Neurodivergence in the Game Development¶

Estimated time to read: 18 minutes

Most of us game devs hold some degree of divergence. If you fall into the typical box, don't worry: you are not alone. The game industry is filled with neurodivergent people, and it is a place where you can be yourself, be accepted, and thrive. But if you are a typical person, you should be at least aware of the differences and how to deal with them.

IGDA (International Game Developers Association) ran a research in 2023 about disability and they found a shocking number of 44% of game professionals holds some degree of neurodivergence. Check it out here the full report.

The person who is writing this article (AKA myself, yay!) is an autistic person, with triple exptionalities (giftedness, ADHD, and autism). I am also a teacher for more than 10 years and I have been trying to understand how to deal with neurodivergent students in the classroom for a while. Please, allow me to share some of my insights and experiences with you.

Depression and Anxiety as hints for deeper issues¶

Well, if I could say something to my younger self is to understand more about depression and anxiety, it could be symptoms for deeper issues. Those are the first things people note on you, and you can feel them more clearly than the other characteristics. It is pretty common for an atypical person to force itself into a typical box, and it is a recipe for disaster. If you feel that, seek for help! It is not a shame to be different!

Chronic Depression and Anxiety¶

As a professor, I think that most of my struggling students face some of the following characteristics somehow, and I remember what happened to me too. I was wrongly diagnosed as Depressed and Anxious, but in my case, it was a consequence of my brain trying to force myself into others expectations and failing. So I will list some common symptoms of those chronic issues and how read them.

Tiredness: trying to fit can be really draining, and it can lead to tiredness or even exhaustion.
Lack of motivation and interest: You feel so tired that just focus on something can become a herculean task. You might feel like you are not interested in anything, but it might be just your brain trying to protect you from the exhaustion.
Low self-esteem: As you fail to do what others do, you constantly feel like you are not enough. Thus, you feel hopelessness, worthlessness, pessimist and empty. Have you thought that you might be judging yourself by others standards, and being blind to your own abilities?
Sleep problems: it can be the two extremes, sleeping too much or too little. My case: When I didn't understand that on me, I couldn't sleep well, I faint out of exhaustion or even delirious while awake. It was pretty common for me to have headaches for the lack of sleep.
Appetite or weight changes: This can be related to Anxiety too. Sometimes you feel so frustrated that you seek for dopamine in food, or you feel so anxious trying to do something that your brain can't focus on eating.
Concentration problems: You feel hard do pay attention to things that are not interesting to you or don't connect with you well. For me, this is a consequence of being tired. You can create coping mechanisms to keep at least partially focused such as drawing in class, but it is not sustainable. I have another article about learning techniques. Check it out later.
Emotional problems and mood: Sometimes you might feel emotionally unstable. Feeling sad frequently or even not feeling what you know you should feel. You might feel hard to feel empathy and understand others feelings. Or you disconnect from your own feelings. You can be easily irritable just because you are exhausted. Or worse, you feel like you are a robot, and you don't have feelings at all, because you create so many protections around yourself that it is easier to dissociate from your feelings than to deal with them.
Pain: You might experience pain differently. In my case, I have a high pain tolerance and don't perceive pain the way most people do. For example, I thought I had merely bumped a toe against the bed while walking at night and went back to sleep. It wasn’t until later when I woke up trembling cold and noticed my foot was purple, so I went to the hospital. The doctors informed me that my foot was fractured in three places and did a surgery. The very next day I was teaching already.
Other Physical Symptoms: most common are: constant headaches, digestive problems, or sexual problems (ex.: porn addiction or not interested at all). But it is pretty common to have heart palpitations, sweating, lightheadedness, trouble breathing, nausea, stomach upset, diarrhea, frequent urination, dizziness, and shakiness.

I am no doctor, and I am here just to raise awareness as a person with issues by showing empathy to others and trying to prove that I can understand most of your issues. If you are facing any of those, and you are one of my students, you can count on me to give you extra attempts on assignments or extending due dates. No questions asked. But you have to ask. Deal?

Brain model¶

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I am no psychologist nor neuroscientist, but I have been studying the brain for a while to understand myself and how to be more effective teacher by helping people like me. But in order to explain my point, I will use a simplified model of the brain. I will use the Freud model.

As far as I could understand about my issues and some o my students, I came to the conclusion that we have a different way to process, store and retrieve information, how we learn, and we have an atypical way to interact with the world.

So, the core issue I could feel is a sheer pressure coming from the rational core towards the other layers, but we forget that conscious is just the emergence of what is happening in the other layers. So, we have to learn to respect and listen to our unconscious and preconscious mind.

It is just like having two people living inside yourself, and they are constantly fighting for control. The rational core is the one that is always trying to fit in, to be like others, to be accepted, to be loved. But the unconscious and preconscious mind are the ones that are trying to protect you, to make you feel safe, to make you feel happy. And if they are in disagreement, you might feel the symptoms I listed above. Does it make sense to you?

Sometimes this fight between these poles can be so intense that you might feel exhausted, and it can lead to depression and anxiety. But I will phrase Jim Carrey:

"Depression is your body saying: 'I don't want to be this character anymore. I don't want to hold up this avatar that you've created in the world. It's too much for me.'";

"I believe depression is legitimate. But I also believe that if you don’t exercise, eat nutritious food, get sunlight, get enough sleep, consume positive material, surround yourself with support, then you aren’t giving yourself a fighting chance."

Protecting your subconscious¶

Well, what you could do to help yourself? I will list some of the things that helped me and some of my students thrive.

The obvious and direct actions are:

Sleep well and track your sleep quality with any mobile app you like, I use Sleep as Android, my kid uses the Pokemon Sleep, it connects to Pokemon GO!.
Take sunbathes, at least 15 minutes a day. If you cant, take vitamin D supplements. I go to work by bike, so I take my sunbathes while I am going to work. On days that I can't, I take buses and walk. If you see me around, don't be shy, say hi! I would love it!
Eat well, track your food intake with any mobile app you like. Learn to eat healthy even if you distaste it, first you will learn how to tolerate and then you will enjoy it. Avoid sugary food and highly processed food.
Drink enough water to help your body clean unwanted substances. I use a 1.5L bottle with time markings to help me to drink enough water throughout the day.
Create a support network. It can be through games, sports or anything that might make you be in touch with others. I am currently building an open source system, and I am always in touch with the community.
Do outside activities and get some fresh air:
Is it raining? Go for it! You can take a shower after that.
Is it snowing? Feel the snowflakes in your skin and the urge to maintain your body temperature.
Is it sunny? Go to the lake and feel the water in your feet and the sun in your skin.

Those are the building blocks to allow your subconscious to feed your conscious mind. These apparently simple steps help you close the distance between your two selfs. If you feel that something works for you and I didn't list it, please share with me. I would love to learn more about it.

Again. I am just a neurodivergent guy trying to help others like me. Seek professional help if you think you identify with the symptoms I listed above.

My personal take on conceding exceptions to students¶

As a teacher, I have to follow some rules. While the learning and supporting systems are not ready for people like me, I am do my best to be flexible enough to deal with the differences fairly. The only requirement I ask is: if you are my student and are struggling, please reach me out or just add comments into the assignment online stating that you would request extra time or whatever your case would be. I want you to succeed. The reason is: these tools does not offer a nice way to me to track your particularities or allow me to attach notes to students.