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askagamedev.bsky.social
Ask a Game Dev
@askagamedev.bsky.social
360 followers 3 following 210 posts
I make games for a living and can answer your questions.
He/him, she/her, they/them are all acceptable.

http://askagamedev.tumblr.com

http://discord.gg/W3Pk2Je
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askagamedev.bsky.social
Have there been any dips or crises in the game industry where the greater economy has been fine? (Spoiler: Sure. Things operate at different levels of scale)

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askagamedev.tumblr.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:18 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
What are your predictions for 2026 in terms of game industry stability, job hunting, and growth? (Spoiler: I think there are two major potential scenarios on a macro level that are worth considering)

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askagamedev.tumblr.com
January 19, 2026 at 5:09 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Thoughts on navigating the job hunting process for the next few? (Spoilers: Broaden your search and scratch your creative itch in your off time)

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Ask a Game Dev
How do you recommend developers survive until the game industry crisis passes a bit? I know this has happened before, but what should people who were affected by layoffs, or were just fired do? One...
askagamedev.tumblr.com
January 16, 2026 at 5:26 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
When you're designing a character/item/ability/thing, what kind of methods do you use to decide how many abilities/effects or how strong they are when adding them to a kit before running internal tests? (Spoiler: We prototype first, then we make rules)

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Ask a Game Dev
When designing characters/items, what sort of methods do you use to decide how many abilities or how strong those abilities are when adding them to the design of the kit but before you run internal...
askagamedev.tumblr.com
January 15, 2026 at 5:11 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
If the AI data centers hypothetically go unused for some reason, what could game devs use that computing power for? (Spoiler: It's more server power, but we're still limited by the player clients)

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askagamedev.tumblr.com
January 14, 2026 at 5:23 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Is there really space to innovate in game design? (Spoiler: Of course)

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askagamedev.tumblr.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:13 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Thoughts on Sandfall and Larian's use of Generative AI? (Spoiler: Putting aside the tribalism, it's normal for dev studios to evaluate new tools)

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askagamedev.tumblr.com
January 12, 2026 at 5:14 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Are the rising costs of hardware (RAM, GPU, etc.) affecting game dev? (Spoiler: We go fishing where the fish are)

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askagamedev.tumblr.com
January 7, 2026 at 5:07 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Who handles the problems that come in during the holidays when everyone is on vacation? (Spoiler: We usually keep a rotating "on call" schedule)

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Ask a Game Dev
Hope you had good holidays. Question since Steam and a bunch of games went down on Christmas Eve. Who handles emergency holiday issues? Every dev studio is a little different, but most live service...
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January 5, 2026 at 5:14 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
How does a new hire get up to speed on a long running franchise project without being there for the initial creation? (Spoiler: Investigation, observation, and asking questions when needed)

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Ask a Game Dev
This has been bugging me for a bit now. I've played mmos and rpgs for a looooong time. How do people brought in during an expansion that weren't there for the base games development get brought up to....
askagamedev.tumblr.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:10 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Do game dev awards mean anything to the devs who earn them? (Spoiler: Yes, but less than you might think)

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Ask a Game Dev
Do game dev award wins mean anything for developers who earn them or meaningfully contributed to them? For example, if the game you worked on won a narrative award, would putting that on your resume.....
askagamedev.tumblr.com
December 17, 2025 at 5:19 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
How do you design a character? (Spoiler: Usually, we figure out what role the character is supposed to serve in the game and then figure out how to show that to a player visually)

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Ask a Game Dev
So, maybe a bit too vague but how do you go about designing a character? Within the context of game development, there's usually two ways to approach this. In the first, you start with the character.....
askagamedev.tumblr.com
December 16, 2025 at 5:08 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Following the weakness question, what's your greatest strength? (Spoiler: I have a wide variety of skills I use to make things happen)

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Ask a Game Dev
Relating to your weakness question, what are you best strengths as a designer right now? I am the one people call on to "get it working". I probably won't be able to get into the extreme depths of any...
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December 15, 2025 at 5:20 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
What do you think your main weaknesses are? How do you mitigate them? (Spoiler: I'm not good at visual design, but I try to learn the principles to both improve and figure out where my boundaries are)

