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1981
Volume 11, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 1757-191X
  • E-ISSN: 1757-1928

Abstract

The article examines three tools used for hobbyist game development in 1990s Japan: the Dezaemon series of user-customizable shoot ‘em up games, the RPG Tsukūru (RPG Maker) series of tools for creating Japanese-style role-playing games and the NScripter scripting engine for visual novels. In doing so, it aims to highlight the diversity, but also to bring out the commonalities, of game ‘produsage’: producing video games by using dedicated software. The focus on a non-western historical context is an attempt to challenge assumptions about the locales and platforms of game produsage prevalent in English-language scholarship. The article concludes with a two-axis typology of game produsage, based on the degree of expressive freedom their functionality enables and the limitations they impose on users’ distributing their games.

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2019-10-01
2026-04-12

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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): game cultures; game design; game engines; game history; Japan; produsage
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