Evolution of Indie
Honours Project, BA(Hons) Games Design and Production
My honours project and culmination of my BA(Hons) degree at Abertay University, is Evolution of Indie. This project focused the history of indie games, the definitions of indie used in the games industry, and exhibition/experience design and museum curation.
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I designed a museum exhibition showcasing how "indie" has evolved over the history of games, with particular focus on the idea of "definition as discussion." I created a pitch document for the exhibition, and wrote creative briefs for interactive elements. These briefs would, in practice, be provided to developers and designers who would pitch interactive elements to be included in the exhibition.
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This is the artefact of the honours project - a pitch document for a hypothetical museum exhibition on the evolution of indie in games. During research for this project, 7 sections were initially propesed, each with their own theme, related time period, and respective interactive element. Ultimately only 3 were designed. I took heavy inspiration from pitch documents kindly contributed by one of my lecturers, Dr. Mona Bozdog.
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Research focused on three main subjects: Definitions of Indie, History of Indie, and Exhibition Design. I compared multiple different theories around the definitions of indie, examined how both indie games and views around them changed over time, and established a broad timeline across both the industry and academia. I defined broad "eras," based on how indie games were viewed or defined during that time. Based on this timeline, I created a narrative flow for the exhibition to follow.
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At the outset of this project, I had intended to create a walking simulator, where the player would explore different eras of indie games. However, after my supervisor suggested looking into museum design, I became fascinated with the similarities between exhibition and game design. This project allowed me to flex my research muscles, develop experience design skills, and dive deep into media studies surrounding indie.
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If I could redo the project, I may return to my original idea of creating a walking sim - if only to have a better proof of concept. One of the key pieces of feedback I received was that the project would benefit from visual mockups of the space, which was in the original plan but had to be scrapped due to scoping issues. Having a digital, navigable mockup of the space would also be beneficial if the idea were being pitched to prospective museums.