Eric Stein (he/him)

Eric Stein (he/him)

@steinea.bsky.social

Producer at EA SPORTS Games researcher Former game development instructor Tabletop game designer Occasional poet

646 followers689 following215 posts

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Mass Effect is the reason I work in video games today. I've had a weird and winding career, but it all goes back to Mass Effect. I played it when I was 15 and it set me on the path I'm on to this day. Really, really sad news.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Game design right here

Jon Bois@jonbois.bsky.social

imagine how much amazing chaos we could sow into the game of football if we awarded 9 points for a doink. talent evaluation for kickers would go completely upside-down, teams would bring in doink specialists, some offenses down 8 would call in the kicker at 4th and goal on the 1. let's do it

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Umurangi Generation is one of my favourite games of the decade, so this is an immediate purchase. Can't wait to play.

Veselekov@veselekov.bsky.social

Penguin Colony is now available store.steampowered.com/app/3695930/...

store.steampowered.comPenguin Colony on SteamCosmic horror, through the eyes of a penguin. Rival human factions have come to your home in the Antarctic, seeking an ancient and inconceivable being. Observe their descent into insanity in this fait...
Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

I also quit Word in 2020! I used this guide to switch to markdown for academic writing and haven't looked back. Samuel's thread covers all the benefits really well. programminghistorian.org/en/lessons/s...

programminghistorian.orgSustainable Authorship in Plain Text using Pandoc and MarkdownIn this tutorial, you will first learn the basics of Markdown—an easy to read and write markup syntax for plain text—as well as Pandoc, a command line tool that converts plain text into a number...
samuel mehr@mehr.nz

in 2020 my lab quit Microsoft Word and began writing in R Markdown, an open-source document-publishing system that facilitates a clear, permanent link between statements in text (scientific prose) and the code producing analyses and visualizations supporting those statements (scientific analyses)

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Made it to SL 100 in Marathon at last (and 100% achievements). Hit VIP for all factions, maxed and evolved my cradle, and scraped out the final contracts for Sekiguchi, Traxus, and Mida so every S1 priority contract is now done. This will be "completion" for me.

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Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Marathon is really cool. I love the gamefeel, the art and world design, the story and writing. I have issues with the core loop, but it's also immaculately designed to harmonize with the game's narrative, so I can't be too mad. I really hope the promised updates turn things around for the team.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Made it to SL 100 in Marathon at last (and 100% achievements). Hit VIP for all factions, maxed and evolved my cradle, and scraped out the final contracts for Sekiguchi, Traxus, and Mida so every S1 priority contract is now done. This will be "completion" for me.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

My experience, at 125 hours, has been mostly solo, mostly just working on story progression. Last few days I managed to drag a couple friends back in to help me finish Unsanctioned Hostilities 4/5 and Truth/Lies 6/6 on Sponsored Outpost. These were a real wall for a solo player.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

I've never played Cryo proper (only a bit of VB), and certainly never made it anywhere near the Compiler. Going to let the game rest for a while, play some other things, read some books, go outside. Might have a peak at Symbiosis in December, but I'll probably just wait for March next year.

Eric Stein (he/him) reposted

lumpley
@lumpley.bsky.social

15 years ago when Apocalypse World was new and people were beginning to understand and work with it, it was seductive to look at "acting under fire" and see, not one basic move of several, but the template underlying all the game's moves. Like @kierongillen.bsky.social 's classic gag:

Kieron Gillen@kierongillen.bsky.social

WHAT HAPPEN?

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

More cool game design work!

Laurie O'Connel (is looking for ttrpg work (in Dublin))@laurieoc.bsky.social

a solo memory game I initially made for an exhibition about medieval life. It never made it into the actual exhibition due to practical concerns (a custom card deck just wasn't going to work) but at least I can share it here. www.patreon.com/posts/170660...

patreon.comThe Herbalist's Garden: A Repurposed Game for Historic Learning | Laurie O'ConnelMany months ago, I worked on an exhibition at the Bonington Gallery in Nottingham entitled "Weird Hope Engines." The exhibition was about r

Eric Stein (he/him) reposted

Ranged Touch
@rangedtouch.bsky.social

Manwë told me Melkor keeps harrying the Firstborn of Ilúvatar so I asked how many Elves he has and he said he just goes to Middle-Earth and invites more Elves on the Great Journey so I said it sounds like he’s just feeding the Quendi to Morgoth and then Nienna started crying.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Love this! What a great idea

Dr Florence Smith Nicholls@florencesn.bsky.social

I just released a new keepsake game- Bleed Map! You play alongside a video game of your choice, creating a map of the digital space. At the same time, you'll be prompted to record emotions and thoughts from your everyday life that bleed into the experience. florencesmithnicholls.itch.io/bleed-map

florencesmithnicholls.itch.ioBleed Map by Florence Smith NichollsA keepsake game for materialising digital play

Eric Stein (he/him) reposted

Cactrot
@cactrot.bsky.social

Replying to @carlivelocci.com

[Duskbloods lobby] Me: [chanting] zork, zork the other players: zork, ZORK Miyazaki: [thousands of miles away, pounding his desk, apropos of nothing] ZORK, ZORK, ZORK!

