Game design with the aid of computer semiotics

This formalist enquiry concerns the implementation of structures that abstractly approximate real-world systems in computer games. It is an attempt to develop a methodological framework for a computer game design based on a form of computer semiotics. I use the code of dress in social interaction as my semiotic system of choice for this case study, a system incredibly rich in semiotic content. To this end, I construct a game prototype named DressCode, whose main purpose is to explore dress as social performance within a computer game. The prime focus of the game is on visual performance, i.e. how the self is presented in social interaction. The bodies and attires of the characters contribute the signs communicated in this social performance, which is strategic and expressive. It involves the selective exchange of signs between the participants. The player elaborates and negotiates the character’s appearance within the game’s model of society. As such, DressCode is a simulation of an abstract semiotic system of fashion.