The Secret World of Videogame Creators
Series: Inside Technology
Step inside the shoes of video game creators in this fascinating look at game developmentand how it can inform our understanding of work.Rank-and-file game developers bring videogames from concept to product, and yet their work is almost invisible, hidden behind the famous names of publishers, executives, or console manufacturers. In this book, Casey ODonnell examines the creative collaborative practice of typical game developers. His investigation of why game developers work the way they do sheds light on our understanding of work, the organization of work, and the market forces that shape (and are shaped by) media industries. ODonnell shows that the ability to play with the underlying systemstechnical, conceptual, and socialis at the core of creative and collaborative practice, which is central to the New Economy. When access to underlying systems is undermined, so too is creative collaborative process.Drawing on extensive fieldwork in game studios in the United States and India, ODonnell stakes out new territory empirically, conceptually, and methodologically. Mimicking the structure of videogames, the book is divided into worlds, within which are levels; and each world ends with a boss fight, a rant about lessons learned and tools mastered. ODonnell describes the process of videogame development from pre-production through production, considering such aspects as experimental systems, socially mandatory overtime, and the perpetual startup machine that exhausts young, initially enthusiastic workers. He links work practice to broader systems of publishing, manufacturing, and distribution; introduces the concept of a privileged actor-intra-internetwork; and describes patent and copyright enforcement by industry and the state.
About Artists & Writers:
Casey O’Donnell is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Information in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University.