games. Due to their

engagement and involvement in the game, players

can experience several levels of immersion (Cairns et

al., 2014)

1. The first level is when players invest time and

effort in playing the game; this is the most

basic form of immersion a player can feel.

2. The second level is the emergence of

"concentration" in the game, so players spend

much attention and are emotionally engaged.

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3. The third level is the highest level of

immersion, which can be identified by the

sense of presence, which is the condition the

player feels in the game.

2.2 Aesthetic Element in Video Game

The aesthetic element in video games also has

similarities with the common understanding of the

aesthetic elements. Aesthetic objects are video games

that are the subject of study, aesthetics are the player

and the game creator, and aesthetic values are the

parameters that will be used to determine the good

and bad aesthetic experience perceived by the player.

Video games are like complex media and have

aesthetic elements that can be divided into three

(Thon, 2019).

Figure 1: Aesthetic elements of video game (Thon, 2019).

Audiovisual as a video game aesthetic is about

spatial perspectives and includes visual styles, visual

material, sound design, music, and voice acting.

Ludic is an aesthetic that covers all possible

interactions between players, game mechanics, and

goals in video games, including the involvement and

gaming experience created from the gameplay.

A narrative is an aesthetic that refers to the story

in a game and the narrative strategy used to convey

the story. Such strategies include the multiplication to

non-linearity in the story, the use of the narrator, and

the mediation of "direct access" to the character's

subjectivity.

2.3 Cultural Transformation

Cultural transformation is the process of intercultural

dialogue, a logical consequence of globalisation.

Cultural transformation is an essential stage in the

process of growth and development of human

civilization. The process of cultural transformation

begins with the meeting of local culture and foreign

culture so that dialogue occurs between the cultures.

If intercultural dialogue occurs without conflict, the

cultures will experience inculturation and

acculturation into transitional cultures. Dialogue,

inculturation and acculturation that alternately occur

when they come into contact with foreign cultures

will create a new culture that has the characteristics

of the original culture, both local and foreign (Sachari

& Sunarya, 2001)

Cultural transformation is imagined as a

continuous dialectical bargaining process until it

reaches its final and lasting form (Sachari & Sunarya,

2001). The occurrence of cultural transformation can

be triggered by several things, including:

1. New reintegration occurs when traditional

values experience disintegration due to clashes

with new values that come from outside. This

results in cultural compartmentalization that

loses its connection to human life.

2. Ideologization is a change in the mentality of

an old culture into a new culture, both in the

socio-cultural layer and issues of power, value

institutions, organisations, and the economy.

3. Historical orders destroy value systems, create

cultural contradictions, and incoherent and

inconsistent cultural devices. Thus, efforts are

needed to find a new format and cultural figure

that can answer the challenges

3 METHODS

This study uses a phenomenological method, an

interpretative study, to understand an experience

experienced by a single individual or a cluster

experiencing a particular phenomenon in a way that

focuses on the similarity felt when experiencing an

event into a universal conclusion. This method

collects data from each individual who has

experienced a particular experience, then develops a

composite description of the intrinsic experiences of

each individual that contains the "what" and "how"

experiences they have experienced (Poth & Creswell,

2017)

Qualitative research focuses on a profound

contextual understanding of a social problem, how

the problem is interpreted, understood, and felt, and

how the process is formed. These methods tend to

collect data on narrow samples in natural habitats.

This research will perform data excavation in the

following way: Cultural documentation in a space for

the unbound.

Interviews with expert users and extreme users

such as players, game developers, the art director of

the game, and the art curator. Study libraries of

Pixels and Presence: How “A Space For The Unbound” Creates Immersion Through Cultural Details

various literature relevant to research. This research

will carry out data mining in the following way:

1. Documentation of culture in the game, a space

for the unbound.

2. Observing gamers' responses to a space for the

unbound cyberspace pages.

3. Interviews with expert users and extreme

users.

4. Literature study of various literature relevant

to the research.

Figure 2: Research Flow (personal archive).

The initial phase of this research involves

identifying the cultural and aesthetic parameters of

the game. These parameters play a crucial role in

understanding the culture aesthetically depicted in 'A

Space for the Unbound '. The identified culture is then

descriptively analyzed to establish connections

between the game's cultural patterns and real life. The

patterned culture is subsequently tested on

respondents to gauge their recognition of these

elements and record their emotional responses during

each phase of the game with cultural content in the

aesthetic elements. This study protocol was reviewed

and approved by the Multimedia University’s

Research Ethics Committee, approval number

#1571031364. All study participants provided

informed verbal consent prior to study enrolment.

