For screenshots and more information, download the 'Doors' Press Kit

For a standalone version of the game (to be used for exhibitions, with a reset buttons and auto-reset functionalities), click HERE!

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So, what is this game About?

Imagine the following situation: you open a door in a videogame. One could argue that it is not really you who opened the door, but rather the player-character. Another objection to the idea that doors can be opened in gameworlds is that one does not actually pursue the action of opening doors, but rather that of inputting certain commands in a controlling device. We could even go as far as saying that no door is involved in that interaction to begin with: one simply clicks on a bunch of pixels that are meant to evoke a door in their imagination.

Within game studies and in the philosophy of fiction, the representation of game objects has been subject of much debate, as they can be said to have properties of both

• fictional entities (they do not really exist, but are meant to be imagined to exist) and of
• actual digital objects (they are objects generated and upheld by computers that one can persistently and intelligibly interact with).

Doors is our newest attempt at playable philosophy. It is designed to invite players to interactively examine existing theories about how objects are represented within games and virtual worlds more in general. Each door in the game raises a different question regarding their representation.

Other philosophical videogames designed by Stefano Gualeni

• "HERE" (2018) - a mock-JRPG videogame that playfully invites the player to reflect on how many types of 'here' can co-exist in a virtual world.
• Something Something Soup Something (2017) - a short first-person adventure videogame about analytical definitions and family resemblances.
• NECESSARY EVIL (2013) - a self-reflexive videogame about the centrality of player-experience in videogame design.

Additional readings

• Game Studies through 'Conceptual Games': The Case of Doors (Van de Mosselaer & Gualeni, 2023)
• The Fictional Incompleteness of Digital Gameworlds (Van de Mosselaer & Gualeni, 2022)
• Ludic Unreliability and Deceptive Game Design (Gualeni & Van de Mosselaer, 2021)