La pratique professionnelle des artistes-développeurs de jeu vidéo : une exploration de leur processus réflexif de design

This doctoral thesis studies the practice of “artist-developers” working in video game development. It proposes to examine this practice as a complex phenomenon, at the intersection of video game development, professional practice and design thinking. Video game development is characterized by creative, collaborative and interdisciplinary work between design, art, programming and management. Due to the increasing complexity and rationalization of video game products and processes since the 1990s, considerable demands have been placed on artists in terms of adaptation, specialization, creativity and productivity. During the preproduction phase, experienced artists collaborate in multidisciplinary teams and contribute to the design and prototyping of the early functional versions of games. While the Canadian and Quebec video game industries have grown rapidly over the past twenty-five years, knowledge about the artist-developers’ practice remains limited, except in terms of technical expertise. Development studios have a constant need for qualified practitioners and well-adapted training; they are looking for specific skills (e.g. collaborative, cross-disciplinary, versatility), as seen in small and medium-sized emerging studios in Quebec. As a teacher, artist and researcher, we wanted to develop a fine-grained and contextual understanding in order to inform and guide the academic training of future artists and industry practice. Pre-field investigations based on interviews and observations with senior artists served to frame the study, providing an initial understanding of artist-developers’ practice. This was built on individual and collaborative design activities as well as intrinsic reflective skills. Through the pre-field study we have noticed some similarities between artists’ and designers’ practices. The back and forth between the first explorations and the literature enriched the questioning so to lead to a first objective: to explore the “designlike” reflective practice of experienced artist-developers, in the preproduction phase and in small and medium-sized Quebec studios. A second objective is to develop a model of practice to capture the competent professional practice of artist-developers. The theoretical approach refers to constructivist and pragmatist theories of professional practice and of design thinking. The theoretical framework allows to elaborate a theoretical construction with which we can study a set of dimensions that structures the reflective process of design, through which we can study situated and embodied cases of practice. The methodological approach draws on qualitative research and refers to ethnography and shadowing to explore through three cases of practice (each case = an artist in a small studio). Interpretive analysis is used to construct categories and identify patterns that can be replicated across cases. Each case is analyzed and interpreted individually; a cross-case synthesis is used to describe a provisional model of practice, which is then validated by the three participants during an individual interview. Based on the findings, the study proposes a transferable and teachable model of professional practice of the artist-developer, in terms of situations and skills. In addition, we raise the need to support artists in conceptualizing and making explicit their practice. We also show how the preproduction of video games can be considered as a vector for collaborative design and prototyping activities. In our conclusions, we make several recommendations for the pedagogical training of future artist-developers. We discuss the theoretical and methodological approaches used and suggest various avenues for future research.

Keyphrases: pensée design, artist-developer, artist-developer’s skills, video game preproduction, indie game studios, reflective practice, design thinking