Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Indie Video Game Industry: Stories and Practical Lessons from an Eyewitness

· Springer Nature
Ebook
228
Pages
Ratings and reviews aren’t verified  Learn More

About this ebook

The indie video game industry attracts an enormous amount of enthusiasm and curiosity, blending cutting edge tech, a creative industries environment and a certain rebellious energy. It is idealised as a world where creative and technical ability is given free reign and can yield enormous financial and reputational rewards. But what is it really like to enter and work in this space? And how do the universal aspects of organisation, including teamwork, leadership and competition, manifest in this unique environment?

By embedding himself in just such a hub, the author was able to explore the experiences and interactions of ten indie game companies, four mentors, various funders, and two interns over a one-year period. The narrative is structured around six critical events: the introduction of newcomers, change in organizational rules, departure of a dominant social actor, self-inflicted crisis, introduction of a powerful manager, and external crisis. A process view shows how these events can hinder or accelerate creative production. Going beyond success stories or failure statistics, this book analyses the organizational and entrepreneurial strength of this approach, which combines aspects of the incubator and accelerator models for start-up development. At its heart though, this book attempts to give a fleshed out and analytical picture of what it is really like to work in the indie video game industry and offers practical lessons for indie-game developers.

About the author

​Devon Gidley is a software developer who earned his PhD at Queen’s University Belfast, UK, studying the video game industry. Previously, he has worked as a project manager and business analyst in the creative industries and new product development. He is an enthusiastic gamer and believer in the positive impact of a robust indie video game community.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.