Solivagus: reflexões sobre o processo criativo, gamearte e a quebra da quarta parede como dispositivo de horror psicológico

Abstract

This study investigates the construction of identity and belonging in psychological horror video games, articulating critical analysis, creative practice, and autobiographical experience. The research adopts a methodological perspective grounded in Autoethnography and Self-Narratives, positioning the researcher's lived experience as the central axis of both inquiry and creation. While fourth-wall breaking is present as a narrative and immersive device, it is understood here not as an end in itself, but as a strategy for confronting players with questions about their place both within and beyond the game space. The study ex-amines how three video games employ metareferentiality and fourth-wall breaking to challenge the relationship between player, character, and virtual world: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Team Salvato, 2017), The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe, 2013), and Undertale (Toby Fox, 2015). Through this analysis, the re-search identifies visual and narrative strategies that subvert player agency and expectations, deepening the emotional and psychological impact of the ludic experience. This investigation is further informed by the visual references of Hylics (Mason Lindroth, 2015), Garage: Bad Dream Adventure (Kinotrope, 1999), and Dark Seed (Cyberdreams, 1992), whose aesthetics contribute to the visual construction of the creative artifact developed in the project. The core of the research, however, lies in the creative process of developing a game art object conceived through this investigation. Narrated in a reflective manner and documenting the aesthetic, narrative, and technical choices that shaped it, the resulting game proposes an experience of estrangement and self-questioning regarding the player's sense of belonging within the game universe. It employs fourth-wall breaking to evoke tensions related to exclusion, prejudice, and inequality—themes that emerge directly from the author's lived experience. The study's principal theoretical interlocutors are Daniel Vella, Richard Rouse III, Bruno Mendonça, and Agata Waszkiewicz. It aims to contribute both to the field of game art and to scholarship on subjectivity, narrative, and identity in interactive digital environments.