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Ask a Game Dev
As a game designer, what do you think are your personal weaknesses in game design that you have not been able to diminish or resolve through working hard, and how do you mitigate or get around those.....
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December 11, 2025 at 5:05 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Why would a cross-platform game not go to a particular platform? (Spoiler: Could be technical, financial, or any of a number of other reasons)

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Ask a Game Dev
When a game is announced/released to multiple platforms but not all modern platforms, what decisions lead to choosing which platforms will be supported? For example if a game is released for PC,...
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December 9, 2025 at 5:19 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Why does Super Mario World on Switch 2 Virtual Console still have screen slowdown? Shouldn't better hardware fix that? (Spoiler: If the emulator doesn't allow for it, it won't happen)

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Ask a Game Dev
I was recently playing Super Mario World on the Switch 2 via the virtual console, and I noticed that the game still suffers from frame lag when many objects are on the screen simultaneously. Why...
askagamedev.tumblr.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:16 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
How does "cutscene incompetence" work? (Spoiler: It's called 'ludonarrative dissonance' and it comes when different design groups operate independently)

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Ask a Game Dev
I saw a video about cutscene incompetence, basically where a character in a game who is easily able to handle a situation when we are in control is unable to do the stuff we can do in gameplay or does...
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December 5, 2025 at 5:09 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
What is de-duplicating, why did Helldivers do it, and why don't other game companies do it too? (Spoiler: It's an optimization that trades disk space for loading speed)

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Ask a Game Dev
Could you explain "deduplicating data" and why more AAA games don't do this? Helldivers 2 was reduced from 150 GB to 23 GB. With how large AAA games are nowadays, it seems odd that this isn't more.....
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December 3, 2025 at 5:06 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Could there be a reason that future content causes delays to dlc that's ready to release? (Spoiler: It would be rare, more likely there's a problem with the "finished" dlc)

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December 2, 2025 at 5:49 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
What should a junior do to prepare for things like crunch or difficult relationships with coworkers? (Spoiler: Forewarned is forearmed)

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Ask a Game Dev
Hi! I just got a job on a AAA project at a junior position. It’s my first job in a studio this big since ive started out— i’m overjoyed! But also quite scared of how it’s gonna turn out once i’m...
askagamedev.tumblr.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:02 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Have you ever been in a situation like ME:Andromeda where the pillars of the game were cut out from under you? What did you do? (Spoiler: Yes. Nowadays, I see it coming and update my resume to look for a new job)

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Ask a Game Dev
Have you ever been in a project like Andromeda where the main pillar of the game (as you noted the seamless experience and the procedurally generated worlds) fell through and you had to crunch...
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November 26, 2025 at 5:05 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
What about decoupling world state from frame rate on a technical basis? How do you do that? Why wouldn't you? (Spoiler: It works great when frame rate goes up, but it doesn't do so well when frame rate goes down)

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askagamedev.tumblr.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:09 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Why wouldn't the Kingdom Hearts 2 devs unlink the physics update from the frame rate? (Spoiler: When you're thinking only about the current project on the current hardware, you often make assumptions that don't hold true on a long enough timeline)

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Ask a Game Dev
I remember seeing a case of a port of the game Kingdom Hearts 2 on PS4 having different physics and other aspects than the original PS2 release and the PS3 port, presumably due to the original game...
askagamedev.tumblr.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:08 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
Why did Mass Effect Andromeda have so much trouble with Frostbite? (Spoiler: I speculate it is because the big tech features they wanted and eventually cut were difficult to do)

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Ask a Game Dev
This is an old subject, but: I always wondered why Bioware had (allegedly) so much issue with Frostbite during Andromeda, when the older Inquisition was clearly well made and decently polished. I...
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November 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
askagamedev.bsky.social
What does winning an award do for a game from the business perspective? (Spoiler: It's mostly about getting awareness for a product)

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Ask a Game Dev
I was recently reading an article about the 2025 Game Awards nominations and it made me wonder, in the world of video game development and publishing, do game awards actually matter or make a...
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November 19, 2025 at 6:29 PM