Exploring Cultural Game-Making With Youth: A 20-Year Systematic Review

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.