Design and Innovation in Game Development Observations in 7 Small Organizations
Erno Vanhala, Jussi Kasurinen, Kari Smolander · 2013
Abstract—Design and innovation of game software is considered to be a creative task, which also involves methods from software development. But how do the game organizations actually design their products and innovate? The objective of this paper is to understand how game products are designed, what factors affect the design process and how game designers innovate. This study observed and analyzed seven game-developing organizations to allow comparison of their used design methods, design objectives and sources of their innovation. Based on our study, the game organizations regardless of their size are generally driven by the business factors, such as expected sales, in product design. Even though several organizations promote innovation and creative design, the business practicalities require the organization to prioritize to products that have high profit expectations. The findings indicate that the game development organizations acknowledge originality and creativity in their product design, but their major objective in the design work is to confirm marketability and business potential of the product. Keywords- Game design, innovation process, game industry, design restrictions I.