Doruk Balcı

University of York

I am a first-year PhD student at the University of York, and a game maker interested in the relationship between player creativity and game design. I have been making games independently since 2019, and worked as a designer in the industry as well. I studied Economics at Boğaziçi University (BA) and Game Studies at Tampere University (MSSc). My other interests include: drawing, literature, cooking and playing with tools I don't really understand.  

Designing Games for Reflection and Appropriative Creativity  

How do we make games which we want to be messed with, changed fundamentally beyond our expectations in play? How do we make up rules that are intended to be broken? Why would we want that? Play practices that transform structures, subvert expectations and re-define their contexts are celebrated in many aspects of culture and can lead to personal and meaningful experiences. However, engaging with this phenomenon directly through game design has received somewhat scarce attention. We often frame these play-practices in a way that is antagonistic to game design, emerging out of inventiveness of players, happening despite the constraints of the game. This project aims to explore an alternate route, investigating how we can try to invite players to reflect on play and appropriate the structures that define their experiences.