New Horizons, New Perspective

: Animal Crossing: New Horizons as post-pandemic, posthumanist queergaming

Abstract

Existing scholarship has primarily examined the significance of Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) during the Covid-19 pandemic as a space of digital refuge and social substitution. However, this narrow emphasis on pandemic-specific interpretations often overlooks the game’s broader cultural and ludic significance, particularly in terms of how it enables ongoing practices of identity expression and community. This thesis argues for its enduring value as a space for queer play, affect, and community formation that extends well beyond crisis-driven usage.

Drawing upon Chang’s (2017) queergaming framework with close reference to scholars of identity (Halberstam, Ruberg), play (Ruberg, Bogost, Juul), and posthumanist thought (Haraway), this thesis examines ACNH through a queergaming lens as a method of critical engagement with the structure and logics of games. By exploring ACNH in this way, critique can be directed toward the nature of game design principles and structures, such as goal-oriented play, progression, and player agency. Through analysis of game mechanics and systems design, this thesis outlines that ACNH – as an example through close reading – subverts these “traditional” gaming logics in many ways and illustrates queergaming’s potential to disrupt dominant ludic logics.

The intention of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it contributes to game studies and queer studies by providing a case study that understands queergaming as a critical practice to reconfigure normative structures of play, speaking to scholars invested in intersections of identity, affect, posthumanism and digital media. Secondly, it offers insights for game developers and designers by highlighting how non-traditional mechanics and open-ended systems can foster diverse and meaningful forms of engagement. Ultimately, the thesis positions ACNH as an exemplary case study that demonstrates how alternative design practices and mechanics can open possibilities for agency, identity, and self-making beyond normative logics.

Date of Award	17 Jun 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Abertay University
Supervisor	Andrew Reid (Supervisor), Mona Bozdog (Supervisor) & Darshana Jayemanne (Supervisor)