<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">(apologies for cross-posting)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Dear list,<br><span style="font-size:11pt">I will be coordinating the Indie Game Studies workshop at
DiGRA 2018 in Turin, Italy. The workshop is tentatively scheduled on July 24</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size:11pt">,
2:30-6:30pm.<br>The workshop is a 5-years late 'sequel' to the Indie Game Studies panel organised at DiGRA 2013
in Atlanta (GA) – more info below.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Places will be limited to a selected number of participants
who intend to bring their contribution as researcher and/or practitioners. If
you would like to join the workshop as a participant, please send an email to <a href="mailto:contact@paoloruffino.com" style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline">contact@paoloruffino.com</a> by Friday 25<sup>th</sup>
May 2018 and include bio, affiliation, and a short statement about your
involvement and interest in the study of independent forms of video game
development (max 250 words). If you would like to be considered as a speaker,
please include a description of your contribution (max 500 words). <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">If you are interested in the theme of the workshop but are
still undecided regarding your participation at the conference in Turin, please
get in touch with me, and I’ll keep you updated on the results and on any outcome
(publications, conferences, etc.) which might follow.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Confirmed participants include:<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Casey O’Donnell (Associate Professor at Michigan State
University, USA)<br>
Celia Pearce (Associate Professor of Game Design at Northeastern University,
USA)<br>
Emma Westecott (Associate Professor in Game Design and Director of game:play at
OCAD University, Canada)<br>
Jonathan Lessard (Professor of Game Designer at Concordia University, Canada)<br>
Carl Therrien (Professor in Game Studies at Université de Montreal, Canada)<br>
Nadav Lipkin (Assistant Professor of Media, Communication and Technology at La
Roche College, Pittsburgh, PA, USA)<br>
And myself, Paolo Ruffino (Lecturer in Media Studies at University of Lincoln,
UK).<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Best,<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">-<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>Indie Game Studies
workshop </b><br>
July 24<sup>th</sup> at DiGRA 2018 conference (Turin, Italy)<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">At DiGRA 2013 (Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta,
USA), the Indie Game Studies panel and dedicated issue of the journal <i>Loading…</i>, curated by Prof Bart Simon,
brought the emerging forms of independent game development to the attention of
game scholars (Parker 2014). Five years later, the indie scene has become richer
and varied, and has been adapting to mutating contexts of production and distribution.
Festivals, incubators for start-ups and small companies, workshops and
mentoring schemes, have been proliferating in the USA, Canada, Australia,
Northern Europe, and the United Kingdom. Numerous independent companies have
been founded in the geographical areas where the video game industry was
already solid, and a significant presence is establishing in parts of the world
that have been traditionally distant from the main hubs of video game
development.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">While the differences (economic, managerial, ideological)
with the mainstream productions have always been contested, the recent
proliferation of independent companies has further confused the boundaries that
appeared to separate the independent territories from the ‘official’ video game
industry. In 2013 the trade association TIGA estimated that in the United
Kingdom ‘83% of all studios that started up in 2011 and 2012 were independent
(as opposed to publisher owned)’ (TIGA 2013). It has been estimated that, in
2014, 95% of video game companies in the United Kingdom were micro or small
businesses, according to NESTA (2014) and the British government (GOV.uk 2014).
In Australia, independent companies now form the ‘backbone’ of game development
(Apperley and Golding 2015, 61; Banks and Cunningham 2016). In 2013, a survey involving 2,500 North
American game developers revealed that 53% of them identified as ‘indie’ (GDC
2013), and a subsequent survey by IGDA revealed that 48% of US game developers self-identified
as independent (IGDA 2014). Independence is no longer a marginal or alternative
mode of production, if it ever was, but the most common type of organization
within the video game industry. It appears that almost every game developer is
now partially or temporarily ‘indie’ within their career, and the trend is
expected to grow, consistently with the recent developments of the cinema,
music, and fashion industries (Hesmondhalgh 2013, McRobbie 2016).<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The workshop will explore the current state, meanings, and
values associated with independence in video game culture, through a series of
contributions and findings that analyse the domain from different perspectives,
disciplines and geographical specificities. What is at stake, in 2018, when
making claims of autonomy, self-management, and creative control? Are indie
games helping improve the diversity deficit in gamemakers and audiences? Is
there still room for independence, in a production context where short-term
contracts, individualism, and financial risks are considered necessary to be
involved in game development?<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The workshop picks up where the 2013 DiGRA panel left off,
bringing together the most current research and theorizing on the topic of
“indie game studies.” Speakers, including some of from the original panel in
Atlanta, will present and compare research in a series of short (10-15 minutes)
presentations. The presentation will culminate in a discussion, to which
participants will be invited to contribute, identifying patterns, controversies
and gaps, with a view toward continuing towards further collaboration, research,
publication and dissemination.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b>References<span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Apperley, T. and Golding, D. (2015) “Australia” in Video
Games Around the World (M.J.P. Wolf, ed.), Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press, pp.
57–70.<span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Banks, J. and Cunningham, S. (2016) "Games Production in Australia: Adapting to Precariousness" in Precarious Creativity: Global Media, Local Labor (M. Curtin and K. Sanson, eds.), Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 186-199</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">GDC (2013) “GDC State of the Industry research exposes major
trends ahead of March show”. GDConf.com. February 28. Available at <a href="http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.igda.org/resource/collection/9215B88F-2AA3-4471-B44D-B5D58FF25DC7/igda_surveyresults2014_v7.pdf" style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline">http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.igda.org/resource/collection/9215B88F-2AA3-4471-B44D-B5D58FF25DC7/igda_surveyresults2014_v7.pdf</a><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">GOV.uk (2014). “Video games tax relief passes final hurdle”.
GOV.uk, 27th March. Available at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/video-games-tax-relief-passes-final-hurdle">https://www.gov.uk/government/news/video-games-tax-relief-passes-final-hurdle</a>
<br>
<br>
Hesmondhalgh, David. 2013. The Cultural Industries. 3rd Edition. London: Sage.<br>
McRobbie, A. 2016. Be Creative: Making a Living in the New Culture Industries.
Cambridge: Polity Press.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">NESTA (2014) “A Map of the UK Games Industry”, Nesta.org,
25th September. Available at <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/map-uk-games-industry" style="color:blue;text-decoration:underline">https://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/map-uk-games-industry</a><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Parker, F. (2014) “Indie Game Studies Year Eleven”. In
Proceedings of DiGRA 2013: DeFragging Game Studies, Vol. 7, August 2014.
Available at
<a href="http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/indie-game-studies-year-eleven/">http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/indie-game-studies-year-eleven/</a><br>
<br>
TIGA (2013) “The UK Games Industry: Young, Independent and Mobile”. TIGA.org,
April 2nd. Available at
<a href="http://tiga.org/news/the-uk-games-industry-young-independent-and-mobile">http://tiga.org/news/the-uk-games-industry-young-independent-and-mobile</a><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;line-height:115%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">UKIE (2017) “The UK Video Games Sector: a Blueprint for
Growth”. The UK Interactive Entertainment Association. Available at
<a href="http://ukie.org.uk/blueprint">http://ukie.org.uk/blueprint</a><span></span></p>
<br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Dr. Paolo Ruffino<br><a href="http://paoloruffino.com" target="_blank">http://paoloruffino.com</a></div>
</div>