Since its establishment in 2001, Game Studies have laid a solid foundation for understanding video games as a medium of communication and expression, as well as for identifying the key actors and processes involved in their creation, consumption, and reception. At the same time, the industry's maturation and technological advancements, along with the emergence of an increasingly diverse gaming community, present new challenges and the need for research and innovation in more specific areas of the field. Within this framework, both the video game industry and academia have developed a particular interest in topics such as entrepreneurship, authorship, creativity and innovation in indie video games.

Tripodos 59 aims to contribute to existing research on the state of the video game industry and to establish best practices and innovative proposals that drive success within the four key areas of entrepreneurship, authorship, creativity and innovation. Both empirical and theoretical contributions are welcome from researchers interested in Game Studies and digital creativity. While this issue places a special emphasis on the indie sector (given its strong intersection with these four areas), the call for papers is not exclusively limited to it. Contributions to all aspects related to the video game industry are welcome, including but not limited to the following topics:

• Aesthetic approaches to video games
• The concept of authorship in video games within the creative and production process
• Auteur theory in video games
• Narrative in mainstream and indie video games
• Local production video game ecosystems
• Historical perspectives on the video game industry
• Integration of indie games with emerging technologies
• Video game design frameworks
• Best practices for video game design and development
• User experience in video games
• Quality assurance (QA) in video games
• Accessibility in video games
• Video games and creation beyond entertainment: education, awareness, and well-being
• Metrics and data analysis in the context of video games
• Differences in communication and marketing strategies among video games
• Business strategy diff erences in the mainstream and indie video game industry as a cultural sector
• Entrepreneurship, incubators, and business strategies for the sustainable development of video games