DMA Design

The Assemblage of Peripheral Game Development: A Case Study of Dundee

The Dundee video game development cluster, located in a peripheral Scottish city, represents a compelling case study of bottom-up innovation driven by the constant recombination of socio-material resources.

• Dundee's video game cluster, a post-industrial Scottish city with no major platform holder or dominant multinational publisher, is studied as a case of how peripheral creative industries form, using DeLanda's Assemblage Theory rather than top-down policy as the explanation.
• The cluster comprises around 43 local studios, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, concentrated within roughly 500 meters of one another.
• Key territorializing forces include DMA Design's founding in 1988 and the launch of Abertay University's games degree in 1997, with Abertay providing a steady talent pipeline and informal coordination.