Effects of community & genre on indie game production : A case study of the retro-inspired First-Person Shooter scene
Lakkala, Arttu (2023)
2023
Master's Programme in Game Studies
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-11-16
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202310259078
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202310259078
Tiivistelmä
The goal of this thesis is to examine the effects of community and genre on indie game production. This was done by conducting an exploratory study into the retro style First Person Shooter scene, which has seen notable growth in the last two years. The goal is to discover how working within an active scene and a well understood genre impacts the developers’ game production process. Production process was defined broadly so as to include not only the development of the game, but also the facilitating factors such as promotion and learning.
The research was done by using a qualitative methodology. Background research was done into several of the most relevant topics, which formed the basis for a set of semi-structured interviews with the developers of retro style First-Person-Shooters. These interviews were then analysed through thematic analysis, which formed the basis of this research’s findings.
This research found that there exists a variety of ways in which an active community and a well understood genre impacted game production were found to impact game production. The genre had its own enthusiasts, who were heavily invested in the genre and gave the developers a small but active core audience which they could rely on for word-of-mouth promotion and discovery. It also introduced a set of strong expectations through its genre tropes, which influenced how the developers looked at their game. They also improved the developers’ ability to position themselves both in terms of market as well as the broader game culture. The genre and its origins in indie development and fandom created a sense of camaraderie amongst the developers, which resulted in a notable amount of mutual assistance between them. These effects were heavily interconnected and drew back to the many different precursors of the retro style First-Person Shooter scene.
The research found that working within a community and a well understood genre clearly alters indie game production from how it has historically been understood. This highlights the need for a broader understanding of game production, which accounts not only for local and industry contexts, but also includes cultural aspects and audience expectations. This thesis ultimately offers a broad ranging and multifaceted picture of the retro style First-Person Shooter scene and can hopefully serve as an example, of the varying ways a genre and its surrounding community might impact the creation of video games.
The research was done by using a qualitative methodology. Background research was done into several of the most relevant topics, which formed the basis for a set of semi-structured interviews with the developers of retro style First-Person-Shooters. These interviews were then analysed through thematic analysis, which formed the basis of this research’s findings.
This research found that there exists a variety of ways in which an active community and a well understood genre impacted game production were found to impact game production. The genre had its own enthusiasts, who were heavily invested in the genre and gave the developers a small but active core audience which they could rely on for word-of-mouth promotion and discovery. It also introduced a set of strong expectations through its genre tropes, which influenced how the developers looked at their game. They also improved the developers’ ability to position themselves both in terms of market as well as the broader game culture. The genre and its origins in indie development and fandom created a sense of camaraderie amongst the developers, which resulted in a notable amount of mutual assistance between them. These effects were heavily interconnected and drew back to the many different precursors of the retro style First-Person Shooter scene.
The research found that working within a community and a well understood genre clearly alters indie game production from how it has historically been understood. This highlights the need for a broader understanding of game production, which accounts not only for local and industry contexts, but also includes cultural aspects and audience expectations. This thesis ultimately offers a broad ranging and multifaceted picture of the retro style First-Person Shooter scene and can hopefully serve as an example, of the varying ways a genre and its surrounding community might impact the creation of video games.