The Role of the Space during Digital Game Development

The purpose of this research is to show how space affects the production process of digital games. The data for the paper are obtained by field research in Nowhere Studios in Turkey and Logic Artists in Denmark. The field research consists of semi structured interviews with employees in companies and personal experiences in the office space. Before comparing the use of space in studios, concepts like information control, stimulation control and Scrum methodology are explained in order to build the conceptual framework. The observations in the studios demonstrates that the use of space affects the production process of digital games. Even though these two studios have many aspects in common, the outcomes they achieved in their projects are different due to their different approaches on methods. There are differences between the way studios organize the office space, use the walls and locate the employees in physical space. These dissimilarities directly affect the control of employees over the project, the predictions about the future of production and the efficiency of coordination between employees. In that sense, deadlines are crucial in the production process and in case decisions about deadlines are not met, the duration of development extends and consequently, the production costs increase. In the research, the factors other than space are also considered while comparing the results of projects. The research outcome highlights that the way Scrum methodology is used within the physical space has a vital role in the project management. The research compares the experiences of two different game development studios and it is expected that this research can be beneficial for game development groups in Turkey since it offers diverse perspectives.