Game Design as Technical Communication: Articulating Game Design Through Textbooks

ABSTRACT

This article examines the framing of the designer’s role in game development in textbooks published and circulated over the past decade. The authors investigate the discursive ways coding is downplayed within game design texts as a means of promoting design as a form of creative expression. This speaks to ongoing tension in the games industry of coding and technology versus art. The authors argue that, in their presentation of game design, leading textbooks attempt to frame the field as one of artistry and technical practice, presenting game design as a type of technical communication. The authors ultimately consider the potential and pitfalls of considering game design as a technical communication field and suggest that this framing presents lens for considering the recently professionalized field.

KEYWORDS:

• Game design
• technical communication
• textbook

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Anthony DeAnda

Michael Anthony DeAnda is a PhD student in technology and humanities at Illinois Institute of Technology and currently holds a master of science degree in interactive media and game development from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. DeAnda’s research interests focus on the intersection of queer embodiment and spaces created by play and games.

Carly A. Kocurek

Carly A. Kocurek is assistant professor of digital humanities and media studies and director of Digital Humanities at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She is the author of Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), and she has published articles in outlets such as Game Studies, The Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, and Visual Studies, among others.