This thesis sheds light on the social relationships, work practices and identities that shape the small scale sector of independent game production. Harnessing elements of the Production of Culture and Cultural Industries/Work perspectives, it aims to clarify the specifics of independent game production and its relationship with the large-scale sector of the industry. Drawing on a multi-sided ethnography, the thesis captures gamework practices, motivations, ideas and conventions deployed in a diverse range of online and physical spaces where independent developers interact. Given the complex relationships and messiness found in the industry, the results of the thesis initially clarify general aspects, characterising both the corporate structure of the games industry and its independent sector. It then examines the cultures that inform independent work as well as emergent 'indie' praxis. After a historical review of the digital games industry, the thesis addresses how the corporate structure of the industry has created a viable game producing field, with a highly rationalised but not unproblematic process of game production. The independent sector is then analysed in relation to this material culture. The thesis discusses the technologic affordances, structural relationships, market approach and organisational forms supporting the production of independent games. It also examines the motivations, ethics and general culture informing independent developers work, as well as the emergence of independent networked scenes as social spaces where creative, organisational, technical and cultural aspects of independent game production are shaped. The analysis of empirical evidence reveals how the uneven struggle to control or access the means for game production, distribution and reproduction, in both retail and digital distribution business models, shapes the material conditions of the small scale sector game production. The thesis highlights the relationship between production, independent developers' preferences, and their identity as 'indies' as central in understanding how this novel sector of the games industry is being structured. By understanding both the structure and informal practices of independent production, this research offers novel insights in this under-researched area, insights that reveal the intricacies of processes of social change and cultural diversification within the digital games industry as a whole.

Game-Based Sprint Retrospectives are a well-used tool in Agile practices as a way to structure Sprint Retrospective meetings. However, this tool has very little scientific proof to back up why Scrum Masters should opt to conduct their retrospectives in game form. While the little research that exists provides proof that Game-Based Sprint Retrospectives help negate common issues with Retrospective meetings, it does not delve deeper into the potential positive effects of the practice. This study aims to start filling this gap by conducting Canonical Action Research with semi-structured interviews and surveys to investigate the effect implementing the Retrospective Game Sailboat has on a game development teams dialogue. The key finding was that the participating team's dialogue did improve over the course of the study as the team went from being quiet and uncertain to being lively and engaging. Possible causes for this change are how the post-it notes provided anonymity, an easier way to formulate team members' thoughts, and an opportunity for equal participation, as well as the game structure encouraging a less serious environment with playfulness.

Game development has come a long way from its origins back in the 1970s and 1980s, where small development teams worked over a production cycle of months to produce games. As the processing and graphical capabilities of computers and consoles increased, games became multi-million-dollar projects, developed by large teams over a period of many months, sometimes stretching into years. This led to rationalization in the games industry, especially among large studios and developers, resulting in isomorphism and an increasing similarity of games developed by them. In the late 2000s, the indie games industry took off on the back of digital distribution, allowing small teams to develop experimental and innovative game mechanics and put them out without the support of publishers. However, in the last few years, we have seen an increasingly crowded indie games market, introducing many of the risks to the indie industry that were typically associated with large developers. The purpose of this research was to study their impact, and to investigate whether they have led to isomorphism in the indie games industry. The research was conducted via in-depth interviews with five indie developers, followed by thematic analysis of the data collected through these interviews. Analysis of the data revealed the presence of isomorphic forces that impact the design and production of indie games, as well as the presence of “counter-isomorphic” forces, which act as a counterweight to isomorphism.

The focus of this thesis is to study the way that adaptive audio can be used in digital games and how it can be used to portray different moods to the listener, how games can reflect different feelings and how quickly those feelings can change. Games audio environment is significant to be able to adapt to the ever changing narrative of the game. The purpose is to gain insight in how immersion in digital games can be improved with the use of adaptive audio ­ to study if there’s an easy way to implement a system where audio can be mixed and adjusted in real­time to mirror the events in the game and project accurate feelings. To study this we will create a parameter based system in the sound engine of the game we will make during the production phase, with different parameters based on a number of different factors . Keywords: Adaptive Audio, Parameter System, Mood Music, Digital Games, Game Production Syftet med detta kandidatarbete är att studera hur adaptiva ljud kan användas i digitala spel, hur de kan användas för att beskriva olika stämningar till lyssnaren, och hur spel kan spegla olika känslor och hur snabbt dessa känslor kan förändras. Det är viktigt att ett spels ljudmiljö kan anpassa sig till den ständigt föränderliga berättelsen i spelet. Syftet är att få en inblick i hur immersion i digitala spel kan förbättras med användning av adaptiva ljud ­ att studera om det finns ett enkelt sätt att implementera ett system där ljudet kan mixas och anpassas i realtid för att spegla händelserna i spelet och återskapa äkta känslor. För att undersöka detta kommer vi skapa ett parameterbaserat system i ljudmotorn till spelet som vi kommer göra under produktionsfasen, med olika parameterar som är baserade på ett antal olika faktorer. Nyckelord: Adaptivt Ljud, Parametersystem, Stämningsmusik, Digitala Spel, Spelproduktion. / Ett arbete som tar upp hur man kan få immersionen i digitala spel att förbättras med användning av adaptivt ljud och musik för att spegla narrativet. / Pontus Stensgaard: 0769123182 pontus.stensgaard@gmail.com

