Developer's Dilemma ─ The Secret World of Videogame Creators

Rank-and-file game developers bring videogames from concept to product, and yet theirwork is almost invisible, hidden behind the famous names of publishers, executives, or consolemanufacturers. In this book, Casey O'Donnell examines the creative collaborative practice of typicalgame developers. His investigation of why game developers work the way they do sheds light on ourunderstanding of work, the organization of work, and the market forces that shape (and are shapedby) 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 iscentral to the New Economy. When access to underlying systems is undermined, so too is creativecollaborative process.

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

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.