Tormented Souls

The Fractured Imbunche: A Study of Chilean Horror Games

This extended abstract, presented as a work in progress at DiGRA 2025, examines Chilean horror videogames through the lens of transculturation, a concept describing cultural contact that generates new identities, forms, and motifs through heterogeneous authorship and active audience participation.

• The study examines Chilean horror videogames through transculturation, a concept describing how cultural contact generates new identities, forms, and motifs through heterogeneous authorship and active audience participation.
• The central research questions are whether Chilean horror games enact transculturation and whether recurring motifs can be identified as distinctly Chilean; the paper is presented as a work in progress at DiGRA 2025, not as established findings.
• The author argues the videogame is a particularly suitable medium for transculturation because it functions as a space of cultural creation requiring participation from both developers and players.