<p>This paper is a qualitative study that utilizes game players to learn more about the impact of game narrative, and to use this information to understand more of its role in the production of<br> games. Initial research into the topic revealed that many competing interests drive game production, but that if narrative was “down-prioritized” in production, a game was more likely to suffer compounding issues that could result in a poor end-product and launch. This nets monetary consequences for a studio, but also severely impacts the team of developers. As the game industry already faces widespread issues with crunch, long work hours over long periods of time, any additional strain on production exacerbates existing issues. Game production documentation is often held privately as the trade secrets of a given studio, so the most feasible way to address these questions is to seek a successful game with amble published documentation and compare those resources to the experiences players themselves have with the title. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the game chosen.<br> A sample of 18 students from Purdue University completed an initial interest survey and provided demographic information. Of those who played games regularly, 4 participants were randomly selected to move forward with an audio and video recorded gameplay session that utilized a think-aloud protocol to capture moment-to-moment experience, and then an audio recorded interview about their experiences. These methods were employed to generate transcripts of their thoughts and experiences where the researcher conducted a thematic analysis of the content. Fifteen codes were synthesized from these transcripts and found that through the context of narrative, participants expressed that gameplay, aesthetics, and critical paths in a game facilitated their experiences with narrative. Participants approached the game and spoke about narrative in a variety of ways during the game session, but all came away with similar conclusions when interviewed. This suggests that game elements that convey narrative are highly effective and opens questions into how changes to those elements can sway interpretation and if that can be controlled for. Further, studying the patterns between these elements and determining what creates the most meaning for players could open new avenues for efficient game design. </p>

As a result of the global pandemic COVID-19, Bachelor’s game design education at Uppsala University was moved to an online space. Multiple literary sources give insights into as to how students were affected by the pandemic, however, little research specifically explaining the connection between game design students and game production in online environments could be found to inform this study. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the effects remote work has on students’ game production and to explore how these factors connect to the fields of Scrum, flow, as well as burnout. For the purpose of researching this, eight semi-structured interviews have been conducted with third-year game design students who previously had experience with both online and on-campus education and the resulting data was then further examined in the form of a thematic analysis. Overall it was found that the remote environment enabled students to become more independent and increased their work efficiency. However, any aspects related to social factors such as communication, collaboration, as well as other social interaction were perceived negatively by the students. Furthermore, the general online environment as well as students’ motivation and energy levels were found to not significantly impact game production in any particularly positive or negative way. / Som ett resultat av den globala pandemin COVID-19, flyttades kandidatutbildningen i speldesign vid Uppsala Universitet till online. Flera litterära källor ger insikter om hur elever påverkas av pandemin, men lite forskning som specifikt förklarar sambandet mellan speldesign studenter och spelproduktion i online miljöer kunde hittas som inledning till denna studie. Syftet med den här artikeln är att utveckla effekterna av distansarbete på elevernas spelproduktion och att utforska hur dessa faktorer ansluter till områdena Scrum, arbetsflöde och utbrändhet. I syfte att undersöka detta har åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med tredje års speldesign studenter som tidigare haft erfarenhet av både online- och campusutbildning och den resulterande datan undersöktes sedan ytterligare i form av en tematisk analys. Generellt visade det sig att den avlägsna miljön gjorde det möjligt för eleverna att bli mer självständiga och ökade deras arbetseffektivitet. Alla aspekter relaterade till sociala faktorer som samarbete, kommunikation samt annan social interaktion uppfattades dock negativt av eleverna. Dessutom visade det sig att den allmänna online miljön, såväl som elevernas motivation och energinivåer inte nämnvärt påverka spel produktionen på något särskilt positivt eller negativt sätt.