The celebration of the first edition of the “Symposium on Research in the Indie Video Game Industry” (I3V 2023) was held on October 27, in Terrassa (Spain), as a parallel event to the “INDIE GAMES TRS”, a free access event that served as a meeting point for the entire independent Spanish video game scene. This symposium was open to contributions by any actor involved in the study and research within this area, and thus establish a dialogue between the different actors involved, both academia and industry, that enhance their improvement and new models of collaboration.
Keynotes
Manu delgado
Sevillian journalist specialized in independent video games. He is co-author of the book ‘Indie Revolution: The cultural subversion of video game’ (Paper Heroes) and for five years has directed the medium Equilateral.es, a digital magazine on Indian games. Currently, he works as a editor and content creator in Vandal after having collaborated with other media in the sector (such as VidaExtra or Zonared), as well as in video game development studies as responsible for communication and press.
Invited presentation: What is an indie video game? Short contextual review of a complicated tag
It is not easy to discern what an indie video game is and what is not, sometimes it is not necessary either. However, knowing the contextual secrets of this label is really useful to have more awareness of the interests that exist after its use. Being able to draw lines of relationship that contextualize this term with its own history and that of the environment itself, with the spaces that it has occupied over the years, becomes a necessary task to understand where is and where is going the independent creation of interactive works.
Eulàlia Febrer
Eulàlia Febrer Coll holds a PhD in Popular Music from Cardiff University and a Master’s Degree in Music as an interdisciplinary art from the University of Barcelona. She is currently a professor at the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), where she coordinates the Master in Musicology, and a collaborator at the Center for Image and Multimedia Technology. Eulàlia is co-founder of several research groups such as FOR MUSIC (UNIR) or the Musicological Research Group of Menorca (Menorquí d’Estudis) and Project Director at Electronic Dojo SL, a company dedicated to training through video games. His main line of research is around the role of music in electronic sports, as well as the pedagogical applications of video games at various educational levels.
Invited presentation: Music in indie video games: What elements influence their composition?
The musical and sound composition for any video game is linked to factors that are articulated, to a large extent, according to the available resources and the functioning of the music industry itself. This means that independent developers often have to approach music production from innovative or experimental ideas, which involve reduced economic, technological and human expenditure —which does not mean that they are left behind in their quality or social impact. This talk consists of two parts: a first in which the main elements behind the composition of the soundtrack of a video game will be highlighted and aspects related to the influence of the music industry on the production of each title will be discussed; and a second in which three case studies will be briefly presented with different approaches to the musicalization of their titles: Limbo (2010), Amnesia (2010) and Journey (2012).
Program
Acts 2023 – Collection of works at UPCommons [ENLLAÇ]
| 10:30 – 11:00 | Opening and invited presentation Manu Delgado What is an indie video game? Short contextual review of a complicated tag |
| 11:15 – 12:45 | Session I: Presentation of works Indie aesthetics |
| 13:00 – 14:00 | Session II: Presentation of works Indie video game in the social context |
| 14:00 – 15:00 | BREAK |
| 15:00 – 16: 30 | Session III: Presentation of works The indie industry in education |
| 16:45 – 17:15 | Invited talk Eulàlia Febrer Music in indie video games: What elements influence their composition? |
| 17:30 – 18:30 | Panel Anton Planells, Ruth Contreras, Oliver Pérez, Eurídice Cabañes What should be the relationship between academia and industry in order to favor the development of the national indie landscape? |
| 18:30 | Closure |
List of works
Session I: Indie Aesthetics [Chair: Victor Navarro]
- Locate intertextuality in the referential humor of cyanide & happiness [Speaker: Alba Calvo]
- Aesthetics and Mechanics of Indie Video Games. Blasphemous, from local production to global success [Speaker: Lluís Anyó]
- Between the Indie and the Dojin: the discursive construction of the independent Japanese game [Speaker: Tomás Grau]
- Link between interface design, narrative and emotions in indie video games: the case of Spiritfarer [Speaker: Elisabet Fonts]
Session II – Indie video game in the social context [Chair: Elisabet Fonts]
- Are Spanish Indian video games accessible? Analysis of recent cases in the industry [Speaker: Kim Martinez]
- Consumption practices and perception around indie videogame: a social class analysis of the tastes of adolescents [Speaker: Júlia Vilasís-Pamos]
- Identity and gender in the contemporary indie video game: Florence and A Memoir Blue (Annapurna Interactive) [Speaker: Natalia Martínez Pérez]
Session III – Indie industry in education [Chair: Ruth Contreras]
Educational games in the learning and promotion of Catalan literature in post-compulsory education: the case of the Llibre dels feits of King Jaume I of Aragon as a hypertextual narrative [Speaker: Anna Saumell]
Indie games as a tool for socio-emotional work in secondary education [Speaker: Jorge Oceja]
How becoming a teacher made me a better indie developer (and vice versa) Rafael Pérez]
Video game analysis from the perspective of the paradigm of nonverbal language communication as a tool to improve player immersion: methodological proposal [Speaker: Alícia Almacellas]