scholarly journals Voodoo software and boundary objects in game development: How developers collaborate and conflict with game engines and art tools

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 2315-2332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer R Whitson
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Unity 3D ◽  
Game Engines ◽  
Game Developers

This article describes how game developers successfully ‘pull off’ game development, collaborating in the absence of consensus and working with recalcitrant and wilful technologies, shedding light on the games we play and those that make them, but also how we can be forced to work together by the platforms we choose to use. The concept of ‘boundary objects’ is exported from Science and Technology Studies (STS) to highlight the vital coordinating role of game development software. Rather than a mutely obedient tool, game software such as Unity 3D is depicted by developers as exhibiting magical, even agential, properties. It becomes ‘voodoo software’. This software acts as a boundary object, aligning game developers at points of technical breakdown. Voodoo software is tidied away in later accounts of game development, emphasizing how ethnographies of software development provide an anchor from which to investigate cultural production and co-creative practice.

scholarly journals The RAGE Game Software Components Repository for Supporting Applied Game Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krassen Stefanov ◽  
Atanas Georgiev ◽  
Alexander Grigorov ◽  
Boyan Bontchev ◽  
Pavel Boytchev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Life Cycle Management ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Software Components ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Innovation Project ◽  
Game Engines ◽  
Game Developers

This paper presents the architecture of the RAGE repository, which is a unique and dedicated infrastructure that provides access to a wide variety of advanced technology components for applied game development. The RAGE project, which is the principal Horizon2020 research and innovation project on applied gaming, develops up to three dozens of software components (RAGE software assets) that are reusable across a wide diversity of game engines, game platforms and programming languages. The RAGE repository provides storage space for assets and their artefacts and is designed as an asset life-cycle management system for defining, publishing, updating, searching and packaging for distribution of these assets. It will be embedded in a social platform for asset developers and other users. A dedicated Asset Repository Manager provides the main functionality of the repository and its integration with other systems. Tools supporting the Asset Manager are presented and discussed. When the RAGE repository is in full operation, applied game developers will be able to easily enhance the quality of their games by including selected advanced game software assets. Making available the RAGE repository system and its variety of software assets aims to enhance the coherence and decisiveness of the applied game industry.

scholarly journals The everyday lives of video game developers: Experimentally understanding underlying systems/structures

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Daily Activity ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Collaborative Practice ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Critical Thought ◽  
Video Game Development ◽  
Game Developers

This essay examines how tensions between work and play for video game developers shape the worlds they create. The worlds of game developers, whose daily activity is linked to larger systems of experimentation and technoscientific practice, provide insights that transcend video game development work. The essay draws on ethnographic material from over 3 years of fieldwork with video game developers in the United States and India. It develops the notion of creative collaborative practice based on work in the fields of science and technology studies, game studies, and media studies. The importance of, the desire for, or the drive to understand underlying systems and structures has become fundamental to creative collaborative practice. I argue that the daily activity of game development embodies skills fundamental to creative collaborative practice and that these capabilities represent fundamental aspects of critical thought. Simultaneously, numerous interests have begun to intervene in ways that endanger these foundations of creative collaborative practice.

scholarly journals Ayn Rand’s Objectivist Ethics Applied to Video Game Business

2019 ◽  
Vol 167 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Tuomas Harviainen ◽  
Janne Paavilainen ◽  
Elina Koskinen
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Online Business ◽  
Game Developers

AbstractThis article analyzes the business ethics of digital games, using Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. It identifies different types of monetization options as virtuous or nonvirtuous, based on Rand’s views on rational self-interest. It divides the options into ethical Mover and unethical Looter designs, presents those logics in relation to an illustrative case example, Zynga, and then discusses a view on the role of players in relation to game monetization designs. Through our analysis of monetization options in the context of Objectivist ethics, the article contributes to discussions on game revenue ethics. It also expands the still understudied area of applying Rand’s ethics to business, in the context of a new sector, game development, and business. This research enables ethicists to apply a wider-than-before perspective on virtue ethics to online business, and helps game developers act in a virtuous manner, which provides them with a long-term business advantage.

