We’re excited to share the latest research from our EPIC-WE partners Conceição Costa, Kim Holflod, Rikke Toft Nørgård, Maria Goncalves, Inês Nunes, and Pedro M. A. Fernandes, ‘Exploring Cultural Game-Making With Youth: A 20-Year Systematic Review. Games and Culture.’
Video games have long been part of youth culture, but what happens when young people become the makers of these games?
This study reviews two decades of literature on youth participation in game jams and game-making projects, exploring how these spaces foster creativity, collaboration, and cultural engagement. While 68 studies were identified, only a handful explicitly address cultural dimensions of game-making, highlighting an important gap in understanding how games can serve as forms of cultural expression and participation.
The findings offer a foundation for future research and policy supporting youth-led cultural innovation through games, a key mission within the EPIC-WE project.
👉 Read the full text via our publication repository: https://epic-we.eu/repository/ , or read the abstract below.
Abstract:
Video games are part of youth culture and game-making by youth has been studied in relation to knowledge acquisition but to a lesser extent as youth engagement into cultural participation. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted to answer the following research questions: (a) Does there exist, in sources, a conceptualisation of cultural game jams? (b) Who are the main stakeholders and participants? (c) What are the outcomes of cultural game jams? From the 68 eligible sources only 13 mention “Cultural themes” and no conceptualisation of “cultural game-making” was found. Youth, as game-makers, are referred mainly as “students,” co-creators with Education institutions, developers, and creative industries. Youth motivation to participate in jams is related with a future career in game development. Models for the design and assessment of the game jams’ achievement, tools to facilitate ideation, and games are the most referred outcomes of game jams.
