Our collection of data points on loading processes and interfaces encompasses four decades of using hardware to marshal platform resources to support game experiences. Each interface and process represents a programming and design team’s attempt to create a novel game experience. Our presented framework identifies the ways in which these interfaces and processes have been designed to achieve that particular effect. This inventory allows games researchers to interrogate the effectiveness of these solutions, in what context they exist, and how they achieve their purpose. Designers and developers will be able to consider how to use these lessons from the past in their own work.

Solving the loading dilemma has given rise to a wide variety of design techniques and strategies for loading interfaces. This variety makes a taxonomy of video game loading design strategies valuable to game designers and researchers. We propose qualities understood from the player perspective, as opposed to the developer’s perspective. Our explanation of each quality does not relate to the technical underpinnings of how games work beyond what is necessary to understand each quality. These qualities can overlap or exist to various degrees in each loading interface or process. 

Hypermediacy and Transparency

While all loading is transitional, the transition can be described on a scale between hypermediacy and transparency. Hypermediated loading intentionally presents and calls attention to itself, while transparent loading attempts to go unnoticed (Bolter and Grusin 2000). Loading screens, the emblematic interfaces of loading, are traditionally opaque elements that call attention to a video game’s mediation of a user experience. 

Hypermediated loading screens can help orient the player and process a change in narrative time or place. For example, games that feature a day/night cycle simulating the passing of time often include content that only happens at certain in-game times. Since waiting in real-time for the in-game time to pass can be boring, these games commonly offer a way to jump to a specific time. During such transitions, it would be jarring for players to see sudden dramatic lighting changes and characters with behavior and locations based on in-game time of day abruptly disappearing or appearing. As a result, these loads commonly take a hypermediated approach that includes some indication of the passing time. The game Elden Ring (FromSoftware 2022), for example, fades to a black loading screen with a dial that shows the changing state of the sun before fading back in to reveal the new game state (Waldrop 2022) to help players process the change in time. 

With transparent loading, players seamlessly experience real-time ludic and/or narrative content. There are technical and design implications to this strategy. Without the loading screen “curtain” to hide transitions behind, the playable space must be arranged in a way that prevents the player from seeing the parts of the game that are not currently loaded in memory. When players can access content before it is fully loaded, the glimpse behind the curtain disrupts immersion and often results in frustration (WCK619 2012; Devil Dog 2020). Designers commonly employ strategic level layouts such as air locks or U-shaped curves to facilitate transparent loading and block visibility of unloaded content (Yang 2013). Game developers also commonly employ fog that increases in opacity further from the game camera to hide unloaded content. The game Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (Iguana Entertainment 1997) on the Nintendo 64 provides an example of the competing design considerations of loading. The game’s sprawling outdoor environments marked a departure from the constricted level design of corridor shooters of the era such as Goldeneye 007 (Rare 1997) and Doom 64 (Midway Studios San Diego 1997). However, these game environments required a notoriously dense fog to hide unloaded content and preserve performance. 

Diegetic and Nondiegetic

The distinction between diegetic and nondiegetic has been discussed by game theorists and game designers in relation to game user interfaces (Genette 1980; Bordwell and Thompson 1993; Fagerholt and Lorentzon n.d.; Stonehouse 2014). In this context, diegetic elements of a game exist within the game’s narrative world. Characters within the narrative world can perceive diegetic elements. Accordingly, in video games, diegetic loading interfaces are blended into the environmental context of the game’s fictional world. For example, in Metroid Prime (Retro Studios 2002), loading occurs behind closed doors that exist in the 3D game world. These doors will not open until the loading has completed (“Metroid Prime/Gamecube vs. Wii Loading Discrepancies” 2020). 

Nondiegetic elements, on the other hand, exist outside of the narrative world. Characters in the narrative world are not aware of and cannot perceive nondiegetic elements (without breaking the fourth wall). The classic loading screen is an example of a nondiegetic loading interface. The loading screen is intended to be perceived only by players beyond the fourth wall of the narrative experience. For example, the loading screen for Armalyte (Cyberdyne Systems 1988) on the Commodore 64 includes the game title and publisher. This information is presented to players and is not meant to exist within the game’s narrative or be perceived by its characters. 

Passive and Interactive

Loading screens historically originated as passive elements. Players could not influence or interact with them in any way. As discussed, loading traditionally interrupts the responsiveness of video games as interactive systems. This downtime comes at the expense of players who expect interactivity and entertainment from video games. Some games have become notorious for long or frequent loading. For example, the PS2 game Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (Traveller’s Tales 2001) has been pilloried for featuring gameplay levels with playtimes shorter than their loading times (Sinha 2017). The game Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 (CI Games 2017) on the PS4 took so long to load at launch that one reporter demonstrated it was possible to complete an entire race in Mario Kart 8, catch multiple Pokémon in Pokémon GO, and complete four speed runs of the entire game Gone Home during the load time (Higton 2017). 

However, players’ tendency to play other games while waiting for a game to load has not been overlooked by game developers, spurring the innovation of the interactive loading screen. As Brenda Laurel puts it, “A key premise of the mobile-technology game industry is that the pleasure of interactivity is preferable to boredom.” (Laurel 2005). Following this philosophy, some games include simple interactions on their loading screens. For example, on the Elden Ring loading screen, players can press a button to advance through a list of tips. The loading screen in Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Intelligent Systems and Tecmo 2019) allows players to move a simplified pixel art representation of the player character from one side of the screen to another with gyroscope input or jump by pressing a button. In Skyrim, players can rotate 3D models of props from the game world with directional input. 

Pedagogic and Misdirection

Another set of loading interfaces are pedagogical and educate the player about a variety of topics. In addition, a smaller set of loading interfaces engage in misdirection. By misdirection, we mean that the interface does not teach the player but instead seeks to distract the player or misinform them. Pedagogical interfaces may teach the player about the game world, play controls, gameplay hints, and even reflexively about themselves. Misdirection alternatively either distracts, misinforms, or acts as a superfluous spectacle that does not parallel loading processes. In short, the difference between pedagogy and misdirection is that the former intentionally helps the player have a more educated play experience and the latter intentionally occludes or obstructs that experience to achieve a secondary goal.

Pedagogic loading screens are incredibly common. In the Total War series (Creative Assembly n.d.) players experience world building pedagogical information that is either historically or lore accurate. Loading screens that provide tips for gameplay are also common, especially in complex games. Europa Universalis IV, an expansive and complicated strategy game, (Paradox Development Studio 2013) contains tips for gameplay to help the player digest its vast ruleset over time. A compelling example of reflexive pedagogical loading screen comes from Spec Ops: The Line (Yager Development 2012). These loading screens ask the player to reflect on video games, murder, and state-sanctioned violence. 

Misdirection in loading screens is more insidious. It is rife in mobile games wherein loading may be intertwined with advertisements for in-game microtransactions or other mobile games from the same developer. Another example of misdirection is the insertion of ads that cannot be skipped or other marketing content such as in NBA 2K21 (Visual Concepts 2020). Sometimes, this misdirection serves pedagogy as in Guerilla Game’s Horizon Forbidden West (2022) where loading times are artificially extended to provide more time to read the hints (Gratton 2022). The misdirection occurs in the sense that the loading process is already completed, the screen is superfluous but for the pedagogical goals of the designers. They do, however, provide the user with the agency necessary to start the game when they are ready. This form of misdirection might be classified as a benevolent deception (Adar, Tan, and Teevan 2013).