Indie Games in the Digital Age

M.J. Clarke is an assistant professor of TV Film and Media Studies at Cal State LA, USA. His research on popular culture and media industries has appeared in the journals Television and New Media and The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics as well as the anthologies Superhero Synergies and The Comics of Charles Schulz. His examination of network television at the end of the 20th Century, Transmedia Television, is available from Bloomsbury.Cynthia Wang is an assistant professor of Communication Studies at Cal State LA, USA. Her research takes a critical cultural perspective on how digital media and the Internet reconfigures social relations, cultural practices, and power dynamics. She has published in Social Media + Society, Time & Society, and Journalism Studies among others.

• 1. Introduction M.J. Clarke (Cal State LA, USA) & Cynthia Wang (Cal State LA, USA)2. This is how a garden grows: Cultivating emergent networks in the development of Stardew ValleyKevin Rutherford (SUNY Cortland, USA)3. The making of Escape Room in a BoxCynthia Wang (Cal State LA, USA)4. A semi-commercial endeavor: TSR Hobbies and fan publishing Aaron Trammell (UC Irvine, USA)5. From tool to community to style: The influence of software tools on game development communities and aestheticsEmilie Reed (University of Abertay, UK)6. Paper code and digital goods: The economic values in type-in market gamesPatrick Davidson (New York University, USA)7. Playing out of Steam: Indie games, dependent networks, and The Stanley Parable Caleb Andrew Milligan (University of Florida, USA)8. Brews, burgers and indie bombast: The antiestablishment neoliberalism of Devolver DigitalJohn Vanderhoef (California State University, Dominguez Hills, USA)9. In search of queer spaces: Indie games, representation, and the politics of inclusion Cody Mejeur (Michigan State University, USA)10. The powers and pitfalls of queer indie game-making: An interview with Mo CohenBonnie Ruberg (UC Irvine, USA)11. Postmortems and indie cultural work M.J. Clarke (Cal State LA, USA)12. ConclusionM.J. Clarke (Cal State LA, USA) & Cynthia Wang (Cal State LA, USA)Index

A wide-ranging set of research examining the varied socio-cultural and economic enclaves of the indie games world. It provides a useful sense of the intersectional nature of independent games and their value to the broader communities that connect them.