Mortal Kombat 11 has been out for several weeks now, and the game has been well received by audiences as a fitting evolution of everything the series has been so far. The game also celebrates its iconic violence with what many have called the most violent Mortal Kombat ever. However, it seems that this violence came at a cost for at least one Mortal Kombat 11 dev, who has spoken out about their experiences researching for the hyper violent moves in the game.

The Mortal Kombat 11 dev anonymously spoke with Kotaku recently to recount the experience that impacted their mental health. They were assigned to work with the cinematic team to help animate character moves, with a big focus being placed on the signature fatality moves. To make sure these violent attacks felt real and believable, the cinematic teams researched as much real-life violent imagery and biological reference material as possible.

However, studying these gory images led to the developer having trouble sleeping, and eventually ignoring sleep outright to avoid the discomfort. This exposure only continued and worsened throughout NetherRealm. As the dev states:

You’d walk around the office and one guy would be watching hangings on YouTube, another guy would be looking at pictures of murder victims, someone else would be watching a video of a cow being slaughtered. The scary part was always the point at which new people on the project got used to it. And I definitely hit that point.”

The developer would attend therapy after these events and was then diagnosed with PTSD. This account comes not long after accusations of severely overworked employees during crunch periods at NetherRealm, but the studio has yet to comment on this anonymous dev’s word with Kotaku yet. Hopefully this individual’s experience will allow for future precautions to be made for the remaining development needed for MK11 and future MK games. Especially with this being Mental Health Awareness Month, we here at Don’t Feed the Gamers implore anyone going through PTSD or any other mental illness to talk about their experiences with a trusted loved one and consult a mental health professional.

What do you guys think about the effects the game’s violence had on this Mortal Kombat dev? Let us know in the comments below. Be sure to stay tuned for the latest Mortal Kombat 11 news, such as the tower grind being greatly reduced in the game’s latest update, here on Don’t Feed the Gamers! Follow us on Twitter to see our updates the minute they go live!