Creative Territories: Exploring Innovation in Indie Game Production Contexts and Connections

创意领地研究网络将汇集领先的国际和英国学者，独立游戏开发者和创意产业利益相关者进行对话，以支持在这个快速发展的视频游戏制作领域的学术和创意实践的发展。去年，英国电子游戏产业为英国GDP贡献了9.47亿英镑，工作室数量从329家增加到448家，增长了4%。这种增长是由微型企业和中小型企业部门支撑的，这些企业是在经济衰退后从主要工作室的合理化中发展出来的。新技术和市场——尤其是手机和平板电脑应用——也为新兴的独立游戏制作提供了条件。这个研究网络将研究这个年轻但在经济和文化上非常重要的电子游戏产业的转变，以确定它是如何使新的文化生产、合作和创造力成为可能的。它的主要任务是评估这种活跃的协作游戏制作活动的动态，作为对不断变化的技术、媒体、文化和经济条件的反应。该研究的目标是制定并“绘制”关键过程和联系，这些过程和联系代表了该领域发展的商业可行性、创造性可持续性和文化价值路径，从而使其超越早期的“泡沫”，并在电子游戏制作中作为经济和文化价值形式产生重大影响。“创意领域”是网络探索的主题和重点。独立游戏开发者在合作中自我组织，有时还会在同一地点合作——比如最近成立的Bristol Games Hub项目合作伙伴。该网络将审查这些合作在不同的地方在英国和国际上（特别是在荷兰），以确定和评估的做法和价值观，维持创造力的商业和固有的文化和社会活动。创意领土将确定在进行创意文化生产的重叠的地方、区域和更广泛的领土各级的行动者、有关参与者和组成部分之间关系的质量和文化价值。该研究网络将举办一场国际和跨学科的对话，将参与者聚集在三个研讨会上，探讨独立游戏合作的两个相关方面：“商业、文化、创意”从独立游戏合作的商业、实践、技术和社会方面分析三个C是如何共同构成其可持续发展的；《一个成熟的产业》探讨了独立游戏的设计和制作实践如何改变电子游戏作为主要数字媒体文化形式的重要性、审美可能性和地位。第一次研讨会将由布里斯托尔游戏中心主办，并将密切关注独立游戏合作，为考虑其他发展提供比较案例研究。第二场将由学术项目合作伙伴乌得勒支大学的Joost Raessens教授主持，让网络参与者与荷兰的研究人员和游戏网络（如荷兰游戏花园）接触。最后的研讨会将在西英格兰大学，布里斯托尔的数字文化研究中心举行，并将专注于让关键的创意产业组织和利益相关者参与网络对话，讨论可行和成熟的独立游戏部门。创意领土研究网络将举行及时和相关的跨学科对话。它将建立和巩固独立游戏研究人员之间以及学术界和行业之间的新生关系。网络活动将产生洞察力，并支持合作研究提案和未来项目的发展。

The Creative Territories Research Network will bring leading international and UK scholars, indie game developers and creative industry stakeholders into dialogue to support the development of scholarship and creative practice within this fast-developing field of video games production.The UK video games industry contributed £947m to UK GDP last year, and grew by 4% with numbers of studios increasing from 329 to 448. This growth is underpinned by the micro business and small-to-medium enterprise sector that has developed out of major studio rationalisations post-recession. New technologies and markets - especially in apps for mobile and tablet - have also provided the conditions for this emerging indie games production. This research network will examine this transformation of the young but highly significant - economically and culturally - video games industry to identify how it makes possible new kinds of cultural production, collaboration and creativity. Its principal task will be to evaluate the dynamics of this lively collaborative game production activity as a response to changing technological, media cultural and economic conditions. The goal of the research is to formulate and to 'map forward' the key processes and connections that represent commercially viable, creatively sustainable and culturally valuable pathways for the development of this sector so that it lives beyond its early 'bubble' and makes a significant difference in video game production as both economically and culturally valuable form.'Creative territories' is the theme and focus of the network's exploration. Indie game developers are self-organising in collaborative and sometimes co-located relationships - such as that of project partner, the recently established Bristol Games Hub. The network will examine these collaborations in different places around the UK and internationally (in the Netherlands in particular) to identify and assess the practices and values that sustain creativity both commercially and as an inherently cultural and social activity. Creative Territories will identify the quality and cultural value of relations between actors, involved participants and constituents in the overlapping local, regional and wider territorial levels in which creative cultural production takes place.The research network will stage an international and interdisciplinary dialogue, gathering participants around three workshops to examine two related aspects of indie game collaboration: 'Commerce, Culture, Creativity' takes commercial, practical, technological and social aspects of indie game collaborations to analyse how the three C's are co-constitutive for their sustainable elaboration; 'A Maturing Industry' examines how indie games' transformed design and production practices can change the significance, aesthetic possibilities and status of video games as a major digital media cultural form. The first workshop will be hosted by the Bristol Games Hub and will examine indie game collaboration close up, providing a comparative case study for considering other developments. The second will be hosted by academic project partner, Professor Joost Raessens of the University of Utrecht, bringing network participants into contact with researchers and games networks in the Netherlands such as the Dutch Game Garden. The final workshop will take place at the University of the West of England, Bristol's Digital Cultures Research Centre, and will concentrate on engaging key creative industry organisations and stakeholders in the network's dialogues concerning a viable and maturing indie games sector.The Creative Territories Research Network will stage a timely and relevant cross-disciplinary dialogue. It will build and consolidate nascent relationships between indie game researchers and between academia and industry. Network activity will produce insights and support the development of collaborative research proposals and future projects.