Using Serious Art Games to Promote the Circulation of Ideas

Embodied in Contemporary Aesthetics

Yuliia Kovalenko

1,2 a

, Ieva Gintere

and Alvis Misjuns

Institute of Social, Economic and Humanities Research, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences,

Tērbatas iela 10, Valmiera LV-4202, Latvia

Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, Bursatskyi Descent 4, 61057 Kharkiv, Ukraine

Keywords: Serious Art Gaming, Contemporary Aesthetics, Film Narratives, Interactive Storytelling, Visual Novels.

Abstract: The study presents a prototype of the educational artistic virtual game CineGame Ukraine, designed to

improve skills in film narration and storyboarding. The project aims to adapt a digital learning environment

as a methodological model to deepen filmmakers’ visual cinematic thinking. The target audience for the

project includes film and audiovisual students. The educational game will be used as a representation of the

creative process for creating a cinematic narrative. However, the prototype is constructed as an open matrix

for other content, as well. It is being used as a medium to teach trends of aesthetics today (glitch, noise, and

others). The aim of the project is to develop digitization of cultural education and support serious art gaming

based on research of contemporary culture. The empirical testing of the project is still ongoing and will be

implemented following the studies of visitors’ experience in contemporary art museums that underline

communication between the users.

1 INTRODUCTION

The practical orientation of contemporary art and

education drives an intensifying trend towards the

interactive formats and comprehensive digitalization.

Digital platforms and virtual environments, with their

capacity to replicate real life and historical cultural

contexts, are increasingly relevant to the educational

process, making education more accessible and

integrated into daily life. The projects ArtSpace,

ImGame, and CineGame Ukraine are components of

a unified concept aimed at teaching contemporary

aesthetics through gaming experiences. Each project

serves a unique role and employs a distinct approach

to interactive learning, yet all converge in their shared

goal of fostering an understanding of modern

aesthetic and cultural concepts.

A theoretical model of a serious art game based

on research in contemporary aesthetics was created in

2018 at the Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences

and launched under the title of ArtSpace (Gintere,

Biters, 2021) by a humanities researcher and new

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6694-8329

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0203-3351

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4841-9302

media artists, using the Unity development platform.

ArtSpace is being used as an educational tool to teach

trends of modern aesthetics. The game’s theoretical

model was further incorporated in the creative project

ImGame using the WebXR technology (Gintere et al.,

2024). Some Unity-based artworks were not possible

to implement in the WebXR environment, but the

game’s outline and main goal has remained the same.

ImGame is a virtual tool to learn about the cultural

context of immersiveness and its manifestation in

today’s art. Like ArtSpace, ImGame aims at fostering

the creativity of the users. The creative studio is one

of the important components of the game as it sums

up the overall activities of the player and allows one

to invest the tokens collected in the previous areas.

As a next step, in collaboration with Kharkiv State

Academy of Culture (Ukraine), the ArtSpace model

has been used in the CineGame Ukraine project, with

the aim of creating storyboards and training

filmmaking students in narrative construction.

The three gaming prototypes are being technically

created and elaborated by the team of researchers,

342

Kovalenko, Y., Gintere, I. and Misjuns, A.

Using Serious Art Games to Promote the Circulation of Ideas Embodied in Contemporary Aesthetics.

DOI: 10.5220/0013274800003932

In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2025) - Volume 1, pages 342-348

ISBN: 978-989-758-746-7; ISSN: 2184-5026

artists, and students who have participated in the

games’ testing phase. The benefit provided by the

target audience is their interdisciplinary knowledge in

digital art and cultural studies. The other target

audience was creative engineering students who

participated in the creation of ImGame and learned

the use of WebXR and A-Frame. Thus, the project has

supported the STEAM educational approach that

incorporates arts into the more-familiar STEM model

(science, technology, engineering, mathematics).

The serious art gaming platforms mentioned

above are experimental to date. Empirical research

data in order to evaluate their educational impact are

yet to be collected and will be analyzed at a later stage

of the research process. The empirical testing has

been designed in accordance with the studies of

visitors’ experience in contemporary art museums.

