Ten interviews about the state of video games and research

At this time last year, we interviewed 10 developers at GDC in 2017 to find their opinions of video game research, and the topics of content, creation, and culture of video games that matter the most to them. The conversations were free to roam, resulting in inspiring talks about their hopes and dreams for game development, the industry, and a future where academic research works in parallel with the needs of the devs, along with personal examples from their careers.

We talked with industry veterans:

Along with some brilliant indie developers: 

And community organisers:

The conversations ranged from the economic situation of indie developers, through diversity awareness and storytelling, to digging into the (lack of) relationship with academic research, and their hopes for the future of video games. 

We've made some highlight videos, ranging between 4-23 minutes, which you can watch below, and also collected them together in a YouTube playlist.

These interviews were part of a larger collection of interviews with over 80 people for an EU-funded research project called Gaming Horizons. There is a detailed analysis of the outcomes of the interviews available on our website (look for 'D2.3_Interviews report'), along with some of the other results of our work... But if our research is correct, you probably won't read it! We're realistic, but hope that we can change policy in future to produce results that you will want to engage with.

Our goal was to look at the current research funding options related to video games and find new possibilities for the future. By interviewing these developers, we hope to have delivered game devs' ideas in their own words directly to the EU government. Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Adriel Wallick

Gordon Bellamy
Henrike Lode
Jerome Hagen

Jonatan van Hove

Kate Gray

Lauren Ashlee Comp

(Our apologies for the building site noise midway through the video - at first it seemed like such a good idea to interview outside by the park!)

Richard Lemarchand

Ryan Green

Tim Jones

------

The Gaming Horizons project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 732332. You can read more about the project here: https://www.gaminghorizons.eu/

------
Dr. Mata Haggis-Burridge (née Haggis) is the Professor of Creative and Entertainment Games at Breda University of Applied Sciences (NHTV) in the Netherlands.

Mata is also an independent developer, most recently known for the drama Fragments of Him (PS4, XB1, PC), their GDC talks about storytelling, and they are working on an unannounced title. They are the owner of Copper Stone Sea where they provide freelance work, consultancy, and training in narrative design and game design for development teams.