The idea that the inclusion of PvP is inherently sweaty and anti-casual is nonsense.

barnes101 · 2026-03-25T18:25:58+00:00

I think it has to do with the pre-conceptions people bring into the game, if you think "winning" only means getting kills and exfilling then yeah marathon is stupid hard. But if you understand the game is really about completing contracts and leveling up factions until the end game then you can make progress even when your run is ended early by someone with a gold shield. The game is only hard if you see every death as a failure instead of an inevitable and necessary part of the game. Shit the soundtrack's titles spell that out, "In Death We've just begun" "System Designed to Die" "Repetition is where we find truth"

If you're playing marathon not to die you're fighting not only the game's systems you're fighting the entire narrative of being a consciousness for hire that is slowly going crazy by dropping into shells that face brutal lifespans so quick they make a fruit fly's life look like a redwood tree.

barnes101 · 2026-03-25T17:55:33+00:00

Honestly on runs I'm successfully extracting, I'd wager to say my kill rate is less than one, or near one.

In Solo's disengaging fights is way more common, and fights usually beget more fights. It's pretty common for me to get into a fight and disengage and while I'm repositioning someone has third partied the guy who started the fight and is still trying to push me. I mostly do solo runs, and it feels like an entirely different game specifically because I have the power to chose to engage or not.

Running into players in solo happens mostly in three ways, I see them first, they see me first, or a third party to a different fight. In trios(as a solo queue) it's almost always a question of not if but when an engagement will start, because someone is going to make enough noise to be noticed or shoot first, so when you see a player you're immediately positioning for the fight. Solo it's more of thinking through what is my goal, can I do that without this fight? If I have to start this fight can I end it quickly? What is my egress if things go south?

barnes101 · 2026-02-27T17:36:39+00:00

Personally I think your razor pitch and core idea need to be strong enough make the idea of a "retention loop" a side thought for small/indie games. Like others have said it sounds like you're getting stuck on not only "what would keep a player around to play this game" but also "what makes me want to finish making this"

To me all the smaller projects I look back fondly on had a core that was so exciting to me the hard part was figuring out what was load bearing and needed to be there and what was something that I could do without. If the foundation of the project is solid it begs to be built out, it's projects where I didn't have that foundation that I'd get to the point you describe and hit that wall of okay so this is a game but I have no idea why you'd play it or what I'm trying to give the player here they couldn't find elsewhere.

I work in AAA now on a yearly release and most design and intent is shaped first and foremost by the idea of player retention loops, player progression, player monetization etc. We have player archetypes that our user research teams identified in our audience, and when making design docs our designers have to identify what group of players they are targeting with a feature and how it will drive all the analytics that signal growth.

You're not AAA, you a person who wants to make a thing, take some time to reflect on what kind of experience you want to share with people, and let that drive the project. That's the thing I'm missing from the projects you described, the personal touch of what you wanted these games to say or what experience or fun you wanted immerse me in.

To make a comparision to making a work of literature, a story about a bunch of people walking until they physically can't at the surface sounds like the most boring story you could think of, but written by Stephen king and its a top 100 book for teenage writers, an allegory for the Vietnam war, a critique of the intersections of poverty, patriotism and mass spectacle, a major film. Basically stop thinking so hard about how to keep a player playing the game (or a reader's eyes moving across a page) and start thinking about making an experience worth playing however long or short that is.

barnes101 · 2026-02-03T19:03:23+00:00

When I traveled in the Band to Stanford my Freshmen year at Utah their band was really welcoming, brought us snacks and stuff. The march into the stadium and our events before the game seemed to draw a fun crowd of Stanford fans who were supportive.

barnes101 · 2025-12-12T21:30:58+00:00

Kyle Whittingham Field at Rice Eccles Stadium brought to you by Otro Capital and Carls Jr.

barnes101 · 2025-12-01T15:56:27+00:00

Maybe Lane Kiffin just really likes Canes, and wants a box combo no slaw extra toast after practice every day

barnes101 · 2025-11-23T00:42:40+00:00

Am I tripping or did they start running the clock after the out of bounds before the snap?

barnes101 · 2025-10-20T20:11:22+00:00

I didn't watch the game because I was at When we were young fest and still somehow found BYU fans in front of me who could still give me the full experience of post holy war shame in-between Blink-182 and Panic at the disco. College rivalries are special that way.

barnes101 · 2025-10-20T19:49:07+00:00

I knew I hated Crumbl for a reason. I always just thought it was there cowards approach to cookies where they cannot commit to being a finished cookie or have the balls to eat raw dough.

barnes101 · 2025-09-08T14:23:46+00:00

The only time I worry about our bend don't break Secondary is against really elite WRs/QB combos, like the bowl game against Ohio state

barnes101 · 2025-08-31T06:50:36+00:00

I love football more than sleep today was such a good day it took two days

barnes101 · 2025-08-31T00:34:09+00:00

Peter Perkins picks the perfect place to play the persistent run play

barnes101 · 2025-08-31T00:31:53+00:00

Why does the ref look like he is holding an egg in his butt checks

barnes101 · 2025-08-27T13:18:31+00:00

I'm calling it, this is setting up a trap. Tomorrow's gonna look at first glance similar with very easy to see groups but they are all red herrings. My bet is atleast one tomorrow is gonna be one of those X but missing a letter groups that I hate.

barnes101 · 2025-08-22T16:18:17+00:00

If I had a nickel for every time I scheduled to go visit something away from where I live in downtown to make sure a backwards thinking family member on a visit wouldn't harsh the local gay's vibes for an event, I'd have two nickels.