4 DISCUSSIONS

Immersion is something that is commonly heard in

the range of speeches related to video games. The

immersion of players into the game is an indicator of

the success of the goal of creating the game

experience by the game developers of both the indie

game and the AAA game. The occurrence of

immersion, in addition to causing the player to spend

time and effort playing the game, also generates the

"concentration" of the player so that it appears to be

emotional involvement with the game played. At the

highest level of immersion, the player will feel a

sense of presence or presence in the game. The

immersion created in A Space For The Unbound and

its relationship with the cultural adaptation of the

game can be analysed through cultural identification

of the aesthetic elements of video games such as

visual, narrative, and Ludic or gameplay.

Immersion is an aesthetic experience experienced

by the player when interacting with the game as an

aesthetic object. The experience is a result of the

stimulus received by the player. It creates the

experience that results from a summary of aesthetic

experiences experienced by the creators of the game

A Space For The Unbound and successfully passed

on to the player as a spectator. The aesthetic

experience perceived by the creator of A Space For

The Unbound differs from what the spectator

perceives. The creators perceive the aesthetic

experience during the creation process of the work.

Spectators feel the experience when interacting or

playing the game as an aesthetic object.

4.1 Audio Visual Element

The most visible visual aesthetic element in A Space

For The Unbound is the use of the visual style of pixel

art as the primary "language" of introduction. Pixel

Art is one of the culturally adapted products and has

become the primary language of narrative presentation

and the formation of the gamer experience. The

limitation is even to convey content visually as the

backbone of video games that use video or moving

images as bridges between the system and the player.

Pixel Art presents low-resolution images, so the

amount of detail that can be entered to create a visual

object is minimal. So, depicting each object in a video

game will be very simple. So, in order to be able to

enjoy the visual provided, one needs to use his

imagination to fill in details that are not displayed by

the pixel-based images. Nevertheless, the games at the

time were not a few that succeeded despite their

graphical limitations. So, such visual constraints are

not obstacles to communication between the game, the

system, and the player. Something similar happens in

other media, such as novels. A novel is a spoken

medium that does not have a means of visualisation,

so the characters, backgrounds, scenes, and

atmospheres are all submitted to the subjectivity of the

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individual reader's imagination. These two media

equally have similar constraints, though different in

conveying the visual to their recipients. However,

each recipient can still enjoy what the media provides

without worrying about the above. The shortcomings

are the greatest strength of both media.

Figure 3: Real picture and low resolution pixelated picture

(cragl.cs.gmu.edu).

In one interview, the respondent made a statement

reinforcing the above argument. Setiya Budi

feels

that the limitations of pixel art presenting the details

of an object make the player automatically attempt to

"fill" the void using his imagination. Such "automatic"

involvement makes the pixel art game still create an

immersive gaming experience that is no better than the

game with realistic AAA game photo graphics. The

most basic immersive playing experience can be seen

when the player is willing to spend time and effort

playing one game. The attempt to use imagination to

fill the void that pixel art has is a basic form of

immersion that occurs in gamers with the visual style

of Pixel Art.

The following visual aesthetic element of A Space

For The Unbound uses many real-world references to

create the game's main characters, supporters, and

environments. Atma and Raya

are high school

characters who wear grey and white uniforms like

high school kids in Indonesia. While Nirmala does not

wear an SD

uniform in the game, the player can find

the uniform in his room when Atma takes the magic

stick from his room.

The portrayal of the main characters in the game is

accurate, primarily based on real-world references.

However, it has transformed after its adaptation

gained the influence of manga and anime. One of the

consequences, apart from the visual style of the

character design in the game, is that the characters

A Space For The Unbound player who lived in Surabaya

near Jembatan Ijo during the 90’s

Two main character of the game

Elementary school

have the same hair characteristics in manga and anime.

Similarly, supporting characters such as Hansip

, the

akik

peddler, Father, and Father in the "pos Hansip"

use easily recognizable attributes because they can be

found in the day-to-day player in the real world,

although depicted with the visual styles of manga and

anime. Both visual styles make the game familiar to

audiences who enjoy the work of manga and anime.

The environment in the game is also strongly

influenced by the visual style of the anime, especially

the work of Makoto Shinkai, which uses references in

the real world. In pixel art, the visual environment is

depicted in a way that replicates the "impressions"

characteristic of the location, even though they

experience a varied reduction in detail in each

location.

