The Slow Apocalypse: Cute Video Game Aesthetics as Ideological Tools in Normalizing Colonialism and Authoritarianism

Title (eng)
The Slow Apocalypse: Cute Video Game Aesthetics as Ideological Tools in Normalizing Colonialism and Authoritarianism
Author
Kseniia Harshina
Author
Tom Tucek
Description (eng)
Colonialism has always functioned as a slow apocalypse, erasing cultures, lands, and communities. However, video games frequently present colonization and empire-building as strategic puzzles rather than destructive forces. This paper examines how "cutopian" games, which pair cute aesthetics with colonialist and authoritarian mechanics, trivialize power structures, making conquest, surveillance, and governance feel non-threatening. Through The Battle of Polytopia and Lil’ Guardsman, we analyze how visual design and gameplay mechanics depoliticize empire. Contrasting these games with decolonial alternatives, we highlight approaches that resist expansionist logic and highlight resistance and Indigenous storytelling instead. Drawing from animated media, we also examine how empire is often displaced into metaphor rather than dealt with as an ongoing material reality. Finally, we ask: Is it possible to decolonize cutopian games – to use their aesthetic softness to reveal, rather than obscure, the mechanics of oppression?
Keywords (eng)
Video Game AestheticsIdeologyDecolonizationDecolonial Game Studies
Type (eng)
book part
Language
[eng]
Persistent identifier
https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/o:5809
DOI
10.48341/ccmd-a102
Is contained in
Title
Gaming the Apocalypse
ISBN
978-3-903470-30-9
DOI
10.48341/j34c-h575
Publication
University of Krems Press
Publication
University of Krems Press
Date issued
2025-11-14
License
CC BY-NC 4.0 International