AbstractThe study aims to identify attributes and characteristics of visual aesthetics in order to establish a set of guiding principles of visceral level player-centric emotional design for digital games. This study is important for graphic designers in the field of game design as it may resolve the issue of commercial failure encountered by game designers in the creative industry, particularly on matters related to visual aesthetics. To achieve the research aim, a mixed methods research design was selected, incorporating two phases of research, i.e. the exploratory phase and the confirmatory phase. The exploratory phase involved a qualitative approach to explore phenomena associated to visual aesthetics through semi structured interviews, conducted with five prominent game practitioners. The findings of exploratory phase were used to direct the development of questionnaire survey in the confirmatory phase. A total of 100 graphic design students from four Malaysia public universities took par.....