La matrioska digital: diseño de interfaces y sistemas intradiegéticos en el videojuego: Star Wars Outlaws (2024)

Abstract

Contemporary video game design increasingly incorporates intradiegetic ludic systems: games or interactive devices that exist within the game world itself and can be used both by the character and by the player. This phenomenon produces structures of “systems within systems” that can be interpreted as a form of interactive “mise en abyme”, which this study proposes to call the “digital matryoshka”. The present study approaches these systems from the perspective of interface design, based on the hypothesis that transitions between ludic systems within a video game are largely communicated through the visual language of the interface. The research adopts a qualitative approach based on the visual analysis of the video game Star Wars Outlaws (2024), selected as a case study due to its use of interactive intradiegetic devices. The methodology focuses on the perceptual organization of the interface, its graphic identity, and the interaction mechanisms that structure gameplay. The results identify visual strategies that communicate transitions between ludic systems during gameplay, as well as different degrees of aesthetic autonomy between the main system and the intradiegetic systems. In this sense, the research argues that the visual design of these interfaces functions as a perceptual marker of systemic transition. In conclusion, the study presents an analytical framework that enables the integration of interface design into the academic analysis of video games.