2021/07/29 by Jan Švelch · 12 citations
Social Sciences · Computer Science · #Digital Games and Media #Open Source Software Innovations #Cultural Industries and Urban Development #Video game #Negotiation #Game Developer #Indie film #Video game development #Space (punctuation) #Core (optical fiber) #Game studies #Game design #Dimension (graph theory) #Order (exchange) #Game art design #Business #Computer science #Multimedia #Sociology #Political science #Telecommunications #Media studies #Law
paper · doi:10.1177/15554120211034408
published in Games and Culture 17(3), 374-398 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2021/07/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Developer credit has been a contested issue in the video game industry since the 1970–80s, when Atari prevented its programmers from publicly claiming authorship for games they had developed. The negotiations over what constitutes a noteworthy contribution to video game development are ongoing and play out in the unregulated space of in-game credits. Here, some creators get top billing akin to film and television credits, while others struggle to be recognized for their work. By analyzing in-game credits of 100 contemporary games published between 2016 and 2020 and representing four major sectors of video game production (AAA, AA, indie, and freemium games as service), I identify recurrent patterns, such as opening credits, order, role descriptions (or lack thereof), and systematic credit omission, that both reinforce and subvert the notion of core development roles and above-the-line/below-the-line divisions.