Indie Video Game Development Work

This book presents a study of so-called indie video game developers that are widely regarded as the creative and innovative fringe of the video game industry. The video game industry is an exemplary entrepreneurial high growth industry that combines digital media, cinematographic representations and interactive gaming technologies, and uses global digital distribution channels to reach local gaming communities. The study examines a number of issues, concerns, challenges, and opportunities that indie developers are handling as part of their development work. The love of gaming and video games more specifically is the shared and unifying force of both so-called Triple-A developers and the indie developer community. Still, issues such as how to raise financial capital or otherwise fund the development work, or how to optimize the return on investment when video games are released on digital platforms are issues that indie developers need to cope with. The study is theoretically framedas a case of an innovation-led sector of the economy, yet being anchored in the Swedish welfare state model, wherein e.g., free tertiary education and social insurances and health case at low cost are provided and supportive of enterprising.

This book will be valuable reading for academics working in the fields of knowledge management, innovation, and the creative economy.

Explores how innovation and passion will influence future economic growth, using the study of Swedish indie video game developers to make broader points about upcoming trends Presents a study of so-called indie video game developers, being the creative and underground fringe of the video game industry Reviews relevant literature and addresses video game development as an innovation-led field that operates in the intersection of computer science, digital media, and entertainment

Autorentext
Alexander Styhre, Ph.D. is chair of management and organization, Dept. of Business Administration, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Styhre has published widely in the field of organization and his work has appeared in Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, and Academy of Management Review.

Inhalt

Chapter One: The ethnographer's dilemma: To understand a world that is not your own while avoiding to misrepresenting it.- Part I: Theoretical Perspectives.- Chapter two: Governing innovation led economies: The role of business creation and creativity.- Chapter three: The passionate worker and deeply meaningful work.- Part II: The empirical material.- Chapter four: Who is an indie developer?: Sorting out the categories.- Chapter five: Social norms in the developer community: The ambiguity of money-making.- Chapter six: In the venture capital market: Raising funds and dealing with investors and financiers.- Chapter seven: Expanding the video game concept: The perceptual and epistemological bases of the digital objects.- Chapter eight: Passionate production in the shadow of the market: The prospects of innovation-led growth.