At the Edge of a ‘Digital Area’ – Locating Small-Scale Game Creation

Abstract

In this article, I develop a perspective on video game creation tools and related practices, and ask whether game creation can be a space of creative experimentation for scholars of the humanities. I argue that such questions cannot be directed at digital technologies or video game creation in general. Instead, a serious engagement with the tools and practices for creating digital space has to locate these tools and the space created with and around them within a broader context. If so, what are the building blocks and physics of game creation – what can be created and by whom? And how can they be studied and applied in, or repurposed for, the humanities? In its mixture of theoretical inquiry, empirical case study and programmatic sketch, this article is intended as a first step towards mapping game creation in its diversity and relations to other digital regions.