They reveal that social encounters and

communication are key drivers to visit an exhibition,

especially among younger audiences (Tröndle &

Kirchberg, 2015). Taking these findings into account,

students will team up to visit the virtual exhibition

room in transnational visitor tandems, testing,

discussing and commenting on the exemplary gaming

operations in a dialogic situation.

2 ARTSPACE AND IMGAME:

TRENDS OF MODERN

AESTHETICS

ArtSpace (Gintere, 2020) is a new media environment

with elements of gaming that communicate stylistic

trends of contemporary gaming related to their

historical antecedents in the era of modernism. This

playful environment informs the user about the

conceptual context of stylistic trends such as glitch

and noise to mention a few. It invites the player to act

creatively in nine rooms of the environment, to

experience the styles and build one’s own artefacts.

2.1 Mechanics of ArtSpace

ArtSpace uses the first-person graphical perspective

and classical controls to move the player around. The

user can open the Graphical User Interface menu on

the screen, choose an object to work with and

manipulate it by using the tools of digital art. With

each new level the player earns new objects,

materials, and effects. In the edit mode, the player can

use multiple functions to change textures, location,

rotation, size of the object, and add effects such as

deformation and glitch (Figure 1).

Figure 1: ArtSpace, screenshot (Gintere, Biters, 2021).

Art Space is an ambient environment with

features of slow gaming. Many activities in the

environment require a lingering and reflective

attitude. One of the most important functions of this

environment is to let the user experience the aesthetic

peculiarities of styles. In this regard, speedy play

would not be a benefit. Yet gaming elements are

important to keep the interest of the user. For

instance, in the hack room, the user needs to act

proactively and build his/her virtual artwork in a

vertical dimension in order to leave the room and

enter the next level of the game.

The educational goal of Art Space has been

achieved by creating the Orbs of knowledge. These

are colorful and partly transparent spheres. The user

can enter the Orbs and find information about the

stylistics of each room that might be devoted to

kitsch/camp, photorealism and other trends. In the

Orbs, one finds the antecedents from the era of

modernism that illustrate the inherited features from

this paradigm.

Like the art games CineGame and ImGame,

ArtSpace is being used in the classrooms of colleges

and universities internationally for the purpose of

communication of modern aesthetic trends and the

ideas related to them. The virtual environments also

function as capacity building projects for the students

who learn basic coding and design principles and

have taken part in creation of these art games.

2.2 ImGame: The Feeling of

Immersiveness Today

The ImGame project (Misjuns, Cīrulis, 2024)

demonstrates an indirect mode of learning,

memorizing, and remembering specific aspects of an

immersive experience. The user of the game is

expected to be able to recall the immersive feeling’s

conceptual aspects. The game creators intend to

improve learning by contextualizing immersive

experience (Makransky et al., 2022) by

Using Serious Art Games to Promote the Circulation of Ideas Embodied in Contemporary Aesthetics

343

demonstrating the context of the immersiveness

tradition with its ideological background.

Users first enter the Introductory space where

they are exposed to historical aspects of

immersiveness such as Greek myths and the theory of

sublime by Immanuel Kant. Users can follow a

nonlinear path and study the available material at

their own pace. At the end of their tour, they are

invited to solve a puzzle (to choose between the

existing keywords, Figure 2) to progress to the next

space.

The next space is the Exhibition Hall (Figure 3)

where one finds recent artworks representing the

immersiveness feeling. The users are invited to

participate in a treasure-hunt game by searching the

virtual space to collect special tokens. These come in

shape and form as glitchy items similar to the

exhibited artworks and their details, and they are

necessary for the users to unlock creative tools in the

last space, the Studio.

The Studio space is where the users can create

their own objects by utilizing the game’s creative

engine following the example of ArtSpace. The more

treasure they have mustered, the more tools they can

use

Figure 2: ImGame, screenshot (Gintere et al., 2024).

Figure 3: ImGame, screenshot (Gintere et al., 2024).

