How typical is it for someone to pitch a new feature or system mid-development and for it to get the green light? (Spoiler: It depends mostly on scope, timing, and whether the pitcher can build the thing she's pitching)

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What's your favorite "wake up" snack while you're crunching? (Spoiler: I don't really have one, I'm weird)

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Ask a Game Dev When designing items for games, be it weapons, cards, or anything else, are developers given rules for hard limits of what that item can do? Say, a gun cannot have a DPS above X, a card with cost Y...

How do you determine whether there's an upper limit for an in-game item or ability or whatever? (Spoiler: We use math to set up formulas for how strong things should be)

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Ask a Game Dev So I'm currently aiming to develop a game with turn-based combat vaguely similar to the classic Final Fantasy games; in my current design, the battles themselves will be very quick, usually not taking...

I want to build my RPG with turn-based combat with quick battles not taking longer than 2-5 minutes. How do I make my combat not get old and rote? (Spoiler: Do some research! Research good/bad gameplay, write it all down, analyze your data to find trends)

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Ask a Game Dev What are the Game Design 101s when it comes to open world? How do you design a world with exciting activities to do rather than treating it like a list of chores or activities to go through? I can't.....

How would you approach design for an open world game to minimize the feel of new areas feeling like chores? (Spoiler: Acknowledgement in game of player choices is the key)

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Do recessions not hit fully priced AAA lifestyle games as hard? (Spoiler: Yes)

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What do you do if player feedback doesn't match your internal data? (Spoiler: We validate the situation as much as we can and we use that to make choices)

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Live service games (esp. mobile) often send out user surveys. Can they get identifying information from those? (Spoiler: Very yes)

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What kind of AAA game has the biggest gap between prototyping and full production? (Spoiler: The games that need enormous content - open world, MMO, etc.)

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Ask a Game Dev So if UI design is a low priority area where “good enough” is acceptable, what are other “good enough” areas of AAA game design? Generally speaking, people will buy games for the gameplay, the story,....

What are some other "good enough is acceptable" features in AAA game design? (Spoiler: There's quite a few - voice acting, photo mode, crossplay, mini-games, etc.)

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Ask a Game Dev how come most studios no longer like experimenting with fun or unique aesthetics when it comes to UI? everything feels clinical with clean lines, minimalism, and simplicity. it seems every game has....

Why aren't studios experimenting with more interesting UI? (Spoiler: AAA games need to find the line between enough information and overload. Also, UI doesn't sell games)

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Ask a Game Dev How do game devs revive the feeling of some long gone game series/genre from their youth (either a spiritual successor or hired to do a remake of that old game) when that dev/dev team were too young....

How do you remake an old game if the original devs and assets aren't available any more? (Spoiler: We can reverse engineer it as long as we recognize what the original game makes us feel)

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Ask a Game Dev Do vertical slices tend to be a "ripped segment" from the final game or is it something developed completely separate? All elements in the vertical slice may not make it all the way to release, but...

Is a vertical slice more of a piece pulled from the final game or a completely separate thing? (Spoiler: It's more the former, it should be a representative experience of the end product)

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What happens to the documentation and assets for sunset/cancelled games? Is it lost forever? (Spoiler: It's archived and mostly lost unless somebody buys it)

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Ask a Game Dev You’ve talked before about how you can tell when a project is failing (lack of leadership, frequent changes in scope or direction that appear aimless) and that got me wondering, have you ever been...

Have you ever felt like a game you worked on was going to hit it big? Have you been surprised by a better reception than expected for a game you worked on? (Spoiler: I have)

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Remember, patents must describe exactly how the invention works - that's how they can prove if somebody is in violation. As long as you can prove you aren't doing exactly as they have written in the patent, you're golden

Thus, if you bypass the ranks and faction altogether as the means of determining the NPC's strength and instead made it, say, a randomly determined set of contextual attributes (e.g. defeated by fire damage > becomes fire resistant) assigned after in-game events, it would not violate the patent

The nemesis system very specifically requires in-game events, multiple NPCs, and a faction system of NPCs by which there is an explicit rank involved for those NPCs. The system allows for the actions of players to cause those NPC ranks to change around and correlating with their in-game power

Patents protect inventions, which are a specific way or process to do something. As an example, the Nemesis system is patented by Warner Bros Games but has a very specific process by which it applies

Ask a Game Dev If I want to revive the 2012-era experience without using the official IP, what is the safest way to build a successor that captures the same 'feel'—like the specific 2D world and trading...

If I wanted to make a "spiritual successor" to a game, how could I do it without legal trouble? (Spoiler: Characters, places, and story elements are copyrighted, not game mechanics. Keep the game mechanics, make up new characters, places, and story elements)

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What are the other devs doing while the game engine is being built? (Spoiler: Usually they're deciding rules for how the game will look and play - mostly concept art and prototyping)

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Ask a Game Dev What are the easiest game genres to prototype? What are the hardest? The toughest games to prototype are multiplayer games that need synchronized animation. This tends to include any kind of extremely...

What are the easiest and hardest games to prototype? (Spoiler: Hardest tend to be real time animation-heavy systems. Easiest tend to be turn-based systems)

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Ask a Game Dev What would be your advice for an undergrad comp sci student who wants to get into gamedev? It has never been easier to get into game dev than now. Pick a tool - Unity, Unreal, Game Maker, RPG Maker,.....

What is your advice for an undergrad interested in game dev? (Spoiler: If you're interested in game dev, do some game dev)

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"Does this prototype convey what I think this system/feature/whatever should feel like?"

If yes, you're good
If no, what's missing? Add that to the prototype*
Repeat until the answer is yes.

*: If the "missing part" needed is high fidelity visuals and production values, you're probably in trouble

I'm thinking about building a turn based battle system. Should I build a prototype? Is it harder than prototyping a platformer? (Spoiler: Yes, it's easier in many ways than a platformer)

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I'm afraid of wasting years of my life making a game and it turning out not fun. How do I deal with this fear? (Spoiler: Build a prototype first. If it isn't fun as a prototype, it won't be fun when finished)

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Ask a Game Dev With heightened levels of security when it comes to development kits, SDKs, etc., does it negatively affect how efficiently/well a studio can develop a game? It doesn't really affect us that much....

Does having to work under NDA on new consoles make things hard? (Spoiler: Nah, we already work under NDA all the time so one more doesn't make much difference)

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Ask a Game Dev Follow-up to the reactions of the developers, what is the common reactions among management or the executives? Is it the same four categories you laid out or is there differences? For management, it's...

Following yesterday's post, what do the executives and managers do when a studio is closed? (Spoiler: Managers get it just like the rank and file. Executives have to shut the whole thing down.)

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Approach 1: Naive Optimism So Highguard is shutting down on March 12. What is it like to be in studio whose tentpole game is getting shut down, missing it's revenue figures, or otherwise there is nothing to keep the lights...

What does it feel like to be at a studio that you know is doomed and closure is impending? (Spoiler: I've seen a number of different approaches)

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Ask a Game Dev Hi! I've been very curious about something for years at this point. Why do some console games use low-resolution textures even when the hardware is relatively modern? I can guess it's to improve...

Aside from performance, why would developers use smaller textures? (Spoiler: Not everything needs to be super high fidelity, like small projectiles. Also, install size is a thing)

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