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 produciton compells 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, ranging from giants like Nintendo and Microsoft to grassroots games like Cards Against Humanity and Stardew Valley, to chart more precisely the productive and instructive disruption that this new site of cultural production offers.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
M.J. Clarke (Cal State LA, USA) & Cynthia Wang (Cal State LA, USA)
2. This is how a garden grows: Cultivating emergent networks in the development of Stardew Valley
Kevin Rutherford (SUNY Cortland, USA)
3. The making of Escape Room in a Box
Cynthia Wang (Cal State LA, USA)
4. A semi-commercial endeavor: TSR Hobbies and fan publishing
Aaron Trammell (UC Irvine, USA)
5. From tool to community to style: The influence of software tools on game development communities and aesthetics
Emilie Reed (University of Abertay, UK)
6. Paper code and digital goods: The economic values in type-in market games
Patrick Davidson (New York University, USA)
7. Playing out of Steam: Indie games, dependent networks, and The Stanley Parable
Caleb Andrew Milligan (University of Florida, USA)
8. Brews, burgers and indie bombast: The antiestablishment neoliberalism of Devolver Digital
John Vanderhoef (California State University, Dominguez Hills, USA)
9. In search of queer spaces: Indie games, representation, and the politics of inclusion
Cody Mejeur (Michigan State University, USA)
10. The powers and pitfalls of queer indie game-making: An interview with Mo Cohen
Bonnie Ruberg (UC Irvine, USA)
11. Postmortems and indie cultural work
M.J. Clarke (Cal State LA, USA)
12. Conclusion
M.J. Clarke (Cal State LA, USA) & Cynthia Wang (Cal State LA, USA)
Index

Optimization, linear programming, game theory

Software development

Further readings in games

Games

Media and communication science in general

Optimization, linear programming, game theory (charity campaign)

Software development (charity campaign)

Further readings in games (charity campaign)

Games (charity campaign)

Media and communication science in general (charity campaign)

Indie Games in the Digital Age