3 CINEGAME UKRAINE: AN

EDUCATIONAL GAME FOR

THE FUTURE FILMMAKERS

Among other educational goals, gamification can be

effectively used in the development of storytelling

skills for future creators of film. Creating a film

narrative with the help of a digital game is an

experiment supposed to strengthen the filmmaker’s

abilities through emotional and psychological

immersion (Elmezeny, 2018) in the virtual game

space, making one’s narrative more expressive and

thus more influential on the viewer.

The effectiveness of integrating film narratives

into various educational practices is well established

(Fernandes, da Motta, 2019; Ceplitis, 2025), but the

involvement of filmmakers in innovative learning

methods related to narrative construction is often

overlooked. The serious art game CineGame is built

around developing a storyline for a future film and

creating a director’s vision in the form of a storyboard

for shooting

CineGame was created as a support mechanism

for Ukrainian contemporary culture and digital

education. The project is being implemented at

Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences in

cooperation with Kharkiv State Academy of Culture.

Its filmmaking students are the first target audience

of the project. CineGame is a stylistic voyage through

modern aesthetic trends. Just like ArtSpace and

ImGame, it teaches contemporary trends such as

generative art, naïve and glitch (see Figure 4 for the

glitch trend), and communicates Ukrainian and

Latvian artworks following these trends.

Figure 4: CineGame, screenshot (Gintere et al., 2025).

The starting point for CineGame is the machinima

technology, which involves real-time computer

graphics to create a visual film narrative (Lowood,

2011). This technology has evolved into a distinct

area of digital culture, reflecting significant aesthetic

concepts of contemporary art. The virtual

environment of CineGame addresses specific trends

in digital aesthetics, helping users to become more

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

344

aware of this direction. Like the machinima

technology, this educational virtual environment

combines the cognitive process with media

production, forming a virtual film school where

students acquire both practical filmmaking skills and

analytical foundations in modern aesthetics and

narrative strategies (Lowood, 2011).

The concept of a virtual film school allows

bypassing costly technologies and equipment,

enabling film creation using only a game engine and

a computer, which is particularly valuable in the

educational process. This format presupposes

mastering of various aspects of the film production:

visual mise-en-scène, lighting setup, character

development, editing, frame composition, camera

placement, shot transitions, script creation, and more.

A key distinction of CineGame from machinima

is the initial absence of a predefined storyline in the

virtual environment. Instead, the player is tasked with

creating and presenting a narrative through directorial

storyboarding, while in machinima, the story is

embedded in the game, and the player’s task is to

create a finished animated film based on it. Both

approaches aim to develop skills in audiovisual

expression and

storyboarding, yet machinima lacks

the component of training in narrative strategies.

Another key reference in the CineGame project is

the Japanese visual novel genre, with its focus on

interactive storytelling, which has become essential

for an educational game in film narration. Unlike

machinima, a visual novel encourages the players to

be actively engaged in the narrative, allowing them to

influence its course. CineGame goes further by

challenging the player to create an original story

based on the suggested narrative models and eight

characters that the player selects independently.

3.1 CineGame User Experience

In CineGame, players interact with three narrative

models (linear, non-linear, and cyclic) to construct a

visual story for a future film. Players engage with

characters, objects, textures, and landscapes to create

storyboards. They can also manipulate characters and

settings to explore different narrative possibilities,

utilizing diverse lighting schemes, camera angles,

zooming techniques, compositions, and mise-en-

scène. The game’s adaptive mechanics allow players

to work at their own pace, fostering creativity and

skill development through hands-on experimentation.

The user has the option to take a camera shot with

desired angles and add a description to it to describe

the scene. After all camera shots are taken and

descriptions are written down, one can download the

storyboard as a pdf to represent the story. The game

is made in Unity 3D and the levels are designed in a

semi realistic, abstract way to match one of the three

art concepts.

The game is planned to be integrated into the

assessment process during the studies of

cinematography. The primary output of the game is a

storyboard or visual narrative created by the students,

which can be evaluated as part of their coursework.

This approach ensures that the game contributes to

measurable learning outcomes, such as the ability to

construct coherent, expressive visual narratives and

understand the application of narrative models in

film.

