This study aimed to explore which philosophies and opinions professionals within the Chinese indie game industry hold in relation to the indie concept. Indie is a short form of the word "independence”, and is used to describe certain products and creative practices within media such as video games. The term’s exact definition is however subject to discussion. This study aims to include Chinese game professionals in this discussion. The study was carried out in China through Game Hub Scandinavia (Game Hub Scandinavia, 2018) and in cooperation with Indienova. The participants that were interviewed in this study were all professionals within the Chinese game industry. The research tools developed for these interviews were two playable demos and a survey. The answers provided constituted as basis for the study’s concluding analysis. The data indicated that the Chinese indie developers define indie as a creative endeavour which products and underlying ambitions contrasts the commercially motivated game industry in China. / <p>2018-08-23 14:25, G203, svenska</p><p>Högskolevägen 1, 541 28, Skövde</p>

In recent years, playing games has become a popular activity for everything from socialising purposes to educating purposes, with billions of players worldwide. However, being able to play games is not evident for people with disabilities. The gaming industry is excluding masses of people by not creating enough accessible games. Indie gaming is a part of the gaming industry that has grown immensely during the last decades. Indie game companies are often smaller studios with independent publications, finances and creativity. Almost everyone has the tools nowadays for making games. Indie game companies do not usually have the resources for engaging as much in accessibility as bigger companies do. Since they are distributing a big share of the games on the market today it is necessary to explore their possibilities of creating more accessible games despite their resource constraints. The research question for this study is “What are the game development challenges that Swedish indie game companies face when implementing accessible design practices, and how can they overcome them?”. This was investigated through a survey study where the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with employees at seven different indie game companies in Sweden. The results revealed perceived challenges in the tools that the investigated companies utilised, such as challenges in accessibility communication, resource constraints and how they aim to gather player feedback. Other challenges were identified in how the company operates, more specifically in their work tasks and planning of accessibility. Results also contributed to an understanding of how the investigated companies work with accessibility, through how they prioritise tasks and how they receive accessibility information. Possible solutions on how they can overcome challenges were identified, both on an individual and company level, as well as on an industry level for the indie gaming market. The results provided insights into the factors impeding indie game companies and developers from designing for accessibility as well as possible solutions to these challenges. These findings contribute to the understanding of the challenges with implementing accessible design practices and have added a nuanced perspective on the challenges faced by indie game developers and suggest potential directions for future investigation, both in research and in the indie game industry.

Educational video games – especially for the PC market – do not seem to perform as well commercially as games from other genres. We argue that there is room for independent – ’indie’ – developers to break into the marketplace, by identifying certain niches and innovating on the genre. This would generate commercial value for such actors and knowledge value for the players. Design decisions of high importance made during development of an educational video game demo at the small Swedish company Toleap Consulting AB were analysed in the pursuit of contributing to effective indie development of such games. Three main problems that arose during development were identified, and three design decisions where implemented to combat these respective problems; (1) Interpreted educational game pattern utilising XML, (2) Function-based game views and (3) Community created assets, open source, and no costly dependencies. In our case, the formulated design decisions effectively solved our problems, and we argue that they generalise. If a developer creating a similar game (educational video game) in a similar situation (independent development with limited resources) encounters one or more of these problems, the suggested design decisions may help the developer solve the problems, in turn making more educational video games available on the market, generating the aforementioned commercial and knowledge values.

Målet med detta arbete var att ta fram en logotyp och en webbsida till spelet Heathen Quest. Både webbsidan och logotypen skulle tilltala spelets målgrupp och förmedla spelets känsla: ”Rollspel med klassiska dungeon crawling och moderna inslag”. En visuell innehållsanalys gjordes för att undersöka hur liknande populära indiespel designat sina webbsidor och logotyper. En enkät utfördes med respondenter ur målgruppen för att utreda vad de upplevde som tilltalande. För att se om materialet skulle vara kommersiellt gångbart, utfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med branschaktiva inom indiespelutveckling. Till sist utfördes en semistrukturerad intervju med Heavy Realm Games för att validera att materialet reflekterade den känsla som de ville förmedla. Baserat på den data som samlades in skapades designförslag som skulle både signalera att spelet var ett RPG-spel, vara tilltalande för målgruppen och visuellt representera spelets tema. Under undersökningen framgick det att det är viktigt att designa med ett tydligt mål. Författaren har också upptäckt vikten av att välja det material som ska marknadsföra ett spel baserat på den tid som finns tillgänglig till att skapa det och underhålla det. Det är möjligt att det finns andra typer av grafiskt material som skulle ha varit av högre relevans att fokusera på inför sin lansering av spelet. Resultatet av de skisser som skapades under arbetet visar att de i stor utsträckning tilltalar målgruppen, kommer vara kommersiellt gångbara och kommunicerar spelets tema väl. / The goal of this investigation was to create a logo and a website for the game Heathen Quest. Both the website and the logo would appeal to the game's target audience and convey the feeling of the game: "Role playing game with classic dungeon crawling and modern elements". A visual content analysis was used to investigate how popular indie games designed their web pages and logos. A survey was conducted with respondents from the target group to investigate what they experienced as appealing. To see if the material would be commercially viable, semi-structured interviews were conducted with industry active in indie game development. A semi-structured interview with Heavy Realm Games was performed to validate that the material reflected the feeling that the studio wanted to be conveyed. Based on the data collected, design suggestions were created that would signal that the game was an RPG game, be appealing to the target audience and visually represent the game's theme. During the investigation it became clear that it is important to design with a clear goal. The author has also discovered the importance of choosing the material to promote a game based on the time available to create and maintain it. It is possible that there are other types of marketing material that would have been more relevant to focus on before launching the game. The result of the sketches that were created during the work show that they, to a large extent, appeal to the target group, will be commercially viable and communicate the theme of the game well.

