“Hopefully everything I'm doing has to do with innovation”: Games industry professionals on innovation in 2009

Abstract

In this paper, we present the findings of an interview study that was conducted in 2009, which collected data on three major game industry conferences. The study indicates a rise of instrumentalist views within the game industry parallel to personal, more artistic views. Processes are seen more and more as a matter of control rather than as “creative chaos.” This view is not universally shared, however, as some see great potential in tools and methods for innovation, while others still look at game development as a rather organic and uncontrollable process. The views towards innovation show also other differences. In this paper we describe seven different attitude profiles that reflect the different categories of interviewee attitudes toward innovation in the game industry. Those profiles are artists, universalists, followers, evangelists, nihilists, instrumentalists, and scarecrows.