抄録
Taking the Chinese indie roguelite game 『Sultan’s Game』 (released in 2025) as a case study, this research discusses how video games create an artificial sense of temporal pressure and reinforce players’ strategic mindset through the analysis of its game mechanics and the narrative content. Under the constraints of game time, players are compelled to make critical decisions to progress. Building upon this phenomenon, this study will further explore the role video games play in players’ understanding of temporality. Specifically, this study questions whether the roguelite mechanics of 『Sultan’s Game』 , including meta-progression and permadeath, offer players repetitive and cyclical training that grants them agency to disrupt linear temporal structure in video games, or whether players’ seemingly independent actions are still constrained within the original narrative tracks of 『Sultan’s Game』. The game mechanics and narration of 『Sultan’s Game』 will be the primary focus of this study and close playing will serve as a crucial methodology for analysis. This research contributes to Game Studies by introducing a new perspective on the relationship between roguelite games and temporality, especially within a non-Western indie game context.
