“Playing RPG Maker”? Amateur Game Design and Video Gaming

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DiGRA/FDG '16 - Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG
Dundee, Scotland: Digital Games Research Association and Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games, August, 2016
Number: 1
Volume: 13
ISBN / ISNN: ISSN 2342-9666


Game creation tools like Game Maker or RPG Maker democratize game making and facilitate the development of amateur game design. The best known among these programs have dynamic web-communities with active members making thousands of games. However, as of now, there is little research on amateur game design except for modding or education fields. In this paper I argue that approaching amateur game making in these relations with video game playing allows a better understanding of game creation tools’ users. To support my argument, I will lean on the early results of the exploratory step of my ongoing research.