Kylo Sans

INTERACTIVE

Aeronautics

TOUCHSCREEN

Formularise

It is difficult to accurately define electronic literature. The phrase itself consists of two words, each with their own specific meanings. Arthur Krystal in What Is Literature explains that “lit(t)eratura referred to any writing formed with letters”. However, Krystal goes on to explore what literature has transformed into: “a record of one human being’s sojourn on earth, proffered in verse or prose that artfully weaves together knowledge of the past with a heightened awareness of the present in ever new verbal configurations”. Electronic denotes anything”of, relating to, or being a medium...by which information is transmitted electronically”.

VIDEOGAME—Mass Effect Microsoft Game Studio, 2007

Journey is a wordless story told through gameplay and visual-only cutscenes. The player’s character begins near a small sand dune in a vast desert. Walking to the top of the dune, the character can see looming in the far distance a large mysterious mountain with a glowing crevice that splits its peak. As the character approaches the mountain, they find the remnants of a once-thriving civilisation, eroded by sand over time. Scattered throughout the ruins at the end of each area are stones where the traveler rests and has visions of meeting a large, white-robed figure in a circular room. Art adorns the walls, describing the rise and fall of the player character’s civilization, which also mirrors the player’s journey.