How did games rise to become the central audiovisual form of expression and storytelling in digital culture? How did the practices of their artistic production come into being? How did the academic analysis of the new medium's social effects and cultural meaning develop? Addressing these fundamental questions and aspects of digital game culture in a holistic way for the first time, Gundolf S. Freyermuth's introduction outlines the media-historical development phases of analog and digital games, the history and artistic practices of game design, as well as the history, academic approaches, and most important research topics of game studies. With contributions by André Czauderna, Nathalie Pozzi and Eric Zimmerman. Gundolf S. Freyermuth is a writer, media producer, and co-founder of the Cologne Game Lab of the Technical University Cologne (in 2010, together with Prof. Björn Bartholdy). André Czauderna is an education researcher working at the Cologne Game Lab of TH Köln, where he manages and develops the study programs BA and MA Digital Games as well as teaches player research. His research focuses on processes of learning in strategy and management games, gaming affinity spaces, and game design education. Czauderna holds a PhD from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.