3.2 Visual Novel Principles and

Narrative Strategies of CineGame

Ukraine

Using visual novels in educational methodologies is

a widespread practice. By immersing students in an

interactive story, cognitive engagement and skill

acquisition are enhanced. A visual novel is a narrative

interactive game featuring static or animated graphics

and a “branching narrative” (Oygardslia, 2020). The

storytelling is generally presented in the first person,

with the player’s task being to select dialogue options

within a branching plot. Therefore, player agency in

a visual novel is relatively limited as the story unfolds

along predetermined paths. The key characteristics of

this genre include multiple storylines with variable

endings and detailed character development, making

it appealing in contrast to other games with simplified

plots and static character portrayals.

Visual novels’ narrative density, complexities,

and non-linear structure open possibilities for

employing storytelling frameworks across genres

such as dystopia, road movies, romance, and comedy.

These features also extend to the genre’s visual

elements of screen storytelling. The mechanics of

visual novels emphasize the player’s decisions

regarding the progression of the narrative. Among the

primary narrative types used in visual novels, the

linear structure is particularly advantageous for

educational contexts, as it provides a straightforward

sequence of events with controlled pacing and

narrative clarity. In contrast, non-linear storytelling in

visual novels allows for flexible scene arrangement,

offering players a more personalized plot

progression.

CineGame is oriented around three narrative

strategies inspired by the visual novel format: the

Linear Level corresponds to the linear narrative, the

Open Space Level aligns with the non-linear

Using Serious Art Games to Promote the Circulation of Ideas Embodied in Contemporary Aesthetics

345

structure, and the Cyclic Level combines multiple

storylines, each stemming from the previous one. The

narrative structures of Ukrainian films from the past

decade serve as illustrative examples e.g., Brothers.

The Final Confession (2014), the romantic drama by

Viktoria Trofimenko, the black comedy war film

Donbass (2018) by Sergey Loznitsa, the apocalyptic

drama Atlantis by Valentyn Vasyanovych, the road

movie drama Homeward (2019) by Nariman Aliev,

and the comedy drama My thoughts Are Silent (2019)

by Antonio Lukich. Thus, the project provides

theoretical knowledge on narrative strategies and

introduces users to Ukrainian films.

The well-developed character system in visual

novels enables narratives to unfold through the

characters’ actions and decisions. The symbolic

elements of a character form a separate module,

allowing the player to interpret their hero based on

their own cultural context. Character traits serve as a

tool for creating an “empathetic connection” with the

player (Bruno, 2017).

Table 1: CineGame Ukraine narrative strategies.

Narrative model: Linear

Homeward (2019), road movie drama

by Nariman Aliev

Narrative model: Open Space

Atlantis (2019), apocalyptic drama

by Valentyn Vasyanovych Brothers.

The final confession (2014), romantic drama by

Viktoria Trofimenko

Narrative model: Cyclic

Donbass (2018), black comedy war film

by Sergey Loznitsa

My thoughts are silent (2019), comedy drama

by Antonio Lukich

3.3 National Archetypes as the

Character Database

The character imagery elements in CineGame form a

distinct block, based on which the player interprets

their protagonist according to one’s personal

preferences and values. The character database is a

modular system of elements such as physical

attributes, typical personality traits, clothing style,

manners, which can be modified based on the

preferences of the user. The ability to combine these

characteristics grants the players a certain freedom in

constructing unique characters with a relative degree

Moe is a Japanese term used to describe feelings of

warmth, affection, or protectiveness towards fictional

characters. It is commonly associated with characters

of individuality. The database comprises Ukrainian

archetypes, which have been formed within

Ukrainian culture and represent generalized heroic

images from mythology and literature. The characters

function as tools of empathetic connection with the

player, focused within the concept of moe (Galbraith,

2009)

The game offers four male and four female

figures: Rusyn, Varangian, Jesuit, and Turk for males,

and Mavka, Kaidashykha, Pannochka, and Solokha

for females. While the female characters are of

literary origin, the male characters represent various

cultural types. Thus, these characters reflect common

traits with broader cultural archetypes, making the

educational environment universal and aligned with

shared human aesthetic and cultural expectations.

