Rhythm Collision: How is the Player's Understanding of Diegesis and Game Goals Informed by Rhythm and Real-Time Collision Detection in Action Games?

Fighting games and rhythm games are two popular genres of action games, games in which real-time input is tracked and assessed by the game system. While not all are programmed to a musical track, use of signal and singalong listening (Huron, 2002) are essential to how the player interacts with and understands the game world in both genres. This paper seeks to provide a technical discussion of collision detection (how virtual objects intersect, and thus, interact) alongside Lefevbre’s (2004) rhythmanalysis, which looks at how we use musical listening and rhythmic understanding in everyday life, to unify discussion of how players experience and interpret both rhythm (time) and collision detection (space) in their understanding of play.
The discussion will be investigated through case studies of several action games: Thumper (2016), Hi-Fi Rush (2023), and Street Fighter 6 (2023); a rhythm game, rhythm-based action game, and fighting game respectively. Together they represent a cross-section of action games and a variety of ways in which a key challenge of the game (timed button presses that rely on knowledge of precise collision detection events) is understood and expressed through rhythm requiring the use of signal and singalong listening. Each has a diegesis through which rhythm and collision detection interact to make clear both the fictional world and underlying structure of each game, working with or subverting the role of audio as an interface into the game world. This paper will thus be useful for discussing how rhythm and collision operate in terms of game design, storytelling, and learning game goals.