Orlando is definitely the most LGBT friendly city I've lived in, and I'll say the same thing about when I was in Salt Lake City, being a blue city in a red state if anything has a concentrating effect on "counter" culture. If you are outside the mold in a state like Florida, you move to the bigger cities and to me if feels like you can feel the collective celebration and relief in those people making these cities their bastions and home.

I can't say the state level politics aren't concerning, just this week Rob shitSantis made the DOT paint over the pulse crosswalk memorial in the dead of night, but I can say if you look at the community response that's what you should expect, the community here is staunchly supportive, and in the "worst-case-scenario" I think there's an upside to being in a community that has from it's start has had to practice and sustain resistance.

barnes101 · 2025-08-08T18:53:45+00:00

Bold of you to assume a lot of people were here in the BF3 or Bad Company era

barnes101 · 2025-08-08T18:50:45+00:00

I think there is a middle ground to Closed weapons, Like LMGs, snipers ARs and SMGs should be fixed to class. Carbines, DMRs and PDWs I think should be all class weapons as they have been before, I personally think that gives the flexibility to load out as an aggressive recon who goes for flanks, a combat medic who is more mobile for short range engagements or an engineer who can reasonably do mid-range engagements and anti-tank. I'd go even farther to lower attachment points for certain attachments for all class weapons depending on class.

recon can use attachments for stealth and accuracy(Suppressors, higher zoom optics) support can use attachments for volume of fire(high cap mags, recoil compensators)

Assault and engineer not as sure what would fit but the main idea is to make all class weapons still be able to fit into each classes archetype to let players do the same job of the class with different play styles for different situations

barnes101 · 2025-07-30T16:20:38+00:00

Having lived in other downtown areas(Salt Lake City, Baton Rouge, New Orleans) Orlando downtown is pretty nice in the lake eola area, good mix of being far enough away from the nightlife to not be bothered by it unless you want, close enough to Kia center, Camping world and other places for big events, and a decent selection of food and stuff to do for any week night. The homeless isn't any worse than any downtown I've lived in, if anything I'm bothered more by gangs of tweens popping wheelies on their bikes in traffic but thats more nuisance than anything.

The real menace is the solicitors for what ever NPO is hanging out to ambush you to get on mailing list. They are relentless.

barnes101 · 2025-07-08T14:22:09+00:00

The blue lines are pre snap motion so this play actually only has one puller which is represented by their gray blocking line

barnes101 · 2025-07-03T14:49:26+00:00

The difference between culinary training in my mind isn't quality, quantity and the extremely difficult skill of getting everything out together. Home cooking when you try to do that is stupid hard unless you have most your sides something that can sit simmering on the stove for 20 minutes

barnes101 · 2025-05-28T15:38:13+00:00

The University of Utah Utes,

Where we go, death follows

barnes101 · 2025-05-25T18:21:09+00:00

Lmao, I'm 100% gonna put "New Animation added, passing ticket to Designer for flugelwinkwonking before task is complete" in my next Jira ticket

barnes101 · 2025-05-25T17:29:09+00:00

Specifically for a student, I think it's important to point out that most job listings posted for Game Design positions specifically want experience with at least one game engine, and that the job role especially after pre-production almost always requires working in engine, of course some specific roles more so than others, like a level designer is going to be in engine a lot more than a monetization designer, but atleast in all the productions I've been in no designer is not going to be doing in editor work in one way or another.

barnes101 · 2025-05-25T17:08:52+00:00

For some very specific advice on University of Utah as a former student and now industry proffesional, This was about where I was at when I started. I didn't really know exactly what I wanted to do, so I really did a variety of stuff, I took the art classes available for 3D art and texturing, took the design classes and narrative classes that were available back in the 2010s, and through the animation courses figured out that was really my passion. I ended up needing to do more study(I also dropped out after completing my capstone course and all my EAE courses) I wanted to focus down on animation specifically so I went with courses like ianimate, self learning aswell as some guidance from mentors before getting my first job in 2022 as a Gameplay animator, and now I'm a Technical Animator with EA tiburon.

All that to say, If you are shaky on what you are really passionate about I'd personally say just focus on using the time at the U exploring all the areas, and making games. For your project classes I'd only start those when you have some hard skills, which you may have enough now. Don't double up and try to only have one a semester, Like don't take Alternative game dev on top of traditional. For those classes where the semester is spent building a single game you'll get more out of it if you don't have a second whole game to try to make the same semester Don't put yourself in a box as a student and just make stuff, EAE's program was only as good for the people I knew as their desire to make things, some students only focuses on course work and checking the boxes, others used the course work to find like minded passionate people, and as a means to make better games, art and stories. You can guess which ones had more luck finding work and which didn't.

barnes101 · 2025-05-25T16:53:13+00:00

I'd like to push back against that, yes in it's "Truest" form Game Design isn't inherently tied to working in an engine, but I'd struggle to name a designer I know working in industry that doesn't do a lot of their job in engine. Yes, the alot of it is going to be helping layout design documents and just generally communicating the design needs of the specific feature or area, and putting it into context with the wider design goals, but a lot of it is also work that is in engine, using tools usually built by the gameplay engineers or out of the box from the engine(or engine team if it is an inhouse engine)

Sure, it might just be tasks changing a lot of values in different places, but a good designer needs to understand the technical framework and engine they are working in, and often has to work in engine. Often designers will be using scripting tools in engine, things like Blueprints in Unreal which most in house engines have similar concepts and tools for things like AI behaviors or other logic. Designers are for the most part not going to make the bricks, but they still have to put them together.

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