Rusyn embodies the collective image of a prince-

hetman – a social leader and tradition bearer;

Varangian, a defender-artisan; Jesuit, an inventor-

scholar; Turk, a merchant-communicator. Mavka

personifies the essence of nature, creativity and an

associative, image-based perception of the world.

Kaidashykha embodies the traits and destiny of a

mother-guardian, Pannochka symbolizes progress,

change, and reform. Solokha represents knowledge

and empathy.

The database of Ukrainian archetypes within

CineGame provides opportunities to engage with

cultural and historical contexts through recognizable

narratives and universal images. Additionally, the

focus on universal archetypal symbols facilitates

cultural dialogue and fosters understanding of foreign

cultural contexts.

The database of moe-elements shifts the

principles of modern narrative towards combining

character elements instead of a linear storytelling,

enabling continuous reinterpretation and analysis of

narratives (Azuma, 2009). Storytelling becomes less

linear and predictable. In this way, narrative functions

as a set of scenes, interconnected choices, and

development paths, prompting the players to

construct their own story.

The male characters – Rusyn, Varangian, Jesuit,

and Turk – are inspired by Ukrainian archetypes but

represent heirs of diverse cultures and nationalities,

as evidenced by their names. Therefore, they can also

embody different gender identities. The female

characters – Mavka, Kaidashykha, Solokha, and

Pannochka – are more socially and psychologically

rooted in Ukrainian archetypes, inspired by literary

works and mythology. The characters in the game are

who possess traits like innocence, cuteness, or

vulnerability.

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

346

Table 2: Character database in CineGame.

Character Characteristics Association

Rusyn noble, strong in

spirit, leading,

wise

service,

spirituality, ritual,

collective

Varangian courageous, brave,

skillful, reliable

protection, action,

mastery, hierarchy

Turk clever,

resourceful,

flexible,

successful

winning,

communication,

ingenuity,

negotiations

Jesuit erudite, learned,

educated, logical

knowledge,

intelligence,

expertise,

rationality

Mavka sophisticated,

painfully

sensitive,

imaginative,

dream

nature, chthonic,

feeling, creativity

Kaidashikha sensual, practical,

responsible,

devoted

family, love,

sacrifice,

economy

Solokha sociable,

possessor of

knowledge,

confident,

intuitive

esotericism,

exosphere,

otherworldliness,

personality

Pannochka aristocratic, social,

attractive, daring

experiment,

innovation,

beauty, progress

not assigned specific gender identities but rather are

defined by their connections to cultural traditions.

Moreover, the players have the option to customize

the characters. This approach provides flexibility and

inclusivity, enabling the users to create characters that

resonate with their own cultural and personal

perspectives.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The CineGame project offers a study of narrative

structures and modern film genres through one’s own

gaming experience of immersive storytelling. It is

expected to improve the cinematographic education

based on modern educational technologies.

For further work, the authors are planning to

enrich the serious art gaming field by creating related

prototypes of virtual learning

environments. These

are intended to be focused on the topical trends of

contemporary aesthetics in gaming such as camp or

whimsicality, to communicate ideas related to each of

them and thus help the researchers engage more

broadly with students while teaching contemporary

culture. For instance, camp is related to the feeling of

uncanniness and weirdness in certain groups of

society and is being actively discussed in order to be

accepted and gain a better public understanding.

These socially important topics are envisioned to be

communicated in relation to aesthetic trends and their

conceptual background.

Branching narratives with multiple event

development paths and non-linear structures in

CineGame are expected to help students construct

individualized narratives. Focusing on the visual

elements of an audiovisual work helps eliminate an

overemphasis on verbal storytelling, liberating the

screen image from literary foundations.

Storyboarding, as the primary goal of the gameplay,

trains students to visually organize a scene, enabling

thorough preparation for filming. Scene and dialogue

transitions offer a sense of narrative pacing, making

the plot more dynamic and editing transitions

smoother. Finally, the openness of visual novels to

narrative experimentation provides a safe

environment for testing and modelling film stories.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Dr. Yuliia Kovalenko, the leading author of the

article, has received funding through the

MSCA4Ukraine project “CineGame Ukraine: a

contemporary Ukrainian research-based digital art

game for developing narrative skills and cinema

literacy” No. 1233058 as a part of the European

Commission’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions,

funded by the European Union.

