My PhD research project, titled
'Meaning-Making in Indie Games', seeks to explore
the intersection of narrative and interactivity
in non-traditional videogames.
Indie games exist within an environment undergoing
seismic changes, as a number of technical and industrial
changes have seen the distinction between the amateur
or 'indie' developer, and the professional developer erode.
To illustrate, data from four surveys conducted by the
International Game Developers Association (IGDA) between
2015 and 2019 depict a downward trend in the percentage
games workers employed by studios or companies with
more than one hundred employees.
This informalization has seen the proliferation of
non-traditional videogame forms, such as indie games and
artgames, that do not conform to conventional structures of
production or expression.
Despite the increasing ubiquity of these non-traditional games,
holistic models for exploring and conceptualizing them are uncommon,
as models often apply particular perspectives, or adopt highly
broad terminology.
For example, Mikhail Fiadotau adopts a perspective of indie games
informed by their opposition to traditional corporate structures,
while Andrew Bailey investigates a generalised conceptualization
of non-traditional games as distanced from traditional
ludic properties.
This dichotomy is reminiscent of debate surrounding videogames'
status as either ludic or narrative media, which unhelpfully
sees non-traditional games conceptualized in vague or
fragmented ways.
Consequently, this research seeks to directly investigate
the nexus of interactivity and narrativity within indie games
in order to build an effective model for exploring
meaning-making processes that addresses both problematic
distancing of narrative from gameplay, and a seeming lack
of effective conceptualization of indie games and artgames.
In response to this context, and the desire to directly
investigate the nexus of interactivity and narrativity,
my research presents the question:
"How can meaning-making improve our understanding of
narrative indie games?"
This section explores how interactivity and narrativity
combine to facilitate the exploration of diverse game
styles and content, and will be supported and
extended by four sub research questions as follows.
Research question 1 asks: "What makes action 'interaction'
in indie videogames?"
This question seeks to investigate exactly what
characterizes videogame interaction, and what may
distinguish it from action or interaction within other
contexts or media such as typing in a word processor.
This directly explores the process that sees the
push of a button, or the tap of a key linked to the
complex interactions in a game space.
Research question 2 asks: "What are the interactions
of narrative indie games?"
This question seeks to understand disparate ways
indie games and artgames may engage with their
narrative elements, and how the player as an actor
may interact with the narrative aspects of a game.
Research question 3 asks: "How do narrative games
construct meaning?"
This question seeks to explore the various ways
games can be imbued with narrative meaning.
In an environment where games can take many forms,
and narrative may be told or presented in
disparate ways, this question will survey the
various conventions, structures, and representations
of narrative within indie games and art games.
Finally, research question 4 asks: "What is the
intersection of, or synergies between interaction
and meaning-making in narrative indie games?"
This question examines the relationship between
videogame interactions and processes of
meaning-making, exploring the tensions and synergies
between the act of playing and the act of
creating or authoring meaning.
In order to investigate and answer these questions,
my project will utilize a practice-led research
methodology. This involves engaging in both
critical and creative components to generate
knowledge and explore my research questions in
an iterative cycle.
The first aspect of my project involves consulting
a wide range of pre-existing research to establish
core concepts and situate my research within
existing dialogues of game studies.
The second aspect of my research will conduct
a survey of approximately 50 indie game
developers and researchers to gain an insight
into their perception of five varied indie games.
These will be used to validate and refine the
insight gained from prior research.
The third aspect of my research will be a
suite of experimental indie games that will be
informed by the insight gained in the previous
two facets of my project.
These will examine the theories and frameworks
in a practical context, providing valuable
use-based insight.
Critical reflection upon these use-cases will then
be used to refine and adapt previous aspects
of the project, synthesising insight to answer the
primary research question.
This project is expected to result in two key
contributions. The first is the concept of
'indie creatorship', a framework for analyzing,
locating, and communicating varied manifestations
of interaction and narrativity in indie games
and artgames. This outcome is expected to arise
out of scholarly research and will be refined
and validated through the analysis of the
results of the survey.
This framework will aid in the positioning,
analysis, and comparing of indie games and artgames,
and in turn may find usage in both academic and
industrial or social contexts.
The second contribution this research is expected
to provide is a redefinition of the concept of
interaction within indie games and artgames,
and a subsequent re-evaluation of processes of
meaning-making.
This may expand understandings of both
interaction and narrative within non-traditional
games, expanding potential design models and
encouraging diverse content.