What are Studio Games?: Using the GFI Model to Investigate Chinese Jubensha

Abstract

This paper examines jubensha, the localized adaptation of live-action role-playing (larp) in China, focusing on its artistic representation and interpretation. Since the 1990s, China’s digital game industry has grown rapidly, while the analog game sector developed more slowly and received little attention before the 2010s. This trend shifted with the rise of the immersive role-playing genre, jubensha, in the late 2010s. Jubensha represents a distinctive Chinese adaptation of larp: this format is originally adapted from immersive experiences, such as escape room, in which specialized studios charge fees to provide organizational services, customized props, and immersive, themed environments. Moreover, a jubensha studio uses professionally crafted narrative scripts to enhance immersion, enforces strict gameplay rules to ensure logical coherence, and employs game masters to guide the experience.

Following Cardona-Rivera et al. (2020), the Goal-Feedback-Interpretation model (GFI) offers a critical framework for analyzing narrative design in games, complementing the MDA model. This paper applies the GFI model to analyze jubensha studios in China, examining game design elements alongside artistic representation and interpretation. Evidence is drawn from existing literature, the researcher’s gaming experience, and two expert interviews with jubensha studio owners, Yodi Zhu and Shuting Peng, from Luoyang, China. Conducted via WeChat, these interviews provided insider perspectives on industry development and key operational data through neutrally phrased questions. This study positions jubensha as a significant case in the analog game industry and seeks to answer: What is a jubensha studio, and how does it function? Can the studio structure enhance players’ narrative gaming experience?