Figure 4: Comparison of Jembatan Ijo in the game and in

the real world: a. simplification of the frame, b. local

inhabitants traffic attendee (top: screenshot of a space for

the unbound scene. bot: (jawatimuran.wordpress.com).

According to the interview with Setiya Budi

, who

once lived near the Ijo and Merr bridges, the depiction

of the two places and the location of the residential

area where Atma's adventures feel very familiar and

Local non military security guard

Traditional gemstone usually for ring

A Space For The Unbound player who lived in Surabaya

near Jembatan Ijo during the 90’s

Pixels and Presence: How “A Space For The Unbound” Creates Immersion Through Cultural Details

remind him of his former place of residence. The

unique location is straightforward for Setiya Budi to

recognize based on the characteristics shown in the

limitation of the delivery of detail in the visual pixel

art style and the changes in the depiction that occurred

in the game A Space For The Unbound.

The familiarity that appears when exploring the

world of A Space for The Unbound is because it was

realized early on that this game was designed to

respond to requests against the desire to replicate the

phenomenon of anime pilgrimage or Seichi Junrei in

Indonesia. This phenomenon occurs in the otaku

subculture, where they try to visit the location of an

anime based on references in the real world

(Axelsson, 2020).

The same thing happened to Korean drama fans of

the 2002 Winter Sonata due to the boom of the Winter

Sonata, the location of a romantic scene where the

main character kisses for the first time as a tourist

destination for the film's fans. They came to take

pictures and replicate the scene with him as the main

character. The familiarity felt by the Indonesian

players, particularly Surabaya, has caused an

emotional connection between the player and the

location of the story A Space For The Unbound.

Figure 5: Jembatan Merr (Merr Bridge) is based on a actual

location in Surabaya, which hoped to trigger the seichi

junrei or anime pilgrimage by the author (screenshot of a

space for the unbound scene).

That means the game can create a player's

immersion through the visual familiarity shown by

the design of its environment with the location based

on real-world references.

4.2 Narrative Aesthetic Element

As with visual aesthetics, A Space For The Unbound

is an excellent adaptation of Indonesian culture,

Keroncong is a type of music born from the acculturation

of Portuguese, Dutch, and Indonesian culture during the

colonial period

presented in direct and indirect narration. The

delivery of both narrative types above is packed on a

"free" exploration that the player will gradually

discover as the game progresses. The walking

simulator genre focuses on free exploration, so

players explore the game and open the game phase by

phase without coercion. The exploration and

interaction performed by players throughout the game

enhance their understanding of the world of A Space

For The Unbound and what is going on in it. Through

the narrative, the culture of Indonesia is

communicated to the player directly and indirectly.

The culture is conveyed in person and directly

connects to how the story goes; among them is the

music of the keroncong

. Players are exposed to the

concept of Keroncong music when interacting with

the characters of the construction workers. Directly,

the characters briefly describe the music of the

whistle. At the same time, the same characters were

also offended by the mixtape but did not explain what

the mixtape was about in the conversation. Another

example of the culture presented directly is the

Aikido ring, the akik seller explaining the concept of

a lucky stone to an akik seller player when interacting

with Atma.

The dynamics of life raised in the narrative are

also often found in society daily. There are also

narratives about negotiations or bullying that are an

accurate portrait of social life, as well as household

problems, either economically or in relationships

between family members. The narrative is then

embedded in the style of the Cherry manga, the

Flower of Evil, and anime that became the primary

influence of Dimas Novan's

work as a writer and art

director in A Space For The Unbound. The above

thing makes us familiar with the narrative narrative

raised in the game, both in terms of the story's theme,

the issue raised, and how it is spoken. This familiarity

is also the connection between the game and the

player emotionally through the narrative.

Not only through verbal narration, there are also

cultural artifacts scattered in every corner of the game

environment that have their respective "stories" and

backgrounds. For instance, a kentongan and a

roadblock sign that says there is a citizen's activity.

These two artifacts are not directly described as their

background and functions but narratively

complement the world of A Space For The Unbound.

In addition to the two, many similar artifacts are

identified in the game with similar functions that

Art director and writer of A Space For The Unbound

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create a complex world with an environment that

makes sense.

