Kerr, Aphra (2021) Decoding and Recoding Game jams and Independent Game Making Spaces for Inclusion. In: Independent Videogames: Cultures, Networks, Techniques and Politics. Routledge, London, pp. 29-42. ISBN 9780367336219 (Submitted)

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Abstract

While research on gamejams internationally has proposed that they can be a useful context for informal learning, networking between indie developers, and innovation, in this chapter we argue that they can also be perceived, and experienced, as exclusionary spaces by those who identify as women, and individuals who are outside of existing game making communities. Research on gamejams in two different cities in Ireland for the Refiguring Innovation in Games project found that these events overwhelmingly attracted a young male demographic with existing programming skills. Since 2016 the authors have designed and run six adult ‘female friendly’ diversity in games workshops in Ireland to encourage inclusive informal education and innovation. They took place at weekends in co-working innovation centres and formal educational settings provided by our partners. This chapter reflects on the recruitment, participation, and outcome of our workshops - but in particular reflects on the explicit and implicit spatial and technical barriers faced by participants and organisers. While contemporary discourses and industry data seem to support the democratisation of games production, contemporary software for game development and available learning spaces impose restrictions that continue to marginalise and impose a technicity that is gendered, classed and raced. This chapter argues that explicit inclusion strategies are needed to address persist structures of exclusion in informal and formal games education.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	This is the preprint version of the published chapter.
Keywords:	game jams; gender; inclusion;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute, MUSSI Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Item ID:	14672
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367336219
Depositing User:	Prof. Aphra Kerr
Date Deposited:	16 Aug 2021 16:16
Journal or Publication Title:	Independent Videogames: Cultures, Networks, Techniques and Politics
Publisher:	Routledge
Refereed:	Yes
Funders:	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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