The Paratexts of Video Game Production

Playing Behind the Scenes
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-90-485-6360-9
Verlag: Pallas Publications

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Games and Play

The Paratexts of Video Game Production: Playing Behind the Scenes critically examines how the making-of media - from documentaries to concept art - shapes our understanding of videogame development and history, revealing their powerful role in constructing meaning beyond the games themselves.

This book engages with the notion of paratextual play to show how making-of material has increasingly manifested within and even as games themselves, directly affecting the gaming experiences. Through the in-depth analysis of historical and contemporary making-of paratexts of games, the author analyses and demonstrates how the game industry shapes and reshapes itself by remaking and commodifying its own history, inviting players to play with and within it. The chapters discuss multiple types of paratexts such as game magazine, previews and reviews, ‘making-of’ books, special editions and remakes and remasters with a wide array of examples ranging from the earliest days of videogames to current times. Readers will gain critical insights into the meaning-making capacity of these often-overlooked materials and learn to recognize how they shape interpretations of what and why we play.

An essential contribution to the study of paratextuality as one of the key frameworks for studying computer games, this book will appeal to game studies scholars, media and cultural studies researchers, and advanced students exploring videogame production, industry practices, and paratextual theory.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Glas, René

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Sport | Tourismus | Freizeit Hobbies & Spiele
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Programmierung | Softwareentwicklung Spiele-Programmierung, Rendering, Animation
• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Digital Lifestyle Computerspiele, Internetspiele

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction: Playing behind the scenes.

2. Paratextual Play and the Making-Of.

3. The first peek: Previewing the future of gaming.

4. Owning a piece of gaming: The paratexts of special editions.

5. Achievement unlocked: The making-of as part of play.

6. Gamebooks as playthings: The Final Hours interactive storybooks.

7. Making Mario: Shaping franchise history through paratextual play.

8. Remake, remaster, revisit: Paratextually updating game classics.

9. Conclusion.

Bibliogrpahy

Über Autor(innen)

René Glas is Assistant Professor within the Media and Culture Studies department at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. His work covers games and paratextuality, game culture and history, and game-related pedagogy and literacy. His previous books are Battlefields of Negotiation: Control, Agency, and Ownership in World of Warcraft (2012) and the co-edited volume The Playful Citizen: Civic Engagement in a Mediatized Culture (2019).