Indie games in the digital age / edited by M.J. Clarke and Cynthia Wang.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Clarke, M. J. (Michael Jordan), 1979- editor.

Wang, Cynthia (Assistant professor of communication studies), editor.

Series:

Approaches to digital game studies ; v. 8.

Approaches to digital game studies ; Volume 8

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Video games.

Video games--Design.

video games.

Physical Description:

vi, 232 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

Paperback edition

Place of Publication:

New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.

Summary:

A host of digital affordances, including reduced cost production tools, open distribution platforms, and ubiquitous connectivity, have engendered the growth of indie games among makers and users, forcing critics to reconsider the question of who makes games and why. Taking seriously this new mode of cultural production compels analysts to reconsider the blurred boundaries and relations of makers, users and texts as well as their respective relationship to cultural power and hierarchy. The contributions to Indie Games in the Digital Age consider these questions and examine a series of firms, makers, games and scenes, ranging from giants like Nintendo and Microsoft to grassroots games like Cards Against Humanity and Stardew Valley, to chart more precisely the productive and instructive disruption that this new site of cultural production offers.

Contents:

Introduction / M.J. Clarke and Cynthia Wang

Part I: Indie game creators

Brews, burgers, and indie bombast: The antiestablishment neoliberalism of Devolver Digital / John Vanderhoef

Queer indie game-making: An interview with Mo Cohen / Bonnie Ruberg

Postmortems and indie cultural work / M.J. Clarke

Five nights at fan games: Feminism, fan labor, and Five Nights at Freddy's / Betsy Brey

Part II: Indie game tools

From tool to community to style: The influence of software tools on game development communities and aesthetics / Emilie Reed

This is how a garden grows: Cultivating emergent networks in the development of Stardew Valley / Kevin Rutherford

The making of Escape Room in a Box / Cynthia Wang

Part III: Indie game texts

The hunt for queer spaces: Mainstream indie games, representation, and limited worlds / Cody Mejeur

Indie in the underground / Aaron Trammell

Paper code and digital goods: The economic values of type-in market games / Patrick Davidson.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781501388545

1501388541

OCLC:

1259508750

Publisher Number:

99994168612