Challenges in organizing and accessing video game development artifacts

Abstract

Artifacts created during the game development process are vital for understanding and appreciating the history and context of video games. However, few have explored how to organize and preserve the digital ephemera created during game development, critically endangering these media artifacts. Through interviews of various stakeholders interested in these types of artifacts, we explore the game development process. Participants discussed various challenges in organizing and finding game development artifacts for their work due to multiple factors: organization culture, the technical work environment, and a lack of standard vocabulary and practices. They also discussed the disconnect between game library, archive, and special collections lacking ways to note relationships among relevant materials. Based on these findings, we discuss two main implications from an organizational point of view.