Abstract: This chapter deploys the concept of atmosphere in its consideration of video game immersion, arguing that a game's atmosphere, a neglected topic until recently within game studies, is critical to the gaming experience. Through a phenomenological approach, the chapter underscores the importance of the player's bodily experiences, and it highlights how these experiences and the game's atmosphere interweave to foster immersion. Using examples from specific video games, such as Super Mario Bros., Castlevania, Dark Souls, and Wolfenstein: The New Order, the author elucidates how design elements influence a game's atmosphere and consequently the player's immersive experience. The study thereby enriches the understanding of immersion in video games, emphasizing the role of atmosphere and its connection to players’ embodied experiences.

Keywords: video game, atmosphere, embodiment, affect, phenomenology

Immersion is a controversial and polarizing term within game studies. The word generally refers to feelings of presence, intense absorption, or generally being-there, and it is common to read forum comments or reviews claiming that a video game is “particularly immersive” or that a game mechanic or writing “breaks the immersion.” In the literature, the term is often compared, used as synonym for, or contrasted with terms found in VR studies and presence theory, such as “presence” and “telepresence.”

Game scholars conceptualize immersion as a complex phenomenon: some understand immersion as a perceptual illusion, others as psychological engagement in a task, others still as an absorption in fictional worlds or even as a form of posture adopted by the player, as indicated by Carl Therrien in his review on the topic. This complexity is reflected in the writings of Brenda Laurel, who highlights a visual, aural, and kinaesthetic sensory immersion; in the works on narrative immersion by Janet H. Murray and Marie-Laure Ryan; in the phenomenological reflections of Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska on how immersion is a matter of immersion in game worlds; and in the work on affective immersion of Eugenie Shinkle as well as Ciara Cremin.

Recently, there has been a growing interest in the role of the player body in immersive game experiences. Exemplary, in this regard, is Brendan Keogh's phenomenological critique of immersion as total absorption.