Punk Playthings: Provocations for 21st Century Game Makers

Punk Playthings
Provocations for 21st Century Game Makers

"Punk was an attitude. It was never about having a Mohican haircut or wearing a ripped T-shirt. It was all about destruction, and the creative potential within that."

Malcolm Mclaren

Warning: If you want a silver bullet solution for efficient game making or a step-by-step guide to receiving Indie Game Dev hero worship, you’re in the wrong place. Put the book back on the shelf.

Punk Playthings is an antidote to complacency and orthodoxy. Packed with probes and provocations that explore game making through fresh lenses for uncertain times, it challenges gaming monoculture by constructing a trading space for ideas and learning from across domains and cultures. Punk Playthings has zero respect for boundaries between mediums, industries, sectors, specialisms or disciplines. Instead, it challenges you to expand your cultural capital, think laterally and make new connections.

Punk Playthings advocates a truly independent mindset and DIY approach for creating playful experiences with cultural resonance. It proclaims creative entrepreneurship as the true legacy of punk.

Punk Playthings is not for everyone. But it might be for you.

Dr Chris Lowthorpe is an award-winning game educator and playful provocateur. He earned his doctorate at the University of Abertay, Dundee – currently Europe's top game school – where he also won the 2014 Innovation in Teaching Award and mentored some of the brightest talents in UK games.

Sean Taylor is an award-winning video game producer with 20 years experience in the field. In 1996, Sean dropped out of college to join the organized chaos of DMA Design - midway through the production of the original Grand Theft Auto - and has been thinking differently about game making ever since.