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NOTE: This class is compulsory for the Game Studies Master's program. Students from other programs may join when capacity remains.
This class explores the production aspects of video games. Paradigmatically, it draws from scholarly areas of production studies, critical political economy, and game studies. The goal of the class is to give students the ability to critically assess how production processes and infrastructures affect the commodities created by video game industries as well as video game cultures that emerge around them. Students will also learn about the working conditions of video game developers, highlighting the precariousness of video game employment, but also the vocational passion, which is common also to other creative and cultural industries. Other topics will include monetization, amateur game-making, distribution, platformization, or localization. Learning Outcomes - Knowledge about the video game industry, its production cultures and their effect on games in terms of scale, content, and monetization. - Ability to unpack and analyze complex production networks within the video game industry, including the role of platforms and outsourcing partners, using the critical concept of industrial reflexivity. - Deeper insight into video game monetization and how it affects production as well as player experience. - Critical awareness of the working conditions within the video game industry and the various initiatives aimed at improving issues like crunch. - Understanding of current game development practices and tools, including game telemetry, photogrammetry, or game engines, and how they affect working cultures and the form and content of games. Last update: Švelch Jaroslav, doc. Mgr. et Mgr., Ph.D. (14.09.2026)
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Grading scale: A: 91–100, B: 81–90, C: 71–80, D: 61–70, E: 51–60, Fail: <50 Fortnightly class assignments: 40% (see the exact percentage points for individual assignments below) Discord participation: 10% (2% per comment or post on top of the fortnightly assignments, capped at 10%) Final oral exam: 60% To successfully complete the class, students have to submit at least 3 fortnightly assignments (out of the total 5) and pass the final oral exam. The (approximately) fortnightly assignments are relatively small in their scope (usually within the range of 300–700 words) and connected to major themes of the class. Students can also improve their percentage score by actively participating on Discord. In total, it is technically possible to earn 110% if students submit all the assignments, participate in Discord, pass the final oral exam, and score the maximum points from all these activities. Expected total student effort: 150 hours (assignments approx. 60 hours, final oral exam approx. 90 hours; estimates include class attendance and/or self-study) Last update: Švelch Jan, Mgr., Ph.D. (10.08.2026)
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Sotamaa, Olli, and Jan Švelch, eds. 2021. Game Production Studies. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Available in open access: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1hp5hqw (selected references) Bulut, Ergin. 2020. A Precarious Game: The Illusion of Dream Jobs in the Video Game Industry. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press. Chang, Alenda Y. 2019. “Between Plants and Polygons: SpeedTrees and an Even Speedier History of Digital Morphogenesis.” Electronic Book Review, December. https://doi.org/10.7273/WTDF-7W30. Chia, Aleena. 2019. “The Moral Calculus of Vocational Passion in Digital Gaming.” Television & New Media 20 (8): 767–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419851079. Consalvo, Mia. 2013. “Dubbing the Noise: Square Enix and Corporate Creation of Videogames.” In A Companion to Media Authorship, edited by Jonathan Gray and Derek Johnson, 324–45. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell. Garda, Maria B., and Paweł Grabarczyk. 2016. “Is Every Indie Game Independent? Towards the Concept of Independent Game.” Game Studies 16 (1). http://gamestudies.org/1601/articles/gardagrabarczyk. Keogh, Brendan. 2023. The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist: Why We Should Think beyond Commercial Game Production. The MIT Press. Kerr, Aphra. 2017. Global Games: Production, Circulation and Policy in the Networked Era. New York, NY: Routledge. Legault, Marie-Josée, and Johanna Weststar. 2024. Not All Fun and Games: Videogame Labour, Project-Based Workplaces, and the New Citizenship at Work. Concordia University Press. Nicoll, Benjamin, and Brendan Keogh. 2019. The Unity Game Engine and the Circuits of Cultural Software. Cham: Palgrave Pivot. Nieborg, David B. 2014. “Prolonging the Magic: The Political Economy of the 7th Generation Console Game.” Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture 8 (1): 47–63. O’Donnell, Casey. 2014. Developer’s Dilemma: The Secret World of Videogame Creators. Inside Technology. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Ozimek, Anna M. 2019. “Outsourcing Digital Game Production: The Case of Polish Testers.” Television & New Media 20 (8): 824–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419851088. Srauy, Sam. 2019. “Professional Norms and Race in the North American Video Game Industry.” Games and Culture 14 (5): 478–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412017708936. Weststar, Johanna, and Marie-Josée Legault. 2019. “Building Momentum for Collectivity in the Digital Game Community.” Television & New Media 20 (8): 848–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419851087. Whitson, Jennifer R. 2019. “The New Spirit of Capitalism in the Game Industry.” Television & New Media 20 (8): 789–801. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476419851086. Whitson, Jennifer R. 2020. “What Can We Learn From Studio Studies Ethnographies?: A ‘Messy’ Account of Game Development Materiality, Learning, and Expertise.” Games and Culture 15 (3): 266–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412018783320. Last update: Švelch Jan, Mgr., Ph.D. (10.08.2026)
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Current version of the syllabus: syllabus JKM208 Game Industry Production Studies.docx
Last update: Švelch Jan, Mgr., Ph.D. (10.08.2026)
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