Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the intersections between game studies, play studies, media studies, urban studies, urban geography, the design disciplines and other related fields. It examines how games and play can connect with, extend or challenge contemporary urban policy discourses that often ignore or overlook them. The book provides an overview of the literature on the creative city and the processes that led to its emergence, before identifying how games, play and playfulness instrumentally serve the creative city’s underpinning goal of attracting knowledge workers to its spaces. It also explores the infrastructural and platform layers of the smart city in relation to children’s public play spaces through two case studies. These case studies involve playgrounds and parks that have been retrofitted with sensors linked to app platforms that encourage digitally mediated play.