scholarly journals Business Intelligence Challenges for Independent Game Publishing

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Yanhui Su ◽  
Per Backlund ◽  
Henrik Engström
Keyword(s):  
Business Intelligence ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Industry Research ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Analyse Data ◽  
Game Developers ◽  
Game Analytics

With the continuous development of the game industry, research in the game field is also deepening. Many interdisciplinary areas of knowledge and theory have been used to promote the development of the game industry. Business intelligence technologies have been applied to game development for game design and game optimization. However, few systematic research efforts have focused on the field of game publishing, particularly with regard to independent (indie) game publishing. In this paper, we analyse data collected from a set of interviews with small indie game developers. The results indicate that most of the indie game developers have already used business intelligence for game self-publishing, although three main challenges have been identified: first, how to conduct marketing promotion and improve the return on investment (ROI); second, how to collect game publishing data; and third, how to analyse the data in order to guide game self-publishing. Our interviews also reveal that the business model applied to a game significantly impacts the role of game analytics. The study expands and advances the research on how game analytics can be used for game publishing, particularly for indie game self-publishing.

scholarly journals Boundary work in value co-creation practices: the mediating role of cognitive assistants

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Mele ◽  
Tiziana Russo-Spena ◽  
MariaLuisa Marzullo ◽  
Andrea Ruggiero
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Agents ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Boundary Work ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Ageing Population ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Formal Caregivers ◽  
Mediating Role

PurposeHow to improve healthcare for the ageing population is attracting academia attention. Emerging technologies (i.e. robots and intelligent agents) look relevant. This paper aims to analyze the role of cognitive assistants as boundary objects in value co-creation practices. We include the perceptions of the main actors – patients, (in)formal caregivers, healthcare professionals – for a fuller network perspective to understand the potential overlap between boundary work and value co-creation practices.Design/methodology/approachWe adopted a grounded approach to gain a contextual understanding design to effectively interpret context and meanings related to human–robot interactions. The study context concerns 21 health solutions that had embedded the Watson cognitive platform and its adoption by the youngest cohort (50–64-year-olds) of the ageing population.FindingsThe cognitive assistant acts as a boundary object by bridging actors, resources and activities. It enacts the boundary work of actors (both ageing and professional, caregivers, families) consisting of four main actions (automated dialoguing, augmented sharing, connected learning and multilayered trusting) that elicit two ageing value co-creation practices: empowering ageing actors in medical care and engaging ageing actors in a healthy lifestyle.Originality/valueWe frame the role of cognitive assistants as boundary objects enabling the boundary work of ageing actors for value co-creation. A cognitive assistant is an “object of activity” that mediates in actors' boundary work by offering novel resource interfaces and widening resource access and resourceness. The boundary work of ageing actors lies in a smarter resource integration that yields broader applications for augmented agency.

Defining an Iterative ISO/IEC 29110 Deployment Package for Game Developers

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Kasurinen ◽  
Kari Smolander
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
Iterative Development ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Agile Practices ◽  
Level Model ◽  
Iterative Software ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Game Developers

Software development in a small development team is a challenge, as people have to fulfill several roles, which in larger groups would have dedicated people. To help in this aspect, the ISO/IEC 29110 Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities has been developed to help organization and manage the workflow. However, the model presented in the ISO/IEC 29110 is rather abstract, and prominently follows the waterfall approach, even though the documents do amend agile practices as one acceptable approach. In game development this loosely defined approach is problematic, since games industry heavily relies in the agile practices with short cycles of iterations. In this article, the authors present their study of game development organizations, and describe the ISO/IEC 29110 deployment package “Highly Iterative Software Processes” which combines the Entry level model with the industry-specific requirements. In general, the definition of support for the iterative development makes the model feasible for the industry.

