Game Production Studies

Video games have entered the cultural mainstream and now rival established forms of entertainment such as film or television in terms of economic profits. As careers in video game development become more common, so do the stories about precarious working conditions and structural inequalities within the industry. In Game Production Studies, an international group of researchers takes a closer look at the everyday realities of video game production, ranging from commercial studios to independent creators. Across sixteen chapters, the authors deal with issues related to labour, production routines, or monetization, as well as local specificities. As the first edited collection dedicated solely to video game production, this volume provides a timely resource for anyone interested in how games are made and at what cost.

Sotamaa Olli :

Olli Sotamaa is an associate professor of game cultures studies at Tampere University, Finland.Svelch Jan :

Jan Svelch is a researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, Czechia.

"The outstanding collection Game Production Studies, edited by Sotamaa and Svelch (2021), exemplifies critical games' studies potential to speak to wider sociocultural, political, and economic contexts, to leverage diverse methodologies and theoretical frameworks, and to work across disciplinary boundaries."
- Felan Parker, Creative Industries Journal, December 2021

"A long-awaited and deeply important collection of original studies, theoretical framings and reflective pieces on the economic, cultural and political structures that influence game making practices around the globe. [...] Sotamaa and Svelch's book Game Production Studies is in open access, so there are absolutely no excuses for not visiting these works and building (critically) on top of them. Congratulations to the authors and editors! It is good to continue from here."
- Annakaisa Kultima, Game Studies, Volume 21, Issue 4 (2021)

"An excellent and much-needed collection exploring the politics, economics, and cultures of the contexts of games production. Essential reading for anyone interested in the making of games, with chapters engaging in theoretically and methodologically innovative studies spanning diverse geographic contexts and sites of production."
- Alison Harvey, York University

"This timely, authoritative and accessible volume is underpinned by a collective concern not only to describe and analyse game production, but also to identify and suggest more equitable and sustainable alternatives to current labour and production practices. As such it will prove a key text in study of games and games production, and the digital cultural industries more generally."
- Seth Giddings, University of Southampton