The Image of Nikola Tesla and His Inventions in Digital Games

This study examines how the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla is represented in digital games, drawing on twelve titles released through 2018 that feature him as a character. Using a cognitive definition method adapted from Jerzy Bartmiński's work on the linguistic-cultural image of the world, combined with Nikita Tolstoy's three-code framework (verbal, object-based, and actional), the analysis organizes Tesla's attributes into seven categories: appearance, location, personality, role, abilities, inventions, and relationships. Data was gathered from searches on Steam, GOG, the Apple Store, and Google, supplemented by biographical grounding for comparison.

The findings show a consistent core image. In nearly all titles Tesla is slim, mustached, and dressed in a suit, and he is depicted as exceptionally intelligent and absorbed in his work. He is most often associated with his laboratory in Colorado Springs and with alternating-current electricity, with the Tesla coil appearing in roughly two-thirds of the games. Rivalry with Thomas Edison is the dominant relationship, present in about three-quarters of the titles and often framed around the "War of Currents." Tesla is playable in just over half the games, and in several he serves as a plot-solving archetype rather than a faithful portrayal of a real person.

The author concludes that Tesla's depictions rely on a narrow, partly mythologized set of traits, and that the fictional inventions and archetypal scientist role often matter more than biographical accuracy. Notably, the games largely avoid the eccentric "mad scientist" stereotype that might seem a natural fit. The study suggests that Tesla's frequent appearance reflects his high recognizability as a symbol of genius and science in contemporary culture, and that his use often functions more as a marketing hook than as an educational representation.