Indie Games in the Digital Age

Description

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, to chart more precisely the productive and instructive disruption that this new site of cultural production offers. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction Part I: Indie Game Creators CHAPTER 1: BREWS, BURGERS, AND INDIE BOMBAST: THE ANTIESTABLISHMENT NEOLIBERALISM OF DEVOLVER DIGITAL Introduction The Emergence of the Boutique Indie Publisher The Antiestablishment Performance of Devolver Digital Conclusion Works Cited CHAPTER 2: QUEER INDIE GAME-MAKING: AN INTERVIEW WITH MO COHEN Conclusion Works Cited CHAPTER 3: POSTMORTEMS AND INDIE CULTURAL WORK Intrinsic Motivation Resocializing Transactions Embracing Middleware Technologies Appendix One—List of Postmortems Works Cited CHAPTER 4: FIVE NIGHTS AT FAN GAMES: FEMINISM, FAN LABOR, AND FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S Fans and Fandoms The Politics of Payments Indie Fans and YouTube Hams Come Share in the Joy of Creation Fantasy and Fun Come to Life Works Cited Part II: Indie Game Tools CHAPTER 5: FROM TOOL TO COMMUNITY TO STYLE: THE INFLUENCE OF SOFTWARE TOOLS ON GAME DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITIES AND AESTHETICS Accessible Tools, Aesthetic Style, Collaborative Communities RPG Maker—“something to tinker with while waiting for limewire downloads to finish” Glorious Trainwrecks—“Time to take the plunge into glory” Flatgames—“And release it!” Conclusion Works Cited CHAPTER 6: THIS IS HOW A GARDEN GROWS: CULTIVATING EMERGENT NETWORKS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STARDEW VALLEY Theoretical Underpinnings Rhetorical Velocity Stardew Valley as an Actor: Remix, Genre, Nostalgia, and Constraints Conclusion Notes Works Cited CHAPTER 7: THE MAKING OF ESCAPE ROOM IN A BOX Introduction Crowdfunding the Game, Disrupting the System, and Surprises Women Game-Makers in a Man’s Playpen Negotiating between Indie and Traditional Models of Game-Making Conclusion Notes Works Cited Part III: Indie Games Texts CHAPTER 8: THE HUNT FOR QUEER SPACES: MAINSTREAM INDIE GAMES, REPRESENTATION, AND LIMITED WORLDS Homes That Are Gone Present Vanishings Fragments of Ourselves Your Queer Spaces Are in Another Castle! Notes Works Cited CHAPTER 9: INDIE IN THE UNDERGROUND Introduction The Roots of Fan Studies Subcultural Spaces “Opponents Wanted”: Early Subcultures of Role-Play Resistance and Activism in Role-Playing Subculture The Dynamics of Reciprocity in Indie Games Notes Works Cited CHAPTER 10: PAPER CODE AND DIGITAL GOODS: THE ECONOMIC VALUES OF TYPE-IN MARKET GAMES Introduction The Long (1970s) of Indie Gaming with BASIC The Economics of the PCC Three Economic Simulation Games MARKET TRADER HAMURABI Economic Simulations and Education Research Conclusion Notes Works Cited Contributors Index