Rewriting rules, changing worlds: Diegetic and ludic forms of metareference in The Magic Circle

Abstract In addition to transmedial techniques such as metalepses, allegories, or obtrusive narrators, contemporary videogames also use medium-specific forms, including game rules, mechanics, or interfaces, to create metareference. Similarly, metareferential games seem not only concerned with questions of their fictionality but show particular interest in their own technological infrastructure and embeddedness in digital culture. In this article, I propose a systematic approach to analysing metareference in videogames, distinguishing between the gameworld and the game system as the two main layers of communication from which metareference emerges. In a case study of the indie metagame The Magic Circle (Question 2015), I show that the game’s distinctive metareferential style is the result of interactions between what I call diegetic and ludic forms of metareference, and which are produced at the level of the gameworld and the game system, respectively.