Influência de práticas de gestão do conhecimento aplicadas no enfrentamento de dificultadores internos ao desenvolvimento de jogos digitais

Abstract

The digital gaming industry has experienced significant growth in recent decades. Digital game development is a complex and inherently interdisciplinary process. Such complexity is also due to different factors of internal and external origin to the companies/studios that develop digital games. On the other hand, it must be considered that knowledge, as an important asset of this type of creative company, needs to be managed for the success of these enterprises and their products. Therefore, different knowledge management practices can be used to facilitate the creation and dissemination of knowledge necessary for the digital game development process. From this context, this research aimed to identify whether knowledge management practices aimed at the creation and dissemination of knowledge can positively influence the confrontation of factors that hinder the development of digital games experienced by Brazilian developer studios. To this end, this quantitative exploratory research applied a questionnaire to professionals from companies/studios that develop digital games operating in the country. The analysis of the collected data was performed with the application of the fuzzy cognitive maps technique. The results achieved in the research carried out with 42 companies/studios indicate that there is a relationship and positive influence of the application of knowledge management practices in coping with internal hindering factors, according to the opinion of the professionals participating in the research performed. The five knowledge management practices aimed at the creation and dissemination of knowledge identified with the greatest influence on internal hindrances were: i) Prototyping; ii) Analysis of information and workflows; (iii) best practices; (iv) audits, maps, models and taxonomies of knowledge; v) Interviews with specialists. It was also possible to identify the five internal hindering factors with very high impact on the development of digital games, namely: problems with scope/ unrealistic scope; costs over budget; communication problems; marketing and loss of professionals. The findings of this research contribute to indicate a relationship of influence between knowledge management practices and internal hindering factors to the development of digital games. They also contribute so that professionals, managers and companies/studios of digital games can apply knowledge management practices to minimize the impact of internal hindrances, thus enabling better results to the business.