Game production studies Frontmatter Table of Contents Introduction: Why Game Production Matters Contributors Labour 1. Hobbyist Game Making Between Self Exploitation and Self Emancipation 2. Self Making and Game Making in the Future of Work 3. Should I Stay or Should I Go The Circulations and Biographies of French Game Workers in a Global Games Era 4. Intermediating the Everyday : Indie Game Development and the Labour of Co Working Spaces Development 5. Game Developers Playing Games : Instrumental Play Game Talk and Preserving the Joy of Play 6. Game Development Live on Twitch : Observations of Practice and Educational Synergies 7. Unity Production: Capturing the Everyday Game Maker Market 8. More Than One Flop from Bankruptcy : Rethinking Sustainable Independent Game Development Publishing & Monetization 9. How to Study Game Publishers: Activision Blizzards Corporate History 10. Who Creates Microtransactions : The Production Context of Video Game Monetization 11. Regulating In Game Monetization : Implications of Regulation on Games Production Regional Perspectives 12. Promises of the Periphery : Producing Games in the Communist and Transformation Era Czechoslovakia 13. Construction and Negotiation of Entrepreneurial Subjectivities in the Polish Video Game Industry 14. The Development of Greater Chinas Games Industry : From Copying to Imitation to Innovation Before and After: Towards Inclusive Production Studies Theories and Methods Complete Bibliography Index Video games have entered the cultural mainstream and in terms of economic profits they now rival established entertainment industries such as film or television. As careers in video game development become more common so do the stories about precarious working conditions and structural inequalities within the industry. Yet scholars have largely overlooked video game production cultures in favor of studying games themselves and player audiences. In Game Production Studies an international group of established and emerging researchers takes a closer look at the everyday realities of video game production ranging from commercial industries to independent creators and cultural intermediaries. Across sixteen chapters the authors deal with issues related to labour game development monetization and publishing as well as local specificities. As the first edited collection dedicated solely to video game production this volume provides a timely resource for anyone interested in how games are made and at what costs