Developer's Dilemma

The Secret World of Videogame Creators

Casey O'Donnell (Assistant Professor, Michigan State University )

$85

Hardback

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English

MIT Press
21 November 2014

Information technology industries

Series: Inside Technology

Step inside the shoes of video game creators in this fascinating look at game development-and how it can inform our understanding of work.

Rank-and-file game developers bring videogames from concept to product, and yet their work is almost invisible, hidden behind the famous names of publishers, executives, or console manufacturers. In this book, Casey O'Donnell examines the creative collaborative practice of typical game developers. His investigation of why game developers work the way they do sheds light on our understanding of work, the organization of work, and the market forces that shape (and are shaped by) media industries. O'Donnell shows that the ability to play with the underlying systems-technical, conceptual, and social-is at the core of creative and collaborative practice, which is central to the New Economy. When access to underlying systems is undermined, so too is creative collaborative process.

Drawing on extensive fieldwork in game studios in the United States and India, O'Donnell stakes out new territory empirically, conceptually, and methodologically. Mimicking the structure of videogames, the book is divided into worlds, within which are levels; and each world ends with a boss fight, a ""rant"" about lessons learned and tools mastered. O'Donnell describes the process of videogame development from pre-production through production, considering such aspects as experimental systems, ""socially mandatory"" overtime, and the perpetual startup machine that exhausts young, initially enthusiastic workers. He links work practice to broader systems of publishing, manufacturing, and distribution; introduces the concept of a privileged ""actor-intra-internetwork""; and describes patent and copyright enforcement by industry and the state.

By: Casey O'Donnell (Assistant Professor Michigan State University )
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 590g
ISBN: 9780262028196
ISBN 10: 0262028190
Series: Inside Technology
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 21 November 2014
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: College/higher education , A / AS level , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Casey O'Donnell is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Information in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University.