Open Access

Ezginur Akcabay

• Digital games increasingly serve as interactive spaces for historical representation and emotional engagement. However, the mechanisms through which point-and-click adventure games create historical immersion and empathy remain underexplored. In many contemporary historical games, historical settings primarily function as aesthetic backdrops or gameplay environments, while emotional reflection and empathic engagement with history often receive less attention. This research project investigates how narrative, environmental and emotional design strategies can be used to stage historical spaces in ways that foster immersive and empathic player experiences. The project is based on the historical setting of the Nürnberg dungeons (“Lochgefängnisse Nürnberg”) and explores how point-and-click adventure games can encourage reflective engagement with historical themes through atmosphere, exploration, dialogue and moral ambiguity. The project further engages with criteria commonly found in cultural funding frameworks for digital games,Digital games increasingly serve as interactive spaces for historical representation and emotional engagement. However, the mechanisms through which point-and-click adventure games create historical immersion and empathy remain underexplored. In many contemporary historical games, historical settings primarily function as aesthetic backdrops or gameplay environments, while emotional reflection and empathic engagement with history often receive less attention. This research project investigates how narrative, environmental and emotional design strategies can be used to stage historical spaces in ways that foster immersive and empathic player experiences. The project is based on the historical setting of the Nürnberg dungeons (“Lochgefängnisse Nürnberg”) and explores how point-and-click adventure games can encourage reflective engagement with historical themes through atmosphere, exploration, dialogue and moral ambiguity. The project further engages with criteria commonly found in cultural funding frameworks for digital games, particularly regarding narrative innovation and cultural-historical representation. By combining historical reconstruction, environmental storytelling and narrative empathy within a point-and-click adventure format, the project explores new approaches to fostering reflective engagement with cultural heritage and difficult historical subjects through interactive media. The first phase of the project focuses on establishing a theoretical and methodological foundation for the later development of a research-based game prototype. Therefore, the current research primarily consists of a systematic literature review guided by PRISMA-informed principles. The review examines narrative empathy, immersive storytelling, emotion design in games and environmental storytelling. Particular attention is given to the question of how audiovisual atmosphere, spatial design and interactive narrative structures contribute to historical immersion and emotional perception in digital games. The insights gained during this phase will serve as the conceptual basis for the later iterative development and evaluation of a historical point-and-click prototype. In the long term, the overall research project aims to contribute to the development of a research framework for historical immersion and empathic game design in narrative adventure games. The framework draws on theoretical concepts of narrative empathy, historical immersion and character engagement, including models such as Recognition, Alignment and Allegiance. These concepts will inform the design and evaluation of a research-based point-and-click adventure prototype situated in the historical Nürnberg dungeons.…