Behind the Code
Conversations with the programmers, designers and artists who turn their passion into pixels
Story by Ayden Sweat
Illustration by Grace Matson
For developers, creating video games is a deeply personal endeavor. Behind every game’s visuals, characters, music and mechanics is a team of passionate creators working to craft a memorable experience.
By way of challenging gameplay or an impactful story, players interface with games in a way no other medium can achieve. The sensation of overcoming failure or having a personal stake in a narrative makes games complex cultural objects. Developers invert their role as storyteller onto the player giving them a newfound sense of freedom.
The road to creation is never without its trials. Yet, in the untold struggles, they weave magic — pushing boundaries, embracing risks and crafting stories that leave lasting impressions.
To Unite and Inspire
“Game development's a lot of hard work, but the part that I like about it is you learn so many skills at once,” said Doug Gustafson, founder of Psychronic Games in Bellingham and creator of the Star Shift game series.
Game design is a delicate fusion of art and science — a tightrope walk between creativity and practicality. A designer must build immersive, exciting levels while anticipating every player’s decision, weaving psychology into the fibers of design.
“I'm basically building a game that I would want to play myself,” Gustafson said.
“I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping [developers] make stuff that is really cool and fun to work on. And, I think it's the best job in the world, that is, making games,” said Tarrah Alexis, a game producer and veteran in the game industry.
Not all developers strive for financial success or popularity because after all, game design is a form of creative expression.
Its impact also has the potential to reach far and wide, according to Gustafson. “I'm trying to make an iconic game that is remembered later. And I'm not there yet. I feel like I'm getting closer with each project.”
For independent developers, the challenge is different. Without the safety net of a publisher, every hour spent on development is an investment — often of their own time and money. They assume every role in the development process, unlike a large studio where every role is divvied up by specialty. It’s a risk they are willing to take to secure greater creative freedom on their project.
“The biggest difference is creative freedom but then that comes with an enormous risk. You’ve gotta like plan your life in a way to make sure you can absorb any kind of risk you're willing to take,” Alexis said.
For the past three years, Alexis has worked on game engines and tooling for game developers. She emphasized the breadth of options for indie developers today to help them realize their visions. The barrier to entry is lower than it has ever been.
Crunch Culture
The term “crunch” has become synonymous with the game industry, referring to extensive overtime — often unpaid — that developers endure to meet deadlines. While some studios have made efforts to curb the practice, many developers still find themselves locked in cycles of overwork.
A 2019 survey conducted by the International Game Developer’s Association found employees at a game studio in the midst of a crunch phase worked anywhere between 50–59 hours (38%), 60–69 hours (19%) and over 70 hours (13%) per week.
“My general observation is that the people that last in the industry, as in they stay in the industry, they have developed a lifestyle that allows them to keep pushing through that continuously,” Alexis said. “I would also argue maybe some of it is self-inflicted.”
The grueling hours developers endure have become a perceived necessary evil for the launch of a successful game, to the point of voluntary crunch by employees at game studios.
However, crunch is not limited to major studios. Indie developers face their own version of it, often pushing themselves beyond their limits simply because there’s no one else to share the workload.
The toll of crunch is well-documented — burnout, mental health struggles and, in some cases, talented developers leaving the industry altogether.
A 2015 survey conducted by The Games Outcome Project found that crunch makes games less successful when it is implemented due to the lasting effects of overwork. Although crunch may push a game out the door, the question becomes, what about the next game? “When projects try to dig themselves out of a hole by crunching, it only digs the hole deeper,” according to the survey.
Alexis Tahiri, a video game audio designer and musician, made the shift to game design after working at a studio as an administrator. After collaborating with an array of disciplines in the process, he was inspired to apply his creative talents to game development.
“I see a lot of studios now having an anti-crunch kind of mandate, where, like a lot of the job descriptions that I see call it out. They're like, ‘we have no crunch culture here.’ And, I think that as a whole, the industry is moving a little bit more towards having better work-life balance for people,” Tahiri said.
The Market’s Relentless Pressure
In 2024, the gaming industry faced an unprecedented 14,600 layoffs — each number representing a person’s livelihood uprooted. Yet gaming revenue soared to $184.3 billion in the same year, another all-time high. How can there be so much instability in such a lucrative industry?
“The game industry is notorious for layoffs. You work on a game and kill yourself to ship this thing and then you get laid off,” Alexis said. “I worked my ass off on a game and my studio got shut down.”
Beyond the internal struggles, developers face an unpredictable market. An excellent game can fail if it launches at the wrong time, gets buried under the flood of new releases, or simply doesn’t resonate with players.
Tahiri spoke about his studio, Digital Scorpion Interactive, searching for investors, all of which are interested in games that have a client base established even before release.
“You get used to it. The first or second time you go through it's really hard, but by the third and fourth time, you're like business as usual. It is an unfortunate reality of the industry,” Alexis said.
Throughout her career, Alexis has become well acquainted with the economics of the game industry as well. She said developers make roughly 30 to 50% of what they generate and on top of that, there are publisher fees, user acquisition fees, platform fees and so on.
“I'm really glad that this isn't what I live on because if I was living on this as a job or something, I would have to make a completely different game,” Gustafson said.
Passion Refuses to Die
Despite the obstacles, developers continue to forge ahead. Game developers find ways to push boundaries, tell compelling stories and design experiences that captivate players worldwide.
While working on the 2014 world-building game, Project Spark, Alexis spoke about how a father and his daughter reacted to the game. In the midst of teaching his daughter to code, the game resonated with her for its immediate feedback and building-block approach. They formed memories around the game and it connected the two in a brand new way.
Gustafson of Psychronic Games strongly believes in open source code, sharing assets and sounds from his game development for others to use freely.
“I think back to myself when I was younger and it took me a lot longer to get good at this, because I didn't have the resources. Basically, I'm trying to pay it forward. And I actually start to see the quality of games go up because of a tool that I made that might have been useful to them,” said Gustafson.
Tahiri’s advice for those aspiring to break into the field is to make friends in the industry because people want to work with those they trust. If you are going to create a game, you need to be on the same wavelength as those around you.
“How do I use my experience in the game industry to keep adding value to society? I think it’s that you learn such enduring skills about how to entertain people, how to be interactive with people and how content engages people. Those are skills that are going to be useful, no matter what you work on,” Alexis said.
A New Direction
The industry is changing. More developers are speaking out about crunch, mental health and sustainability. New platforms give indie creators more ways to reach audiences. But at its core, game development remains a labor of love, driven by those who believe in the power of interactive storytelling.
As players, we experience the final product — a pristine, immersive experience waiting to be endlessly explored. What we don’t see is the sleepless nights, the doubt, the sacrifices. Behind every game is a developer who gave a piece of themselves to make it happen. And for them, despite the struggles, the next game is always worth it.