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

"playing Marathon solo, to me the canonical way to play" yes, correct

Unwinnable@unwinnable.com

"Only Bungie could have made Marathon, and because Bungie made Marathon, it is doomed." @rubeck.bsky.social explores Marathon's paradoxical design: unwinnable.com/2026/08/13/a...

unwinnable.comAlive for Twenty-Five Minutes at a Time - UnwinnableImprovisation is the music, chaos is the rhythm you’re always attempting to align with, and you will often drop the drumsticks.
Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Oh cool, love to see open access games scholarship! I'm excited to poke through this; just looking at the contents there's a ton of interest here

Frans Mäyrä@fransmayra.bsky.social

We are very happy to share the news: the full Open Access version of our book is now available! You can download the whole book, as well as individual 19 chapters as separate files from here: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi... Please feel free to download the book, chapters, and spread the word!

taylorfrancis.comCultural Game Studies | Critical Approaches | Frans Mäyrä, Raine KoskiCultural Game Studies provides a comprehensive framework for understanding games and play as interconnected cultural phenomena, examining their roles as art,

Eric Stein (he/him) reposted

Cole Wehrle @ Essen
@colewehrle.bsky.social

Replying to @colewehrle.bsky.social

But they are big things too. Giant things. A game is so much more than its physical index. They stretch deep across time and space, across peoples and cultures. These are hard things to see and appreciate when we think about games. I suppose it doesn't help that we are taught to outgrow play.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

No better experience in Marathon than going into a free kit Perimeter run, getting the jump on a purple kitted guy entirely by accident, taking all his stuff, exfilling, and then immediately feeding all his stuff to the worm.

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Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Watching runs like MrMickk's makes me wish for a time when I could've got there. But I can't muster the speed, or maybe rather I can't slow time enough to achieve what might've once been possible. No anomalies this side of the keyboard, just the clock, ticking away.

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Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

I have over 500h in Hunt Showdown, and I think it took me 100-150h to really feel like I "got it." And compared to Marathon, Hunt Showdown is downright simple. The only way I could "get" Cryo is to be hard carried, many times, and that time of my life where I had time for that is over.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Playing Marathon slowly has been wonderful. Dropping into runs, one contract at a time, singular focus: search, survive, repeat. I can see how Cryo is the culmination of all of that, but I also see that it exceeds me. It's incredible design, but it's design for limits greater than my own.

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Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

56 hours in, Perimeter is super comfy at this point, and Dire Marsh (day and night) is becoming familiar. I've hardly touched Outpost, though, and never Cryo until VB. It's all learnable with time, but time is key, and that is something Marathon does not want to give me, which is a shame.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

One commenter on the video above remarked that removing the time limit on VB would allow a player to just go super slow and inevitably win, which would be boring... But would it really be boring? I love the PvPvE and wouldn't change it, but I wish this PvE experiment would just let me have a minute.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Only having two weeks to "get it" is a really unpleasant kind of pressure. Wasn't able to try VB until this weekend, and bounced off hard. Prior Cryo knowledge required, and I simply don't have the time to build that knowledge before VB is over.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

I've been playing a lot of S2 of Marathon and having a great time. Bit with friends, but mostly solo. Making good faction progress, completed Nucal, almost done Traxus, all quite doable solo if you're fast and quiet.

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Ohhhh man, what a cool new surprise from Lost in Cult

Lost In Cult@lostincult.co.uk

From a database to a full-fledged bible! ✨🕺 We've collabed with @eddcoates.bsky.social on the Game UI Bible, a 500+ page hardback adventure through the UI/UX of loads of your favourite games 🎮 Let us entice you with a limited signed bookplate by Edd himself and more below 🔗👇

Eric Stein (he/him) reposted

Rami Ismail (رامي)
@ramiismail.com

Months of work, a lifetime of learning, but the Levelling The Playing Field 101 Courses program launches right now. Eight €40 courses launching 10 days apart, I aim to make the critical less-spoken parts of indie gamedev accessible away from expensive visa-locked hotel bars. courses.ramiismail.com

Eric Stein (he/him) reposted

Chaucer Doth Tweet
@levostregc.bsky.social

Major yn Englisshe: • Focused readinge & writinge prepare you for anythinge • Research, communicacioun, creativitye, and interpretacioun will be needed for careers not even inventid yet • Meaningful engagement wyth big ideas and textes that will staye wyth you forevir • It ys awesome • Bookes!

Eric Stein (he/him)
@steinea.bsky.social

Went into the basement of AI Uplink to do the Nucal contract (very creepy! didn't like it down there!) in the dark; came back out, and the whole place was lit up, swarming with UESC. Cat and mouse under platforms, ducking behind cover, to sneak my way out. Very tense, very good!