From fears of issues with potential problematic consequences in the gaming industry stemming from a perceived power-disparity between the industry’s two defined“categories” (AAA and Independent), a study was made to investigate. This qualitative study was made to investigate whether or not certain perceived issues in the industry exist, and whether or not they are problematic (and in what way, if any). After interviewing four industry professionals of varying industry experience, it was determined that there are indeed issues stemming from a power-disparity within the industry. Furthermore, these issues can cause problems regarding the safety of the industry’s workers both physically and financially, the artistic and cultural development of the medium, and that some parts of the industry (mainly the independent-part of it) may be in danger should the AAA-part of the industry become too difficult to compete with. This has a host of consequences, such as marginalized developers and cultures being unable to compete and express themselves, and many independent developers losing financial support. This data and the conclusions drawn from them were then used to shape a manifesto with the intent to be used as means to inspire change within the industry and to rally up the medium to unionize and act to counteract the problems presented. Conclusively it seems that there is a power-disparity issue in the gaming industry. Furthermore, it seems that the more experience a worker of the industry has, the morein-depth they could argue and discuss issues and the problematic consequences of them within the industry. Due to this, it is concluded that new workers of the industry may be unaware of many of the problems and issues mentioned by the participants and discussed in the manifesto. This brings a sense of urgency to the manifesto’s spread. To help this, the manifesto is meant to be unveiled at the Sweden Games Conference of 2021, should the logistics go according to plan.

This master's thesis deals with development of indie game - independently-developed game. It describes important moments in computer games history. It clarifies terms like golden age of video arcade games and video game crash of 1983. Further it explains history and origin of indie game phenomenon. It describes some of the differences between independent and commercial game development. In next chapter it presents some game engines which are suitable for independent game development. And in the last chapter it describes the design and implementation of game engine and game running on it.

