Autonomy, Integration, and the Work of Cultural Intermediation in Indie Games

Abstract

Based on empirical research, this article addresses the role of cultural intermediaries in the production, distribution, and reception of independent or "indie" digital games. Festival and showcase curators, local community organizers, co-working space managers, promoters, critics, funders, granting agencies, and other support actors are central to sustaining indie game cultures, but are often overlooked. Our research makes visible the diverse taskscapes of cultural intermediaries; the wide variety of brokering, translating, value-ascribing, connection-making, and care work involved; and the attendant tensions and challenges. We contend that cultural intermediary work in the game industry is characterized by precarity, extensive and largely invisible behind-the-scenes work, complex networks of interdependence and support, blurred boundaries between the personal and the professional, and a delicate balance between autonomy and integration.

Twitch spouse: Livestreaming and the legacy of spousal labour in the video game industry

“…These media exposés initiated by game worker spousesalongside the work of feminist game scholars like Alison Harvey (2015) and Shira Chess (2017) who write about the domestic spaceremind us that the feminized realms of care and repair outside the formal developer studio are sites of struggle wherein regimes of gendered inequality in access to careers in games are both normalized and challenged. Likewise, salaried family members and their support make 'indie' game development careers possible for entry-level workers (Perks et al, 2019). Bulut (2020) expands on this notion of spousal support in the game industry to argue that game workers' spouses represent an invisible patron of the game industry.…”

Game Production Studies

“…Drawing on our previous work, in which we sought to outline and elaborate on the role cultural intermediaries play in indie game development (Perks et al 2019), we interpret their mercurial position of 'precarity, [their performance of] extensive and largely invisible behind-the-scenes work, [their forging of] complex networks of interdependence and support, [and the] blurred boundaries [they must maintain] between the personal and the professional' (Ibid., 2) as indicative of broader shifts in the organization and operation of small-to-medium-sized creative enterprises. Due to the centrality of cultural intermediaries in the function and form of emerging creative industries, we propose broadening the lens of studio studies to include an increased focus on these external, interstitial actors in order to form a more complete picture of the independent game development ecosystem.…”

Streaming ambivalence: Livestreaming and indie game development

“…In many ways, game streamers resemble cultural intermediaries, those actors in a cultural field that connect cultural works to consumers ( Matthews and Smith Maguire, 2014 ). Intermediaries such as community organizers, festival and showcase curators, critics, coworking space coordinators, and other behind-the-scenes actors are the connecting tissue that constitutes indie game culture as such ( Parker et al, 2018 ; Perks et al, 2019 ). Aphra Kerr calls game streamers and online content creators new cultural intermediaries who are taking the place of specialist game magazines and written game reviews.…”