Creative Clustering and the Video Games Industry

Introduction 

1.     Video Game Industry Clusters: A Review of the Literature

Cecilia Maronero, Enrico Eraldo Bertacchini and Pier Paolo Patrucco

Section 1: The Dundee Video Game Cluster

2.     Sociotechnical shifts within Dundee's Video Games Cluster: The Dynamic Interplay of Actors, Practices, Institutions and Technologies across time

José David Gómez-Urrego and Wren O’Regan

3.     Disruption by Design: Diversifying Dundee’s Creative and Technological Ecosystems

Gregor White, Gordon Brown, Jung In Jung, Naman Merchant, Finlay Pearston and Morgan Skillicorn

4.     “Finding the GaaP” - Data, Dashboards, and Independent Games in the Dundee Cluster

Stuart Anderson and Darshana Jayemanne

Section 2: Understanding European Video Game Clusters Through GAME-ER

5.     Understanding European Video Game Clusters Through GAME-ER

Luís Leça, Tânia Moreira, Matilde Caria, Stefano de Paoli

6.     From Cherries to Controllers: Engineering a Gaming Cluster in Rural Portugal

Luís Leça, Tânia Moreira, Matilde Caria, Mariana Salvado

7.     “Like Volunteer Firefighters”: The Brno Game Cluster on the crossroads of informality and professionalism

Tereza Fousek Krobová and Jan Houška

8.     History and Operational Mechanisms in the Video Game Industry: The Case of the Turin Cluster

Nicola Costalunga and Riccardo Fassone

9.     From ashes to flashes… The birth of a video game cluster from (nearly) scratch

Thomas Paris, Chahira Mehouachi and Camille Toussaint

Section 3: Clusters in Global Contexts

10.  Sweden’s Comics and Video Games Clusters

Hailey J. Austin

11.  Productive Contradictions in Creative Clusters: The case of the Chinese Videogame Industry

Hugh Davies and Gejun Huang

12.  In Conversation on Games Education with Tracy Fullerton and Richard Lemarchand

Tracy Fullerton and Richard Lemarchand

13.  “A National Champion Making a Global Impact”: The Paradox of Canada’s Glocal Video Game Industry

Alison Harvey and Felan Parker

14.  Consolidation and Fissures: Neoliberal Infrastructures of Play and Game Production in Chile

Nico Valdivia Hennig and Ariel Grez

15.  In Conversation on Women in Games: Marie-Claire Isaaman

Marie-Claire Isaaman

16.  Mobile Game Development in Indonesia: The rise and fall of Lokapala

Haryo Pambuko Jiwandono

17.  My Bitter Ex: A UK-China Cross-Cultural Game design love story

Lynn H.C. Love, Hailey J. Austin, Beatrix Livesy-Stephens and Xiao Xiong Xiong

18.  “Like a swiss army knife": gambiarra-led practices in the Brazilian Games Industry

Leandro Augusto Borges Lima and Thays Pantuza

19.  In Conversation on People of Colour in Play: Satish Shewhorak

Satish Shewhorak

20.  Not alone in the dark? The emerging of a video game cluster in Lyon, France

Hovig ter Minassian and Vinciane Zabban

Biography

Darshana Jayemanne is Reader in Digital Cultures at Abertay University.  His research explores digital media, game studies, and internet cultures, with research in projects such as InGAME, CoSTAR and GAME-ER.

Gregor White is Professor of Applied Creativity at Abertay University and a leader in digital interactive entertainment research. He has led major initiatives including InGAME and CoSTAR, securing significant investment for Dundee’s creative economy and advancing industry–academic collaboration.

“This collection brings together an unprecedented and truly global range of perspectives on how and where video games are made. Through the flexible notion of the cluster, each chapter is able zoom in and out of different local, regional, and national contexts to reveal the vast and diverse range of contexts in which video games are now made. This is a crucial text for all researchers not only in game studies but those researching any modern creative industry.”
Brendan Keogh, Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

"Creative Clustering in the Video Games Industry collects in-depth case studies about videogame production in a variety of regions around the world. The book usefully charts how the historical, political, and sociological contexts of making videogames differ considerably from city to city, country to country. Out of this plurality emerges some deep truths - like an image appearing from an autostereogram - about how videogames get made, who make them, and under what conditions.
Doug Wilson, Senior Lecturer, RMIT University, Australia.