Can the Subaltern Game Design? An Exploratory Study About Creating a Decolonial Ludology Framework Through Ludonarratives

This study proposes a Decolonial Ludology, a framework for examining and reshaping game design so that colonized and subaltern perspectives are no longer marginalized. Grounded in decolonial theory drawing on Quijano, Walsh, and Spivak, the work treats games as a communication process of understanding, applying, and disseminating meaning, and argues that the friction created by underrepresentation can serve as a starting point for more equitable design. Its central claim is that Eurocentric standards pervade the medium and that these can be identified, challenged, and replaced through deliberate creative practice.

The authors identify four Eurocentric paradigms in game design: colonization mechanics exemplified by Minecraft, the Campbell and Jung Hero's Journey, messianism and dualistic cosmology, and classical aesthetic ideals such as the Golden Ratio and Vitruvian Man. Their proposed alternatives are tested through a three-phase educational method built on ludonarratives and implemented with Brazilian undergraduate students at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. Projects including the Incorporeal Ludonarrative Platform, the setting Terra Nova, the Incorporeal cardgame, and Living Colors serve as concrete examples. Supporting material includes a 2000 study of Brazilian RPG illustration that found persistent gendered stereotypes, which the authors suggest have changed little since.

The study's scope is primarily Brazilian and Global South in its empirical grounding, with conceptual engagement that draws on 19th-century race theory and eugenics to explain the historical roots of the representational patterns examined. Its results are explicitly preliminary and exploratory, reporting enthusiasm among participants rather than quantitative outcomes, and the authors position their work as an opening step toward a broader decolonial game design practice.