Teaching Materials for Inside the Video Game Industry
Study Questions
1. Are all game developers also game designers? Explain your answer.
2. Why are excellent communication skills so important for game developers?
3. What are some of the ways in which people indirectly involved in game development
(e.g., lawyers, marketers, accountants) have a direct impact on a game’s final form?
4. What are some of the major industrial critiques and trends described by the interviewees?
5. How is the game industry like and unlike other creative industries (e.g., filmmaking,
television production, music publishing)?
6. What is the most important discipline in game development?
7. The game industry is often referred to as being global. What features of this business are
the same the world over and which ones are different? How do you account for these
similarities and differences?
8. According to the interviewees, the game industry is constantly evolving. Based on your
understanding of games, technology, and cultural trends, what game development
disciplines do you foresee as being integral to the industry in five to ten years? Ten to
twenty years?
9. The game industry is rightly criticized for its homogenous workforce. What societal
factors do you think contribute to this phenomenon?
10. How is it that “crunch” is an undesirable yet unavoidable part of game development?
Classroom Activities
1. Divide students into groups representing the programming, art, design, producing, quality
assurance, audio, and business disciplines. Next, have each group use resources such as
2. This book provides numerous examples of how work in the game industry tends to
overtake other parts of employees’ lives, including time that might be spent with family
and friends, pursuing hobbies, and improving oneself emotionally, psychologically, and
3. Many of the developers in this book discuss the advantages and disadvantages of game
development trade programs like those of Full Sail University and DigiPen. Have
students spend a short amount of time (20-30 minutes) researching these kinds of
and PR (see Clinnick), or would that be a speciality area? How would the curriculum help
increase diversity in game studies and/or game development?
4. One of the perennial challenges of working in the video game industry is effective
communication across disciplines. Curiously, most of the people in the industry are well-
5. Divide the class into small groups. Task each group with developing a concept for a new
game. The game can be on any platform and in any genre, however it must have the
following components: title, number of players, platform, genre (e.g., RPG, FPS, puzzle),
Take-home Assignments
1. Identify a publicly traded game company (i.e., it is traded on a stock exchange such as the
New York Stock Exchange). Next, go to sec.gov and find that company’s most recent
2. A number of interviews in this book discuss issues related to gender disparity. Using all
available resources—Web, personal contacts, library, etc.—investigate the infamous
3. Work-life balance is clearly a major concern among many game developers regardless of
discipline. One of the earliest high profile discussions of work-life balance happened
when “EA Spouse” posted blog entry describing her husband’s intense work schedule as
a game developer at Electronic Arts. Investigate the EA Spouse case, looking at both the
4. In contrast to other creative industries (e.g., film, television), there is little labor union
penetration in the video game industry. The notable exception is the audio discipline,
where the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the
5. Taking into account the current state and trajectory of human resources, technology, and
economics in the video game industry, forecast what the business of game development