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Action takes place within or in front of such digital set pieces, and it is in this vein that volumes devoted to the artifi cial intelligence (AI) of games carefully outline the behavior of non-player characters (NPCs) and monsters (mobiles), but leave the articulation of the game environment to artists.2 Nintendo’s old Mario platform games exemplify this spatial hierarchy: although the iconic plumber runs, bounces, and sometimes falls through a series of obstacles set against a simple, side-scr