Ruffino P. (Ed.) Independent Videogames: Cultures, Networks, Techniques and Politics

Routledge, 2021. — 302 p. — (Routledge Advances in Game Studies). — ISBN: 978-0-367-33620-2, 978-0-367-33621-9.Independent Videogames investigates the social and cultural implications of contemporary forms of independent video game development. Through a series of case studies and theoretical investigations, it evaluates the significance of such a multi-faceted phenomenon within video games and digital cultures.A diverse team of scholars highlights the specificities of independence within the industry and the culture of digital gaming through case studies and theoretical questions. The chapters focus on labor, gender, distribution models, and technologies of production to map the current state of research on independent game development. The authors also identify how the boundaries of independence are becoming opaque in the contemporary game industry – often at the cost of the claims of autonomy, freedom, and emancipation that underlie the indie scene. The book ultimately imagines new and better narratives for a less exploitative and more inclusive video game industry. Systematically mapping the current directions of a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly difficult to define and limit, this book will be a crucial resource for scholars and students of game studies, media history, media industries, and independent gaming.Introduction: After Independence.
Paolo Ruffino.
Cultures.
Decoding and Recoding Game Jams and Independent Game-making Spaces for Diversity and Inclusion.
Aphra Kerr.
Queering Indie: How LGBTQ Experiences Challenge Dominant Narratives of Independent Games.
Bonnie Ruberg.
Virtually Indie: On the Characteristics of Independent Game Development for Virtual Reality Headsets.
Paweł Grabarczyk.
Networks.
Network or Die? What Social Networking Analysis Can Tell Us About Indie Game Development.
Pierson Browne and Jennifer Whitson.
Strange Bedfellows: Indie Games and Academia.
Celia Pearce.
Techniques.
The Conditions of Videogame Production: The Nature and Stakes of Creative Freedom in Stiegler’s Philosophy of Technicity.
Patrick Crogan.
Boutique Indie: Annapurna Interactive and Contemporary Independent Game Development.
Felan Parker.
Game Production Studies: Studio Studies Theory, Method and Practice.
Casey O’Donnell.
Politics.
Game Workers Unite: Unionization Among Independent Developers.
Jamie Woodcock.
Playing with Risk: Political-Economy, Independent Games, and the Precarity of Development in Crowded Commercial Markets.
Nadav Lipkin.
Local Indie Game Studies.
Playful Peripheries: The Consolidation of Independent Game Production in Latin America.
Orlando Guevara-Villalobos.
The Melbourne Indie Game Scenes: Value Regimes in Localized Game Development.
Brendan Keogh.
Modes of Independence in the Finnish Game Development Scene.
Olli Sotamaa.
The Rebels Across the Street: IndiE3 and the Strategic Geography of Indie Game Promotion.
John Vanderhoef.
Freedom from the Industry Standard: Student Working Imaginaries and Independence in Games Higher Education.
Alison Harvey.
Afterword: The Cultural Conditions of Being Indie.
Bart Simon.