InGAME: Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise

作为文化产物，电子游戏是一种复杂的、多方面的产品，包含了从角色和叙事、交互和玩法设计、建筑、产品和环境设计到声音设计和构图的创造性实践。从技术上讲，它们将软件工程与数学和物理、人工智能与网络和用户数据结合在一起。将这些与充满活力和竞争的商业环境、被颠覆的技术环境和日益增长的文化意义结合在一起，你就可以开始欣赏这个行业面临的挑战。在电子游戏领域运营的中小企业受到技术、市场和平台的影响，平台访问和“可发现性”是产品生存能力的重大挑战。这些因素正在给邓迪集群的创新和原创知识产权创造带来下行压力。InGame的合作伙伴关系将通过在集群的核心建立一个专门的研发中心来追求高度合作，嵌入式的研发方法。艺术家，设计师和创意作家将与技术专家和商业专家共同定位，提供动态和响应资源，以参与三个重要的高层挑战-从当地咨询提出的问题，对700多家英国游戏工作室的调查和贸易机构的增长蓝图中整合-联合协作研发可能会导致邓迪电脑游戏集群的显著增长，可持续性和集约化。创意风险：在过去十年中，Dundee游戏集群的主要商业模式已经从发行商在销售收入之前承担开发成本的发行模式转变；在这种平台模式下，单个游戏公司承担开发成本，以换取更大比例的销售收入。因此，为游戏市场开发原创IP所带来的风险往往对初创公司和小型中小型工作室来说是致命的。技术创新：该集群中的工作实践以解决方案为中心，并具有迭代性，并且通常具有创造性和独创性。然而，技术创新并没有被系统地捕获或测试以获得推广或重用价值。价值链上的商业压力抑制了中小企业承担高价值创新活动的风险，导致失去经济机会，抑制了集群增长。组织发展：该集群的特点是大量动态的微型中小企业为手机、平板电脑和PC游戏平台创造内容。这个城市也有少数中型中小企业，他们拥有成熟的产品组合，包括原创特许经营，成熟特许经营的分包开发和开发主机游戏的工作室。专业服务领域（会计、法律）和文化领域（画廊和活动）也在不断发展。在这种情况下，组织发展中的研发涉及到公司层面的创业，以及集群和生态系统的发展。教育部门是集群的基础；阿伯泰大学卓越电脑游戏教育中心的特点是企业、大学和各种规模的机构之间积极而成熟的合作。邓迪大学与国内和跨国游戏公司的长期合作关系为促进邓迪集群的价值链提供了独特的机会。与邓迪大学在商业设计方面的学术合作，以及圣安德鲁斯管理学院在创意产业方面的专业知识，为研发合作伙伴关系提供了世界领先的研究基地。InGAME研发中心和创意研发研究员团队将为产业界和大学建立一种新的参与模式，以有效应对创意产业中跨部门合作研发的挑战。

As cultural artefacts, video games are complex, multi-faceted products that encompass creative practices from character and narrative, interaction and gameplay design, architecture, product and environment design to sound design and composition. Technically they bring together software engineering with maths and physics, AI with networks and user data. Bring these together with a dynamic and competitive commercial environment and a disrupted technology environment and a growing cultural significance and you can begin to appreciate the challenges faced by this industry. SMEs operating in the video games sector are subject to technological, market and platform disruption where platform access and 'discoverability' are significant challenges to product viability. These factors are exerting a downward pressure on innovation and the creation of original IP in the Dundee cluster. The InGame partnership will pursue a highly collaborative, embedded approach to R&D by establishing a dedicated a R&D centre at the heart of the cluster. Artists, designers and creative writers will be co-located with technologists and business specialists to offer a dynamic and responsive resource to engage with three significant high-level challenges - consolidated from issues raised through local consultation, a survey of over 700 UK games studios and the trade body's blueprint for growth - where combined collaborative R&D could lead to significant growth, sustainability and intensification for the computer games cluster in Dundee.Creative Risk: Over the last decade the dominant business model in the Dundee games cluster has shifted from a publishing model where development costs are borne by the publisher in advance of sales income; to a platform model where individual games companies carry the cost of development in return for as larger proportion of the sales revenue. As a consequence the risk attendant with the development of original IP for the games market is, more often than not, fatal for start-up and micro-SME studios. Technological Innovation: Working practices in this cluster are characteristically solution focused and iterative, and often inventive and ingenious. However, technology innovations are not systematically captured or tested for generalization or re-use value. Commercial pressure on value chains has inhibited SMEs from taking on the risk of high-value innovation activity resulting in lost economic opportunity and inhibited cluster growth. Organisational Development: The cluster is characterized by a high number of dynamic micro-SMEs creating content for mobile, tablet and PC gaming platforms. The city is also home to a smaller number of mid-sized SME's with established product portfolios ranging from original franchises, sub-contracted development for established franchises and studios developing games for console. There is a growing professional services sector (accountancy, legal) and cultural scene (galleries and events). R&D in organisational development in this context relates to start-up at company level through to cluster and ecosystem development. The education sector is foundational to the cluster; Abertay University's Center for Excellence in Computer Games Education is characterised by active and mature collaboration between businesses, universities, and agencies of every scale. The University's longstanding relationship with national and multi-national games companies offers a unique opportunity to catalyse the value chain in the Dundee cluster. The academic partnership with Dundee University in Design for Business, and St Andrews School of Management's expertise in Creative Industries offers a world-leading research base for the R&D partnership. The InGAME R&D Center and cohort of Creative R&D Fellows will establish a new mode of engagement for industry and universities to work effectively and responsively to meet the challenge of cross-sector collaborative R&D in the Creative Industries.