The combination of environmental design with

artifacts that are frequently found in the daily life of

Indonesian people, as well as unique narratives that

are delivered directly and directly related to the story

or that are not by each NPC, creates the illusion that

they have a personal life, not a side figure without a

role other than to help the main character. However,

they are the native inhabitants of the world who live

their daily lives as usual. Attention to detail because

of the author's understanding of the culture adapted to

the game creates the relationship between the

atmosphere that wants to be displayed in the game

and the player, thus creating the sensation of presence

in that game.

The sensation of such presence is also supported

by video game aesthetics related to ludic/gameplay.

As discussed above, the presence of non-playable

characters or NPCs plays an essential role in creating

the world in the game. Meanwhile, interaction with

NPC, other than part of the narrative, is also part of

gameplay. So, the narration integrated with the

gameplay through NPC is an element that reinforces

the sensation of the player's presence in a game. In

addition, the navigation or control system will also

determine the convenience of the player's transition

into the game. This allows players to control the

characters intuitively, thus reinforcing the sensation

of the player's presence in the game.

4.3 Ludic Aesthetic Element

A Space For The Unbound was initially launched as

a mini-game, introducing a unique mechanism using

the space button. Then, the use of the space key

continued in the game as the primary key for

interacting and confirming the choice of interaction.

The button to move the character also uses a

mechanism that is commonly used in the game, which

is the "WASD" motion system using either the "A"

button to go left or the "D" to go steady. Characters

can also run by entering a motion input twice in the

desired direction. This system is a common

mechanism in side-scrolling games; character

movements change from running to running or

forward quickly when the direction button is entered

twice. A Space For The Unbound also has a feature

that is quite popular with many players, which is an

interpretation of the player's habit in the real world.

Players can scratch every cat in the game; this is a

game experience that can enhance the feeling of being

in a game. People who love cats will automatically try

to interact with cats in the real world and instinctively

try to do that in the game when watching cats; then,

there is a feeling of joy when it can be done.

Based on the discussion above, it can be

concluded that the creation of immersion in A Space

For The Unbound is triggered by the depiction of the

world in the game and the use of references obtained

from the real world so that players can recognize

adapted cultural products even with minimal detail

typical of the Pixel art style. The specific location

made Setiya Budi remember where he lived and when

he often came into contact with that location. The

emotion Setiya Budi feels arises because it is

triggered by audio-visual stimuli, narration, and

gameplay of the game A Space For The Unbound,

which gives rise to feelings of being reminded of past

events or nostalgia.

Nostalgia is a conclusion based on several

aesthetic experiences experienced by players when

playing the game. Immersion consists of three levels

of aesthetic experience. The first level is the

investment of time and effort made by players when

interacting with the pixel-based visual element of the

video game and then start filling in the blanks and

relating it with real-world references, which is also

the starting point for creating deeper immersion.

Second, concentration and emotional bonds that arise

when playing. From the start, the creators wanted to

create a heartwarming gaming experience and create

a mono no aware sensation to trigger motivation to

undertake an anime pilgrimage for people who do not

live in that era to places used as background locations

in the game by using places in the real world as

references, for some people familiar with the places

and live in the exact location and era; this can trigger

nostalgic feeling as an emotional response. The third

level, a relatively accurate and detailed depiction of

the era and environment, together with NPCs with

their background story and problems, a retro control

system familiar to players, and interactivity with the

surrounding environment with cats other than NPCs

strengthens the player's sense of presence in the game,

which is the next level of immersion. All aesthetic

experiences successfully transferred to the player are

then summed up and felt by the player as nostalgia.

4.4 Cultural Transformation

Based on the identification of cultures and the results

of interviews that have been conducted, in addition to

Indonesian culture, both physical culture, activity

culture, and culture of ideas, several other cultures are

dominant in this game. Among them are

• the pixel art visual style,

• manga visual style,

Pixels and Presence: How “A Space For The Unbound” Creates Immersion Through Cultural Details

• anime visual style by Makoto Shinkai and

Studio Ghibli,

• the narrative style of the Cherry and Flower Of

Evil manga,

• the narrative style of anime narrative by

Makoto Shinkai and Studio Ghibli,

• the narrative style of the Truman Show film,

• the narrative style of the Donnie Darko film,

• the narrative style of Mono No Aware.

These " filters " influence the transformation in the A

Space For The Unbound game in audiovisual,

narrative, and ludic or gameplay.

