“Playing RPG Maker”? Amateur Game Design and Video Gaming

Game creation tools like Game Maker or RPG Maker democratize game making and facilitate the development of amateur game design. The best known among these programs have dynamic web-communities with active members making thousands of games. However, as of now, there is little research on amateur game design except for modding or education fields. In this paper I argue that approaching amateur game making in these relations with video game playing allows a better understanding of game creation tools’ users. To support my argument, I will lean on the early results of the exploratory step of my ongoing research.