SUBOTRON arcademy: Indie Games and the Quest for Authenticity

/departure talk

Jesper Juul
pioneer of video game studies (Copenhagen)

Handmade Pixels is the new book (MIT Press) from video game researcher Jesper Juul, about the history and idea of independent video games.
The problem of independent video games is the problem of authenticity: How can we create new, authentic games in a global, digital, immaterial art form, at a time when the rest of culture celebrates local food, handcrafted items, and the analog?
The expert will argue that independent games are often fundamentally anti-modern; critiques of modern video game development, and attempts at returning to an (imaginary) past of video game history.
Through examples of many interesting and strange games, Juul will tell the history of independent games, and point to their ongoing challenges: What happens when players deny that an experimental independent game is a “real game”? Are experimental independent video games for everyone, or only for a small group of connoisseurs? Can we continue to make new video game by referring to older analog visual styles? How can we create authenticity in a thoroughly digital world?
 

Biography
Jesper Juul is one of the pioneers of video game studies, and has developed several master-level programs in game design, at the ITU of Copenhagen, at New York University Game Center, and at KADK in Copenhagen. He is an Associate Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design.
He has published four books with MIT Press: Half-Real (2005), A Casual Revolution (2009), The Art of Failure (2013), and Handmade Pixels (2019). He is also a co-editor of the Playful Thinking Series (also on MIT Press), and co-organizer of the first Nordic Game Jam.