Scott DeJong

Are you interested in serious games? Join this free, hybrid conference happening June 6th!

We got over 15 games, 8 speakers, and live designer interviews!!

www.badgamearcade.ca/2025-pre-con...

#seriousgames #educationalgames #edgames

Deadline to apply is soon!

CGSA Pre-Conference: Serious Game Arcade 2025 Call for Participation CGSA Pre-Conference: Serious Game Arcade 2025 Call for Participation Location: Concordia University 4th Space, Montreal Date: June 6, 2025 Time: 11 am - 5pm When you ask someone who plays games abou...

Are you interested in Serious games? Educational Games? Learning Games? Or any other term around them. Come to the free, hybrid pre-conference event: Serious Game Arcade!

In Montreal before the @cgsaacej.bsky.social conference, Come share, talk, and play.

Full call: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

How gig platforms like Fiverr are reshaping the video game development industry Fiverr’s game development ecosystem serves as a microcosm of larger concerns about labour practices in the gaming sector.

Starting off the year with a new @theconversation.com piece with @scottdejong.bsky.social!

We recap some of our industry research on gig economy #gamedev, using Fiverr as a case study. Global wage inequities, digital mediation, and devalued creative labour all undergird the platform's operations.

How gig platforms like Fiverr are reshaping the video game development industry Fiverr’s game development ecosystem serves as a microcosm of larger concerns about labour practices in the gaming sector.

In 2022 @michaeliantorno.com and I asked what game design was like in the gig economy. We looked at the fantasy of the 5 dollar videogame and the makers behind them.

Happy to share this conversation piece on our work.

theconversation.com/how-gig-plat...

Abstract In this article, we investigate users who sell complete design services (i.e., ostensibly creating a full, original game for a client) on the gig economy platform Fiverr. By studying the platform’s affordances and analyzing user profiles, we construct two central arguments: First, we contend that gig economy platforms facilitate, shape, and moderate labor in ways that vary from more commonly discussed models of game design. Second, we push back against Fiverr’s claims of a boundaryless workforce by analyzing local conditions that concentrate labor in particular jurisdictions. After briefly reviewing the history of gig labor, we use the walkthrough method to analyze Fiverr: reviewing registration processes, protocols between buyers and sellers, and platform governance structures. We then survey fifty seller listings to determine what services are available, how much they cost, and how they are clustered geographically. Next, we address the prevalence of Pakistani users among our sample of sellers by scrutinizing global wage inequities and regional initiatives that may push workers toward the gig economy. To close, we reflect on Fiverr’s place in the game design ecosystem, investigate how gig economy labor is framed in educational institutions, and touch upon our research limitations. While gig economy platforms are often critiqued for labor exploitation or mocked for providing poor-quality services, these are both oversimplifications of complex economic, institutional, and policy assemblages. Ideally, this article will serve as a first step in better understanding game development on gig economy platforms and their power to reshape geographies of game development.

Next, @scottdejong.bsky.social & @michaeliantorno.com provide a fascinating account of precarious freelance game developers selling their services on Fiverr in "Game Design for a Fiverr: Precarity, Regionality, and Platform-Mediation in the Gig Economy"

journals.publishing.umich.edu/mij/article/...

A screenshot of Fiverr that shows a business woman next to the text "Find the perfect freelance services for your business."

Publication day! @scottdejong.bsky.social and I wrote an article for Media Industries about game design practices on Fiverr.💸🎮

It's part of their "Local Digital Game Production" issue edited by Chris Young, Emilie Reed, and @brkeogh.bsky.social.

journals.publishing.umich.edu/mij/article/...

Come see me (and all the awesome Concordia folks) next summer!

Bluesky,

Today is my 2nd day on here as an escapee from The Bad Place. I am BEGGING y’all to repost this

I have $80,000 in scholarship money to give away to women and girls NATIONWIDE. I worked so hard to raise this money. Applications open THIS week. I’m scared the mass migration will impact this

You definitely need all of those.

I am hanging out at CHI play 2023 talking about educational games.

I might have caused some tension when I quoted Jaako Stenros who told me, "Fun is overrated". Seriously though, fun is a crutch to effective design (imo).

I fell captive the same way :(

🎮Free Event for anyone interested in Disinformation and Games!🎮

Next Friday, I will be running a workshop going over my research on designing, running, and making a disinfo boardgame (Lizards and Lies)!

Feel free to join - aodnetwork.ca/monthly-camp...

I'm not surprised, just sad.

But also the fact that videogame streamers/tubers are becoming part of mainstream political commentary and discussions on intersectionality reminds me how critical game studies is.

www.forbes.com/sites/conorm...

Anyone else got a word that they like so much they use all the time in their writing?

For me lately, it has been "obfuscate". Such a fancy way to hide things. 🥷☁️

So Sea of Stars 🌟.... I should play it right?!? It looks so pretty!

It was a great panel!! Thanks for sharing :D

I feel like its really struggling with its identity.

Late night panel at #GenerationAnalog2023!

Talking with @marclaje.bsky.social about Homebrew and table top roleplaying games :D

You know how much I love birds. To make them an X, its insulting.

Who on earth thinks that an X is cooler than a bird?

🦎Happy to say that as of today, my boardgame about disinformation is now available in French!

Pour mes amis français, c'est ici - https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/lizards-and-lies-french-

So, I'll be taking vacation soon. This time, I'm staying home and playing games. Any suggestions of must play summer games?
Board, video, anything in between. Just looking for something fresh.

Thanks! Looking forward to being here!

👋Hi! I'm Scott!
I make games and study games about disinformation. I love a good meme, puffins, baking, and getting existential about play.
Game - https://www.lizardsandlies.ca/
Website/blog - https://www.scottbdejong.ca/
Recent Papers - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9puMhRAAAAAJ&hl=en