Masculine Pleasures as Normalized Practices: Character Design in the Video Game Industry

2021 ◽  
pp. 155541202110347
Author(s):  
Jessica E. Tompkins ◽  
Nicole Martins
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New Media ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Video Game Industry ◽  
Character Design ◽  
Game Engines ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Game Developers

Scholars have extensively studied video game labor practices (e.g., Bulut, E. (2015). Glamor above, precarity below: Immaterial labor in the video game industry. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 32(3), 193-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2015.1047880 , Bulut, E. (2020). White masculinity, creative desires, and production ideology in video game development. Games and Culture, 16, 1555412020939873; Banks, J. (2013). Co-creating videogames. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing; Kerr, A. (2010). The culture of gamework. In M. Deuze (Ed), Managing Media Work (pp. 225-236). London: Sage; O’Donnell (2009). The everyday lives of video game developers: Experimentally understanding underlying systems/structures. Transformative Works and Cultures, 2. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.0073 , O’Donnell (2014). Developer’s dilemma: The secret world of videogame creators. Cambridge, MA: MIT press; Johnson, R. S. (2013). Toward greater production diversity. Games and Culture, 8(136), 136-160. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412013481848 , Johnson, R. (2014). Hiding in plain sight: Reproducing masculine culture at a video game studio. Communication, Culture & Critique, 7, 578-594. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12023 ); yet, few have exclusively examined the process of character design (e.g., Srauy, S. (2017). Professional norms and race in the North American video game industry. Games and Culture, 14, 478-497. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412017708936 ). Using a grounded theory analysis of 19 interviews with games designers and developers, this work complements existing research with insights on how gender and gendered interactions, technologies, audiences, market logics, and corporate culture integrate and influence character design practices. We found that technological affordances (e.g., game engines and related software; see Whitson, J. R. (2018). Voodoo software and boundary objects in game development: How developers collaborate and conflict with game engines and art tools. New Media & Society, 20, 2315-2332) converged with the masculine, heteronormative identities of game developers to shape normalized valued practices for character design, resulting in formulaic tropes that generally appealed to a masculine audience. Changes in status quo character design were attributed to diversity-conscious individuals, who operated within organizational practices privileging proven formulas over innovative designs.

Intermediating the Everyday : Indie Game Development and the Labour of Co-Working Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierson Browne ◽  
Brian R. Schram
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
Hierarchical Models ◽  
Cultural Industries ◽  
New Work ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Workplace Organization ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Cultural Intermediary ◽  
Cultural Intermediaries

Emblematic of major cultural and economic shifts towards ‘new work,’ indie game development has positioned itself at the forefront of market innovation by subverting traditional, hierarchical models of workplace organization. At the centre of these major shifts is the figure of the ‘cultural intermediary’ – a nebulous, ill-defined role which we, nonetheless, contend is integral to understanding cultural industries. By focusing on the mercurial forms of labour performed by founders and directors of indie co-working spaces, this chapter aims to give shape and dimension to the role of cultural intermediaries, arguing that their networked mobility and delamination from traditional ‘sites’ of work necessitates a rethinking of studio-based study as the standard for examining indie cultural production.

Interaction through boundary objects: controversy and friction within digitalization

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Hocine Jean Fremont ◽  
Jens Eklinder Frick ◽  
Lars-Johan Åge ◽  
Aihie Osarenkhoe
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Interaction Process ◽  
The Other ◽  
Boundary Object ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Object Interaction ◽  
Interaction Processes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze friction and controversies with interaction processes and their effects on forming new resource interfaces, through the lens of boundary objects. Design/methodology/approach The empirical setting consists of two organizations that are trying to enhance their competitive advantage through digitalization. During the process of data collection four different boundary objects were identified. The study illustrates how these boundary objects were characterized in terms of their modularity, standardization, abstractness and tangibility. This paper provides an analysis of how respondents perceived that the development of these boundary objects affected the creation of novel resource interfaces, and the resulting friction and controversy between new and old structures. Findings The study concludes that within a producer–user setting a focal boundary object will take on tangible and standardized properties, and the interaction process will expose friction in terms of both power struggles and resource incompatibilities. On the other hand, a boundary object’s modularity gives the actors central to the interaction room to maneuver and avoid resource incompatibilities and the development setting will hence be characterized by controversies. Originality/value The analysis indicates that the way individuals perceive boundary objects is central to interaction processes, answering calls for studies that investigate the role of objects within subject-to-object interaction.

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