Cette thèse doctorale étudie la pratique des « artistes-développeurs » œuvrant dans le développement de jeux vidéo en industrie. Elle propose d’aborder cette pratique comme un phénomène complexe, au carrefour du développement de jeu vidéo, de l’agir professionnel et de la pensée des designers. Le développement de jeu vidéo se caractérise par le travail créatif, collaboratif et interdisciplinaire entre design, art, programmation et gestion. En raison de la complexification et de la rationalisation des produits et des processus vidéoludiques depuis les années 1990, des exigences considérables sont apparues pour les artistes, en termes d’adaptation, de spécialisation, de créativité et de productivité. Au cours de la phase de préproduction, des artistes expérimentés collaborent en équipe multidisciplinaire et contribuent à la conception et au prototypage des premières versions fonctionnelles des jeux. Alors que les industries canadienne et québécoise du jeu vidéo se sont rapidement développées au cours des vingt-cinq dernières années, les connaissances sur la pratique des artistes-développeurs demeurent limitées, en dehors de nous informer de l’expertise technique. Les studios développeurs exigent des besoins constants en main-d’œuvre compétente et en alignement des formations ; ils recherchent des compétences particulières (par ex. collaboratives, transversales, polyvalence), tel que constaté chez les petits et moyens studios émergents québécois. En tant qu’enseignant, artiste et chercheur, nous avons voulu développer une compréhension fine et contextuelle dans le but d’informer et guider la formation universitaire des futures artistes et la pratique en industrie. Des explorations pré-terrain au moyen d’entretiens et d’observations auprès d’artistes séniors ont servi à construire la problématique de l’étude, en fournissant une première compréhension de la pratique des artistes-développeurs. Notamment, cette pratique implique des activités individuelles et collaboratives de conception, ainsi que des habiletés réflexives intrinsèques. Ceci a conduit à apparenter leur pratique à celle du designer au sens large. Les va-et-vient entre les premières explorations et la littérature ont enrichi le questionnement pour l’étude jusqu’à conduire à un premier objectif : explorer la pratique réflexive « designlike » des artistes-développeurs expérimentés, durant la phase de préproduction et dans les petits et moyens studios québécois. Un second objectif vise à concevoir un modèle de pratique permettant de saisir la pratique professionnelle compétente des artistes-développeurs. Sur le plan théorique, l’étude se réfère aux théories constructivistes et pragmatistes de l’agir professionnel de la pensée des designers. Le cadre théorique permet d’élaborer une construction théorique avec laquelle il devient possible d’étudier un ensemble de dimensions structurant la démarche réflexive de design, à travers des cas situés et incarnés de pratique. Sur le plan méthodologique, l’enquête qualitative inspirée de l’ethnographie et du « shadowing » explore à travers trois cas de pratique (chaque cas = un artiste dans un petit studio). L’analyse interprétative vise à construire des catégories et à identifier des patterns réplicables d’un cas à l’autre. Chaque cas est analysé et interprété individuellement ; une synthèse transversale des trois cas permet de décrire un modèle provisoire de pratique, lequel est validé auprès des trois participants en entretien individuel. Nous proposons un modèle transférable et enseignable de pratique professionnelle compétent de l’artiste-développeur, en termes de situations et de compétences. Nous soulevons les besoins d’accompagner les artistes à mieux conceptualiser et expliciter leur pratique. Nous montrons comment la préproduction de jeu vidéo constitue un vecteur d’activités collaboratives de design et de prototypage. Nous concluons en proposant des recommandations à la formation des futurs artistes-développeurs, en revenant sur la démarche méthodologique utilisée et en proposant des pistes de recherches futures. / This doctoral thesis studies the practice of “artist-developers” working in video game development. It proposes to examine this practice as a complex phenomenon, at the intersection of video game development, professional practice and design thinking. Video game development is characterized by creative, collaborative and interdisciplinary work between design, art, programming and management. Due to the increasing complexity and rationalization of video game products and processes since the 1990s, considerable demands have been placed on artists in terms of adaptation, specialization, creativity and productivity. During the preproduction phase, experienced artists collaborate in multidisciplinary teams and contribute to the design and prototyping of the early functional versions of games. While the Canadian and Quebec video game industries have grown rapidly over the past twenty-five years, knowledge about the artist-developers’ practice remains limited, except in terms of technical expertise. Development studios have a constant need for qualified practitioners and well-adapted training; they are looking for specific skills (e.g. collaborative, cross-disciplinary, versatility), as seen in small and medium-sized emerging studios in Quebec. As a teacher, artist and researcher, we wanted to develop a fine-grained and contextual understanding in order to inform and guide the academic training of future artists and industry practice. Pre-field investigations based on interviews and observations with senior artists served to frame the study, providing an initial understanding of artist-developers’ practice. This was built on individual and collaborative design activities as well as intrinsic reflective skills. Through the pre-field study we have noticed some similarities between artists’ and designers’ practices. The back and forth between the first explorations and the literature enriched the questioning so to lead to a first objective: to explore the “designlike” reflective practice of experienced artist-developers, in the preproduction phase and in small and medium-sized Quebec studios. A second objective is to develop a model of practice to capture the competent professional practice of artist-developers. The theoretical approach refers to constructivist and pragmatist theories of professional practice and of design thinking. The theoretical framework allows to elaborate a theoretical construction with which we can study a set of dimensions that structures the reflective process of design, through which we can study situated and embodied cases of practice. The methodological approach draws on qualitative research and refers to ethnography and shadowing to explore through three cases of practice (each case = an artist in a small studio). Interpretive analysis is used to construct categories and identify patterns that can be replicated across cases. Each case is analyzed and interpreted individually; a cross-case synthesis is used to describe a provisional model of practice, which is then validated by the three participants during an individual interview. Based on the findings, the study proposes a transferable and teachable model of professional practice of the artist-developer, in terms of situations and skills. In addition, we raise the need to support artists in conceptualizing and making explicit their practice. We also show how the preproduction of video games can be considered as a vector for collaborative design and prototyping activities. In our conclusions, we make several recommendations for the pedagogical training of future artist-developers. We discuss the theoretical and methodological approaches used and suggest various avenues for future research.

In a fast paced and ever evolving industry where video games have become an important partof consumers' everyday life, game development can be tricky. The process of developmentcontains challenges that can either make or break a game. This study aims to shed some lighton the indie game development process, what challenges it has, how an independent video gamedeveloper would approach this process and to give the reader a greater understanding of whatbusiness models are used within the video game industry.To gather data a semi-structured interview was conducted with indie game developers so thatthey could give their perspective on the process of developing games, the challenges andbusiness models within video game industry. The data was then analyzed using the thematicanalysis approach to find themes and relate the results to what literature had to say about thearea.The conclusion of this study show that indie development usually starts with an idea, which isthen created into an early protype for testing purposes as well as to gather feedback whetherthis idea could become a fully-fledged game. The conclusion also shows that one challengewith using the free-to-play business model is the fact that many game companies have startedusing this specific business model, because of this there is more competition amongst gamesutilizing the business model.