Aesthetic Heritage
Where the choices in each of the 4 A's come from. The lineage.
What Aesthetic Heritage Is
Every choice in a videogame comes from somewhere. A jump arc, a color palette, a camera angle, a musical sting, a pacing structure. None of these are invented from nothing.
Aesthetic Heritage is the term for tracing where these choices come from. What the videogame inherits, quotes, or transforms from:
- Other videogames
- Cinema
- Music
- Visual art
- Theatre
- Dance
- Literature
- Architecture
- Any other medium or tradition
Why "Aesthetic" Heritage
Videogames are an aesthetic medium. All four A's (Action, Art, Arc, Atmosphere) are aesthetic choices with lineages.
This is not limited to visuals. A jump mechanic has an aesthetic heritage. A difficulty curve has an aesthetic heritage. A control scheme has an aesthetic heritage. "Aesthetic" here means the full craft of the medium, not just the visual.
Inheritance, Quotation, Transformation
Videogames relate to their heritage in three main ways:
Inheritance
Using a solution because it works. The double-jump exists in your platformer because double-jumps have proven useful in platformers. You inherit the convention.
Quotation
Deliberately referencing a source. The camera work in your horror videogame quotes the camera work in a specific horror film. Players who recognize the reference experience an additional layer of meaning.
Transformation
Taking something and making it new. The bonfire in Dark Souls transforms the checkpoint into something with narrative weight. The heritage is visible, but the result is distinctly its own.
Exercise
Pick one element from a videogame you know (a jump, a camera angle, a musical cue, a UI choice). Trace its heritage:
- Where have you seen this before? In other videogames? In film? In music?
- Is this inheritance (convention), quotation (reference), or transformation (something new)?
- What does knowing the heritage add to your understanding?
Why Teach Heritage
Students often think they're inventing from scratch. Heritage helps them see that every solution exists in a tradition. This is freeing, not limiting: you can learn faster by studying how others solved similar problems.
Heritage Is Not Trivia
Avoid turning heritage into "videogame history as trivia." The goal is not to memorize release dates or name-drop. The goal is to develop the habit of asking: "Where does this come from? What tradition am I working within?"
Teaching Sequence
- Start with obvious quotations (a videogame that explicitly references a film)
- Move to conventions (why do platformers have double-jumps?)
- Explore cross-media heritage (how did cinema influence videogame cameras?)
- End with transformations (how did Dark Souls change the checkpoint?)
Common Pitfalls
"Heritage = copying"
Students may feel that acknowledging heritage diminishes originality. Counter this: even the most original work exists in tradition. Knowing your heritage makes you more intentional, not less creative.
"I need to know everything"
Students may feel paralyzed by the vastness of heritage. Reassure them: you don't need encyclopedic knowledge. Start with what you know. Expand over time. The habit of asking "where does this come from?" is what matters.
Assessment
Have students present a "heritage map" for one element of a videogame they're making or analyzing. Look for: Can they identify at least two sources? Can they articulate what they're inheriting, quoting, or transforming?
Heritage and Medium Specificity
Videogames inherit from many media but are not reducible to any of them. Cinema contributed camera grammar. Music contributed pacing and emotional cueing. Theatre contributed staging. But videogames transform these inheritances through interactivity.
The question is always: how does this inheritance change when the player can act?
Heritage and Meaning
Heritage is not just craft knowledge. It's also meaning. When a videogame quotes a film, players who recognize the quote experience richer meaning. When a videogame inherits a convention, it carries the accumulated meaning of that convention.
This creates layers of literacy. Some players see the reference; others don't. This is not a problem to solve but a richness to embrace.
The Anxiety of Influence
Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence argues that poets struggle against their predecessors. Something similar happens in videogames: designers often want to escape their influences, to make something "truly original."
The VG101 approach reframes this: heritage is not a burden but a resource. The goal is not to escape influence but to use it intentionally.
Heritage and Accessibility
Heritage can be exclusionary. If a videogame assumes players know 40 years of platformer conventions, it may alienate newcomers. Part of accessibility as craft is deciding which heritage to assume and which to teach.
References
- Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence (1973)
- Keogh, Brendan. A Play of Bodies (2018)
- Bogost, Ian. Persuasive Games (2007)