Kurtis McCathern

@kurtismcc

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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Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· 28d

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Jun 30

If you see this, post your fictional mentor.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Jun 6

A screencap of the "Transmission" cutscene in StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. The protagonist Sarah Kerrigan is on the left curled up in a ball about to cry. On the right side of the frame is a Zergling approaching her like a pet dog.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· May 26

Like, seriously, check out this build my youngest came up with on a recent run:

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· May 25

Y’all check this out: my brother-in-law got me an action figure of - me!

The back of the figure. The red shirt has my birth year of 1976. Strapped over my back is a sweet keytar.

The front of the action figure. I wear a red tshirt with a “50” on the front (in a small pocket location) while I hold a GameCube controller and give a thumbs up.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· May 20

Quote with a fictional band that is not Spinal Tap.

Album art for the movie "That Thing You Do" featuring the band from the movie, The Wonders.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· May 19

It is really hard to overstate how much these two charts (federal reserve interest rate and gini ratio) explain what we're seeing in gaming. Income inequality has been getting worse since the Reagan admin, and for most of my time in games, that money could go into even low return investments.

A graph of the federal reserve overnight rate. From 2009 to 2016 and from 2020 to 2022 it was almost 0. Since 2022 it's returned to more historically normal levels of between 3.5% and 5%.

A graph of the gini ratio in the United States, which is a measure of income inequaltiy where 0 would be perfect equality (money distributed perfectly equally) and 100 would be perfect inequality (one person has all the money.) From a low of 34.7 in 1980 it's been rising pretty steadily to 41.8 today with a notable dip to sub 40 in the pandemic years.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· May 10

I'm coming up on 30 years since I graduated with a CS degree.

Two pictures of Peter Falk as Columbo. In the first he's fresh faced and young; the second is from the end of the series where his hair is unkempt, he's squinting, much older, and his clothes are rumpled.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· May 8

Relevant post.

Wild bee: just getting snack
Me: no prob bee

Mason bee: just make house
Me: build a way b

Honey bee: jus sampling the lavenders
Me: you know I got an assortment

Bumble bee: hey *bonk* I jus *bonk* I h
Me: *holds flower still*

Wasp: I'LL SEE U IN HELL
Me: U THEM THEM WHO SENT U

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Mar 30

I feel like everybody saying the games industry is dead or will completely change needs to look deeply at this chart. People aren't done playing video games. The "money people" just messed up bad. That's cold comfort, but also true.

A bar graph of the global revenues of the video game industry from 1978 to 1990, which shows a massive dip from the high of 1982 to the low of 1985, only recovering past the 1979 level in 1990.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Mar 19

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Mar 13

Agree. My prototype is blue!

A prototype home assistant box. Two light gray speakers are positioned one to each side to resemble eyes. It is 3d printed in blue.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Mar 9

So, here’s another #WhatAGameDevLooksLike. I’m Kurtis McCathern. Engineer. Currently at Magic Soup Games. Formerly on World of Warcraft. Your surrogate dad if needed. Everybody can make games.

An almost 50 year old cis white dude in glasses in front of a cabinet of toys and memorabilia from various IPs. He has a repaired bilateral cleft lip and short hair, and is wearing a blue tshirt.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Jan 17

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Jan 14

P.S. Cadet Chapel: www.usafa.edu/facilities/c... as seen in Horizon: static.wikia.nocookie.net/horizonzerod...

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Jan 13

Slight modifications might be called for:

A tiny whistle, less than an inch long and very thin, printed in red plastic with the word “ICE” on top circled with a line through it.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Dec 24

Tonight you'll be visited by three spirits.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Nov 28

Claude reporting that it now uses ElementTree, and also that it is preserving the sanity of the codebase.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Nov 28

If you know the reference, Claude, why did you do it anyway, hm?

Claude reporting that it used a regex to parse XML, and when told to go read the famous SO answer, replied that I told it go read the "You can't parse HTML with regex". So it already knew, but did it anyway. Shame.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Oct 23

Okay, fine. It's been a while. Anybody's assessment changed?

Meme: quote repost this for people to tell you on a scale of 1-10 how intimidating you are.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Oct 22

I think Trump economics are going to be ruinous for the country as a whole and for credit card users in particular, but I am begging people to please remember that presidencies run from odd years to odd years. Here's is your chart, color coded by party with the presidency. Ending of COVID benefits?

3-month credit card delinquency by month going back to late 2003. The data shows a steep spike from 2009-2011 (during recovery from mortgage crisis) and a recent rise almost as large starting in 2023.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Oct 16

Latest 3d print. makerworld.com/models/1772891

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Oct 10

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.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Aug 15

post a screenshot of your first 5 steam purchases and let bluesky judge you I feel like I stand pretty well. I avoided Steam for a long time and just bought and downloaded games. I feel like they required Steam for Portal 2 which is why it's my first?

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Aug 12

Quote this with a book you read way too young that explains why you are the way you are. I read this when I was 10. Still think about nuke war way too much. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warday

the cover of Warday, by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Aug 9

Favorite doctor and companion.

Illidan, smiling. Khadgar looks on, confused and worried.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Jul 31

Anyway, if people want:

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Jul 23

I dunno, Thunk. I've got this thing literally in the bag.

A World of Warcraft Goblin wearing flight goggles and sitting on a giant bomb eating a bag of Fritos.

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Jul 22

Decided to go ahead and print the belt and boots in some silver filament I had. I can prime/paint them and the undershirt at a later date. All the printing is done though!

Kurtis McCathern@kurtismcc· Jul 20

On the one hand, this post is extremely cool. On the other hand, lots of us have similar claims. I have coded on both these games, for example.