voletdaile0110@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAbstract<\/strong>. This article identifies and analyzes the evolution of non-human characters in video games. It presents a comparative analysis of non-human characters in the video games Super Mario Bros. (1985) and Stray (2022), which represent different stages of the gaming industry’s development, separated by thirty-seven years of technical and narrative progress. The aim of the study is to trace the evolution of approaches to constructing non-human characters from arcade mechanics to narratively rich worlds. The theoretical basis of the work comprises B. Bodi’s concepts of agency and the formal analysis methodology of P. Lankoski and S. Bj\u00f6rk. The research material consisted of the games themselves, studied through participant observation followed by formal analysis according to ten criteria: role in the game system, subjectivity (agent\/component), list of actions, presence of an own goal, uniqueness, visual and audio representation, autonomy from the player, identification (personal name\/species name), and presence of a backstory. It was established that in Super Mario Bros. nonhuman characters are primarily gameplay functions: they lack backstories, exist only within the screen boundaries, and do not possess their own goals. In Stray, by contrast, non-human characters are endowed with agency: they have names, biographies, social roles, and personal goals independent of the player. The visual code in Stray becomes a carrier of meaning, and the game world becomes an autonomous environment that exists independently of the player’s presence. It is concluded that the evolution of non-human characters reflects the industry’s overall developmental trajectory: from technically limited arcade mechanics to narratively rich worlds where every character has their own story.Keywords<\/strong>: video games, non-human images, agency, Super Mario Bros., Stray, character evolution<\/p>\n\n\n\nFor citation: <\/strong>Lebedeva V. O Evolution of non-human images in video games Super Mario Bros. (1985) and Stray (2022) \/\/ Game Laboratory, 2026, 1 (2), \u0440\u0440. 15-23. [in Russian]. EDN: OWQLOW<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tCopy<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/button>\n\t\t\t