It has been implemented as a continuation and in

synergy with the projects ArtSpace (Leveraging ICT

product innovations by enhancing codes of modern

art, European Regional Development Fund’s project

No. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/106) and ImGame (An

Innovative Digital Environment Based on Research

with Elements of Immersive Aesthetics and Serious

Gaming, EU Creative Europe’s project No.

101054570).

Many thanks to Mr. Wayne Chislett for his kind

support and proofreading.

Views and opinions expressed are those of the

authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of

the European Union. Neither the European Union nor

the MSCA4Ukraine Consortium as a whole nor any

individual member institutions of the

MSCA4Ukraine Consortium can be held responsible

for them.

Using Serious Art Games to Promote the Circulation of Ideas Embodied in Contemporary Aesthetics

347

REFERENCES

Azuma, H. (2009). Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals.

University of Minnesota Press.

Bruno, L. P. (2017). Interpreting/subverting the database:

Character-conveyed narrative in Japanese visual novel

PC games. In Mutual Images Journal (3), 92-122.

https://doi.org/10.32926/2017.3.bru.inter

Ceplitis, A. (2025). Rhizomatic Narratology in 360°

Stereoscopic Spherical Cinema, PhD thesis. Riga

Technical University Press.

Elmezeny, A. Edenhofer, N. Wimmer, J. (2018). Immersive

Storytelling in 360-Degree Videos: An Analysis of

Interplay Between Narrative and Technical Immersion.

In Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 11(1),

https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v11i1.7298

Fernandes, R. M. M., da Motta, L. R. (2019). Contributions

of Computational Neuropedagogy for Teaching the

Narrative Genre. In INTED2019 Conference

Proceedings, pp. 7333-7339.

Galbraith, P. W. (2009). Moe: Exploring Virtual Potential

in Post-Millennial Japan. Electronic Journal of

Contemporary Japanese Studies.

Gintere, I. (2020). A Perspective on a New Digital Art

Game: The Approach of Research and Knowledge

Transfer. Proceedings of the 12

International

Conference on Computer Supported Education.

Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information,

Control and Communication, Prague, May 2

, vol. 1,

311-318.

Gintere, I., Biters, K. (2021). Serious Art Game ArtSpace,

https://artspace.va.lv, designed in Leveraging ICT

product innovations by enhancing codes of modern art,

European Regional Development Fund’s project No.

1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/106.

Gintere, I., Misjuns, A., Rovithis, E., Bakk, Á. K. (2024).

Serious Art Game ImGame, https://imgame.va.lv,

designed in ImGame – An Innovative Digital

Environment Based on Research with Elements of

Immersive Aesthetics and Serious Gaming, EU Creative

Europe’s project No. 101054570.

Gintere, I., Biters, K., Stepiņš, M. (2025). CineGame

prototype.

Lowood, H., Nitsche, M. (eds.) (2011). The Machinima

Reader, Cambridge, MA. MIT Press Scholarship

Online.

Makransky, G., Mayer, R. E. (2022). Benefits of Taking a

Virtual Field Trip: Evidence for the Immersion

Principle in Multimedia Learning. Educational

Psychology Review, 34, 1771-1798. https://doi.org/

10.1007/s10648-022-09675-4

Misjuns, A., Cīrulis, A. (2024). Creation of Virtual Reality

Experiences for the Web: Shader Programming for

Artists. The 11th IEEE Workshop on Advances in

Information, Electronic and Electrical Engineering,

Riga, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10586603

Oygardslia, K., Weitze, Ch., Shin, Jh. (2020). The

Educational Potential of Visual Novel Games:

Principles for Design. In Replaying Japan, RCGS.

Tröndle, M., Kirchberg, V. (2015). The Museum

Experience: Mapping the Experience of Fine Art.

Curator, 58(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1111/cura.

12106

CSEDU 2025 - 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

348