In this episode of Dev to Dev - the Podcast about everyday Videogame developers and why they do what they do every day - I sit down with senior technical designer Zane Draper, whose path into game development is wonderfully unique.

What begins with a childhood Game Boy trade becomes a decade-long journey through college uncertainty, chaotic student projects, small-team grind, massive collaboration, layoffs, and ultimately a fulfilling career solving endlessly fascinating problems in games.

Zane opens up about the emotional and personal side of that journey - the confidence instilled by his Dad, the camaraderie of tiny studios, the stress of large-scale interviews, and the strange experience of joining a team that already has “your” role handled by someone else.

He shares how game development reshaped the way he plays, why he refuses to game on his PC after hours, and what it’s like to teach students who want to enter the industry without quite knowing how.

And throughout it all, his love of problem-solving remains the through-line: for Zane, every day is another chance to tackle something new, whether that’s a VR project, a museum installation, or figuring out who should answer a question when two designers know the same system equally well.

Highlights

• The legendary “10 toy cars for a Game Boy” childhood trade

• Growing up in a small town with siblings who all gamed together

• Discovering programming accidentally through robotics

• Building five games in a semester to push into RIT’s Game Development program

• Shipping 20+ wildly different projects at Workinman and surviving crunch

• Navigating Embracer-related layoffs at Lost Boys Interactive

• Adjusting to remote culture and collaborative Discord workflows

• Joining ZOS after a six-interview marathon panel

• The delicate balance of overlapping roles with another technical designer

• Why he refuses to play games at his work PC

• How making games has shaped his sense of wellness and creativity

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• (00:00:00) - DevtoDev: The History of Video Game Development
• (00:00:40) - What First Inspired You To Play Video Games
• (00:01:39) - How I Got Hooked on Video Games
• (00:04:17) - Making Video Games: The Process of Learning
• (00:09:30) - How to Code and Design in College
• (00:10:19) - RIT's The Labyrinth: A Blind and Visually Impa
• (00:11:56) - RIT's Game Development Program
• (00:17:35) - Zane on Working at Small Studios
• (00:19:09) - Working Man to Lost Boys
• (00:20:28) - Lost Boys: Working Remotely
• (00:22:58) - At Lost Boys, I Joined the Tech Design Team
• (00:27:02) - Starting at Lost Boys, Transitioning to Zos
• (00:28:22) - The Process of Interviewing
• (00:33:47) - Have You Reached the Level of Engineering?
• (00:35:28) - Have You Found a Specialization?
• (00:39:25) - How Problem-Solving Made You a Developer
• (00:42:09) - Virtual Reality and AR: The Challenges
• (00:44:21) - How To Cope On a Technical Team
• (00:50:09) - How Making Games Has Changed Your Gaming
• (00:51:39) - How Game Design Has Changed Me
• (00:53:50) - How Does Your Family Compare To Your Career?
• (00:56:07) - "Thank You For Having Me On"