Regarding audiovisuals, the transformation

occurs in the visual style, a form of adaptation of pixel

art, manga, and anime styles. The choice of pixel art

as a visual style is also a personal preference of

Samid, who likes this style. In addition, there are also

considerations to reduce the production costs of game

development, which will be relatively very expensive

if a modern 3D approach is used. Another reason is

the increase in the number of audiences who like this

style because of nostalgia; only a few slice-of-life

games are executed using a detailed pixel art visual

style. This style affects all visual objects, characters,

and places that appear in the game and is the main

factor in the audiovisual transformation.

The transformation that occurs in the narrative is

influenced by the storytelling style, which is Dimas'

preference. This causes the Indonesian culture that is

raised through the narrative in A Space For The

Unbound to have a cheerful, warm and light-hearted

nature due to the influence of the Cherry manga, the

theme of the story about teenagers and the unique way

of telling the story of the Flower Of Evil manga,

supernatural elements connected to Donnie Darko's

mental health, the feeling of restlessness wanting to

uncover the mystery behind the mysterious world of

the Truman Show, and the gnawing loneliness similar

to the feeling of deep appreciation of the passing time

or mono no aware which binds all the premises above

into one whole.

Ludic or gameplay transformation occurs in the

spiritual culture of gendam, raga sukma, rituals, and

mantras into a simplified game mechanism. The

above things are changed into a more general

language without eliminating their main

characteristics to be more acceptable to the

international audience, called space dive. The space

dive "ritual" still requires a mantra written in a magic

red book, but it is not shown or spoken directly every

time you do a space dive.

The overall transformation in the game A Space

For The Unbound is a change from local culture,

namely Indonesian culture in the 1990s, to a

retrogaming subculture with the internalization of

foreign cultures in the visual style of pixel art, anime,

and manga. This subculture is a form of digital game

culture that focuses on the hobby of playing old

games from old consoles or games with aesthetic

elements that contain unique characteristics of old

games, both visually, narratively or game mechanics.

The game A Space For The Unbound is a game

that can be categorized as retrogaming because it

visually uses a pixel art style, which is one of the

characteristics of retro games from their inception to

the first PlayStation era. In addition, we can find

retrogaming characteristics in the mechanics used,

namely a combination of side-scrolling platformers

and puzzle mechanics based on point-and-click

games that have been modified to be used as

platformers. The narrative in the game A Space For

The Unbound is also an element of the adventure and

role-playing game genres, where we are encouraged

to interact with our surroundings to understand the

story and the background of the story as a whole.

5 CONCLUSIONS

“A Space For The Unbound” cultural content is

adapted through cultural internalisation or cultural

apriori followed by an understanding of concepts and

mindsets within the author and art director, who is

dominant in the game's development. So, adapting and

delivering Indonesian culture with the famous cultural

bridge of manga and anime feels natural, away from

the "impact" of the template properly on the culture.

This game is not entirely "loyal" to the Indonesian

culture of the 1990s; artifacts not typical of the era can

be found throughout the game. It can even be said that

this game is "timeless" or does not have an indicator

of the time range it raises. Even as a writer, Dimas did

not spend most of his life in the 1990s.

The game can still create a nostalgic sensation for

its players because it successfully conveys the

"impression" or "atmosphere" of the 1990s through

visual audio, narrative, and ludic or gameplay. This is

because of the many details included in the game, such

as the design of the environment and the narrative of

NPC. These details make the game's world "alive, "

creating a connection between the atmosphere and the

player and giving the sensation of being "there" within

the game. The game is a medium that can easily trigger

an emotional response like nostalgia because of the

abundance of sensory stimuli the player can capture

through its aesthetic elements. Starting from displayed

visual graphics, accompanying music, audio effects,

and narratives that can be embedded in objects, places,

ICCM 2024 - The International Conference on Creative Multimedia

or characters, both main and side, playing roles or

role-playing performed by characters is also an

essential factor in enhancing the stimulus perceived by

players due to the sensation of being in the world of

the game. This ability is evident above other works of

art, such as paintings that only give a visual stimulus.

The “A Space For The Unbound" game is a form

of adaptation of Indonesian culture in the face of

globalisation. It causes culture to lose the relevance of

its delivery media to the new generation that is more

oriented towards novelty and technology. This

challenge requires delivering culture to a closer

approach to modern audiences. The transition from

analog to digital delivery is a form of adaptation that

can be done by Indonesian culture, as has been done

by the A Space For The Unbound game so that it has

succeeded in making the international community

touch, interact, and even want to know more about

"Indonesia" which is brought by this game.

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Pixels and Presence: How “A Space For The Unbound” Creates Immersion Through Cultural Details