This book is a collection of research and concept papers developed as a result of the Games and Innovation (GaIn) and Games Industry Innovation Processes (GIIP) research projects. The GaIn research project (January 2009-March 2011) was designed to study game industry design, innovation practices, and playful innovation. Understanding creativity as a domain-specific phenomenon, the objective for GaIn was to map the domain of game design as an organic practice with specific formal restrictions in order to create methodologies and tools for generating, refining, evaluating, and managing game ideas in a systematic manner. The GIIP project (March 2010-March 2011) studied the innovation processes of Finnish game companies and supplemented the research goals of GaIn. These two projects have provided answers to many of our initial research questions, as well as initiated several new directions for future research.

The project was divided into several different mini-studies, where rich data was gathered by combining traditional and experimental research methodologies. We conducted several interview studies and surveys, utilized drawing exercises and protocol study approaches, wrote literature reviews, organized game design workshops and events such as game jams, and engaged in our own design processes. The results presented here are a valuable contribution to game design theory, and provide our commentary on the topics of idea generation, innovation, design, and management within the game industry. An especially important part of the project has been to provide concepts and prototypes of tools, which contribute to the present design practices.