General information


Subject type: Mandatory

Coordinator: Juan José Pons López

Trimester: First term

Credits: 4

Teaching staff: 

A hard tackle from Víctor Manuel Navarro to Remesal

Teaching languages


  • English

The materials can be provided in Catalan as well as in Spanish or English. 

Skills


Specific skills
  • E12. Apply entrepreneurial initiative and innovation for the creation of new video games and business lines.

  • E13. Apply business vision, marketing and sales, economic analysis and technical knowledge for video game production.

  • E14. Lead teams of designers, artists or developers to achieve the specified objectives in the time provided, in a structured manner according to the methodology established for project management.

General competencies
  • G1. Demonstrate having and understanding advanced knowledge of their area of ​​study that includes the theoretical, practical and methodological aspects, with a level of depth that reaches the forefront of knowledge.

  • G2. Solve complex problems in their field of work, by applying their knowledge, developing arguments and procedures, and using creative and innovative ideas.

Transversal competences
  • T2. Work as a member of an interdisciplinary team either as an additional member or performing management tasks in order to contribute to developing projects with pragmatism and a sense of responsibility, making commitments and taking into account available resources.

Description


The subject "Companies: Case Study" belongs to the Degree in Video Game Design and Production and is part of the subjects related to the business area. The course contributes to students developing analytical skills to help make economic and management decisions in a video game project, especially considering the fit of production in the market in social and cultural terms. The video game market is worked on both from the perspective of producers (video game industry) and the perspective of customers (video game sector), always from the perspective of a competitive product or service business and analyzing discourse, participation and reception. It is desired that the student be able to understand the product or service as a project on which it is necessary to make not only technical decisions but also business decisions (strategy, distribution channel, investment and return on investment, competition and positioning, activities launch marketing, etc.), as well as being able to place industry productions within a social and cultural framework.

Contents


Topic 0. Introduction. Cultural industries, cultural studies, game production studies

Subject 1. Work planning

Topic 2. Communities and participation. Fans, playbour.

Topic 3. Content controversy. representation

Topic 4. (inter)cultural controversy. Regulatory codes, markets and circulation.

Topic 5. Legal issues. Loot boxes, streaming, e-sports.

 

Evaluation system


The grade of each student will be calculated following the following percentages:

A1. Group work: Reading and presentation of research articles 20%

A2. Partial exam 1: Student continuous assessment exam 20%

A3. Partial exam 2: Student continuous assessment exam 20%

A4. Group work: Study and presentation of cases 40%

Final grade = A1 x 0,2 + A2 x 0,2 + A3 x 0,2 + A4 x 0,4

Considerations:
- It is necessary to obtain a mark superior to 5 in the final exam to pass the asignatura.
- An activity not delivered or delivered late and without justification (court summons or medical matter) counts as a 0.
- In the case of detecting plagiarism, copying or fraud in any evaluable activity or test, this will automatically obtain a final grade of 0. Additionally, in cases of copying or fraud, both the person who copies and the person who allows copying are responsible for the conduct, and the consequences of the conduct affect all students involved in the irregular action. Regardless of the suspension caused by plagiarism, copying or fraud, the professor will communicate the situation to the Department Management so that the applicable measures are taken in terms of disciplinary regime and the initiation of the relevant disciplinary file.
- Spelling errors, writing errors and formal and technical problems specific to the subject will be penalized with 0,10 points, up to a maximum of 2 points, in all assessable activities and tests.
- Three of the five activities with NP imply that the course has not been followed and result in a NP.

 

Recovery:

  • It is necessary to obtain a mark superior to 5 in the final exam of recovery to pass the asignatura.
  • The mark of the resit exam will be equivalent to the final mark.

REFERENCES


Basic

Olli Sotamaa, Jan Svelch (eds) (2021) Game Production Studies. Amsterdam University Press

Navarro Remesal, Víctor. "Thinking about the game. 25 paths for game studies." Shangrila, 2020.

Schreier, Jason. "Blood, sweat and pixels." Paper Heroes, 2020.

Complementary

Lee, Seungcheol Austin, Pulos, Alexis (Eds.). "Transnational Contexts of Development History, Sociality, and Society of Play. Video Games in East Asia". Palgrave, 2016.

Webster, James G. "The marketplace of attention. How audiences take shape in a digital age." MIT Press, 2014.

Watson, Jeff (2021). Infrastructures of Play: Labor, Materiality, and Videogame Education http://todigra.org/index.php/todigra/article/view/120

Werning, Stefan (2021) Making Games. The Politics and Poetics of Game Creation Tools. MIT Press

Lemarchand, Richard (2021) A Playful Production Process: For Game Designers (and Everyone). MIT Press