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Kurtis McCathern

@kurtismcc.bsky.social

1.7K followers 730 following 3.5K posts

Husband to @othesharon.bsky.social. Dad. Christian. Engineer. Currently at Magic Soup Games, Previously at Blizzard. Owner of expressed opinions. He/him. Black lives matter. pfp by Eric Browning

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Pinned

Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · May 8

Updating my pinned post.

Hi, I'm Kurtis. Late to game dev: started at 35. Barreling towards 50. Most of my career as server engineer on World of Warcraft, but done other things - last 21 months or so at Magic Soup Games working on [redacted].

Probably a 3d printing stan account for a while.

Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 22h

Prime8 just put up their demo: @prime8.games

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Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

Prime8 @prime8.games · 1d

The Ghost Hunter Simulator DEMO is live on Steam! Go forth and Ghost Hunt! Happy #NextFest everyone!

store.steampowered.com/app/4079080/...

#gamedev #indiedev #indiegame

Screenshot of Ghost Hunter Simulator Demo Steam store page

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 1d

It's a good song, kitty!

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 1d

They say tastes change every seven years. Congratulations on a wonderful new world!

Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

dr. hazel 🐝 @hazelmonforton.com · 2d

Sadly, my contract with Blizzard ended in September. That means I'm looking for fulltime or contract work as a senior writer or narrative designer. If you need someone who can write sharp characters, poetic prose, and emotional stories, I'm available! www.hazelmonforton.com

dr. hazel 🐝 @hazelmonforton.com · Jul 8

It's #portfolioday! I'm presently a senior narrative designer at Blizzard, but before that I was at Bungie and Arkane. I wrote for the Writer's Guild award-nominated Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, and a bunch of critically acclaimed seasons and expansions in Destiny 2.

A scene from the High Heresy cinematic in Destiny 2: Heresy (2025)

A scene from the Safiyah cinematic from Destiny 2: Season of the Haunted (2022)

A scene from the final mission in Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (2017)

A cutscene featuring the Outsider from Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (2017)

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Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

Harry Turtledove @hntdove.bsky.social · 3d

Ea-Nāşir's perfidy seems eternal!

Comic

Panel one. Stick finger singing, "Raindrops on rose/ And whiskers on kittens."

Panel two. Same stick figure holding pot and singing, "Bright copper kettles leave/ ...Flakes on my mittens!?"

Panel three. Same figure still holding pot and singing, "Hey, these are stone with a copper veneer!"

Fourth panel. Same stick figure has put down pot and is singing, "I've been bamboozled by Ea-Nāşir!"

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 2d

Also when you strip away the fan service (which always creeps me out anyway) Evangelion is fundamentally "Omelas, but a rogue-like" and I will die on this hill.

Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 2d

I'm super cringe Xennial, I know. I see an Evangelion reference, and I hit repost.

Countess Sappho @countess-sappho.bsky.social · 3d

YOU HEARD THEM

Meme image of Shinji from Evangelion leaning forward in a folding chair with his heads in his hands. Text around him reads "GET IN THE FUCKING FROG" and there are two depictions of someone in inflatable frog suits

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Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

Chappell Ellison @chappelltracker.bsky.social · 13d

This Tumblr user summarizes something I've been feeling/doing lately. Against everything going on, it somehow feels helpful.

User homoquartz writes: as long as you smile and nod, people are satisfied. it’s just to show that you are nice and there with good intentions. we’re small in a big world and have to rely on other people to be decent to us. so we do our little human dance to each other to say, “i’m not here to hurt you. here’s something we have in common, like the weather or sports or itchy sweaters, so we both know we’re on the same team. we both agree on a basic fact, like that it is rainy or that being itchy is uncomfortable, and this proves we can get along. i’m being light-hearted and non-threatening right now."
Small talk isn't to get to know a person. It's just a greeting to affirm you're buddies in the universe. I am motivated by wanting the other person to know I am friendly, so I have gotten pretty decent at small tall when I used to hate it.

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Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 3d

“Ted Faro had the right idea, just need to execute it better.”

- Elon musk

Matt Gabriele @profgabriele.com · 3d

I don’t particularly like living through the prologue to HORIZON: ZERO DAWN

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d

Which they are doing their best to accelerate.

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Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 3d

But in case you missed it, Fr Dowling's statement takes the time to make it explicit: "Father, forgive the ones who do not know what they are doing. Have mercy on the souls of those who know exactly what they're doing."

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Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

mbbendt @bendts2cents.bsky.social · 4d

Pretty sure that when you have giant frogs everywhere, God is very disappointed in how you are treating immigrants.

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 5d

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 4d

The first time I beat the big guy on wave 5 I was jumping around celebrating and fist pumping and like "holy shit - that fight totally sucked I'm glad I..." and then wave 6 drops and I was like "oh hell no."

I didn't play for a few days after that.

Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 4d

3. Have you run ALL your code through the debugger?
1. Yes, ALL of it
4. Have you checked your code for really stupid shit?
1. Infinite loops?
2. Potential division by 0?
3. Have you read EVERY LINE - SLOWLY?

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 4d

Alt text: A piece of paper with the following text.

Slow-the-fuck-down checklist:

1. What systems are you affecting with this change?
1. What does this fix?
2. What does it break?
2. Are there other solutions to this problem?
1. Why are they not better? /1

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 4d

So I’ve been taking the same folio to off sites, conventions, and talks for over 15 years. Today when cleaning it out this fell out and I have 0 memory of the context, but hey: good reminder.

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Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

Standplaats Kraków @standplaatskrk.pl · Aug 26

gymleaderoz on tumblr: "Do I want this? Yes. Do I need this? Also yes."
[image of two pill bottles, a red Tylenol and a blue Ibuprofen, both featuring Psyduck.]
sew-birb: "I love the idea that Psyduck is the only starter Pokémon in both Pokémon: Ibuprofen and Pokemon: Tylenol"

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Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

Deanna Kreisel 🌱 @doctorwaffle.substack.com · 12d

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
(Not sure if I spelled that right)
What immortal hand or eye
Could fashion such a stripy guy?
What the hammer that hath hewn it
Into such a chonky unit?
Did who made the lamb make thee,
Or an external franchisee?

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Reposted by Kurtis McCathern

Pól Micheál O'Slatraigh @pmoslatraigh.bsky.social · 11d

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 12d

Agree.

And the game keeps doubling down.

Ghost of Yotei is out.

Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 12d

It's a shame because there are genuine moments of fun. I'm on the Seth fight and it seems really fun.

But there's just so much "we have to keep getting harder."

That's ultimately why I stopped HK. I enjoyed both, but I recognize when I'm no longer having fun.

Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 12d

But there's too much "your next attempt comes 5-7 minutes after your last one, and that attempt lasts less than 30 seconds because you die in two hits."

/eol

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 12d

It's not that they're "fundamentally unfair." They're learnable and predictable and even fun.

But they're designed to demand execution even during the learning phase, and that's just not fun for me.

I play multiple instruments. I am willing to play the same five notes 100 times.

/2

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 12d

Spoilers.

Almost everything.

1. very first fight (everything is new but still does two masks)
2. bell eater (everything is new but still does two masks)
3. lava platforming escape (too long and yeah - most things do two masks)

/1

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Kurtis McCathern @kurtismcc.bsky.social · 13d

Might be done with Silksong now. Act 3 isn’t actually fun for me.

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