I want to talk about videogames, why they're really really important, and why I make them.
To do all this, I want to tell you a story about one of my closest friends. We'll call him "Ricky"
(Thread)
Hey super quick PSA
1: game devs are humans
2: we really really REALLY fucking care about the things we make and the players we make them for
3: I don't discuss the personal lives of any one individual I know (other than myself) on twitter dot com
4: Kindness is free
The Mothership's sights are set on the IO's base. Slone has a plan to end the Invasion for good. Are you ready?
Prepare for the live event, Operation: Sky Fire on Sep 12 at 4 PM ET.
🔗:
❤️ this post to be reminded when the Event is live
Hey Fortnite Friends!
Happy Monday! I start it off with some bittersweet news: Collision was the last Fortnite Event I'll be working for the foreseeable future.
I won't be going too far though! From here on out I'll be doing QA for a whole bunch of cool things on Fortnite!(1/2)
The universe is vast with many stars and clusters. And somewhere out there he’s the protector.
Equip the Axion Sentinel with this season’s Level Up Quest Pack 🌌🗡
Explore more:
Epic's done the whole "Reality itself is breaking apart!" plot point a lot now, but I don't think they ever recaptured the feeling of genuine dread the tsunami wall storm at the end of C2S2 brought.
I think the Mothership from C2S7(?) was the only one that came close.
We just want you to come with us to the Rift Tour featuring
@ArianaGrande
Don’t forget to get there early and to wear your favorite outfit to the show.
Ship system specialist and necromorph slayer Isaac Clarke will take on anything thrown at him.
Grab the Strange Transmission Quest Pack in the Shop now!
HI NEW FOLLOWERS
I'm Riley! I work on Fortnite in this cool space that handles things like Battle Pass, XP, NPCs, Quests, and progressing through BR. On here you can expect tweets about
(American) Football
Shitposting
weird niche indie games
my life
Welcome. We stay hype!
New Battle Royale balance adjustments just dropped!
🍓 Flowberries grant more shield.
⬆️ Increased damage for the Ranger Pistol, Shield Breaker EMP, and Ballistic Shield pistol.
❄️ Snowball Launcher mag size reduced.
🔫 Thunder Burst SMG mag size increased.
🎯 Reduced the drop
It’s almost time for The Big Bang. History is about to write itself.
Start time is 2pm ET. We recommend grabbing a spot at least 30 minutes in advance to ensure you hit matchmaking in time!
Whelp the last few days has been WILD and a whole lot more of you are here now, so....
HI I'M RILEY!
- I design and balance super cool stuff on Fortnite BR
- I blab on here about football, indie games, and game design
- I say "fuck" a lot
- I meme and I shitpost
HOI!!!
I close by saying what I've always said.
I love all y'all. I love making this game for you. I love protecting the player experience. I remain deeply deeply passionate about giving y'all the best game I can
I'm gonna love the next 5+ (there will be far more than 5) years.
♥️
@kongregate
And then from there I became the "events guy"
We did a lot more crazy shit in a pretty short amount of time. We revealed a scene from Star Wars 9 for the first time, we collaborated with Marvel, we did a concert in the middle of the pandemic
Hello Friends!
Today is a very tough day as Epic did a round of layoffs. I remain employed by Epic. However, several talented people, ones that I know both personally and professionally, do not.
I want to get my friends jobs. If anyone has any job leads please send them my way
I makes this.
Specifically, I've done (and will continue to do) very light balance changes to items in the loot pool as I continue my onboarding to the new design role
When I first got contacted about possibly working at Epic I wasn't really 100% sure what to expect or really what to do. I didn't pay much attention to Fortnite, and I really only knew Epic as "the place that made Fortnite, had made Gears, and made the Unreal Engine"
@kongregate
he then followed that up with....
"oh yeah the first thing you're gonna own is in a few months we're gonna turn the whole game off for three days and then turn it back on and there will be an all new map for players to play on"
I makes dis.
Specifically, I was the start-to-finish design owner on the Heavy Impact Sniper Rifle and the balance owner on remote explosives being reintroduced to the loot pool
I'm staying with Epic and BR. I'll be working on a space that includes a whole slew of things, from challenges to NPCs to battle pass to EXP to gold bars and more!
I'll miss working on events tremendously, but I'm super excited to impact this game that I love in new ways
(2/3)
Also I love this community, I love my players, I make this game for y'all
Today I humbly request that you don't ask me about who did or did not get laid off, what layoffs mean for the future of Fortnite, why we did layoffs, and things of that nature
@br_betting
@DnlTanner
@FDSportsbook
there needs to be some sort of bank open on weekends that just hands out personal loans for hedges on absurd tickets like this
million dollar idea right there
@kongregate
and I got there, and made some cool stuff in the process.
It was a huge accomplishment for me personally, and it's still crazy to think my first role as a designer is on the biggest game in the world
PSA, if I post about work and you respond "wow great change you're better than [another epic employee goes here]" I will instantly block you
Epic is a team. We work together. We ship things together. I can't do my job without my amazing co-workers and I fiercely adore them all
Overall it's been an absolute joy to work on events for the past 3 years. I'm so happy I got to meet so many of you on the twittersphere working on them. Thank you all for making it so great and enjoyable!
Enjoy this silly pic of me riding the Battle Bus to the next adventure
@kongregate
Covid was really a really weird time for me because while the whole world was changing things actually went really well for me personally.
I bought a house, I had my daughter, I got a few promotions, I really was able to step into my role as a QA Analyst
I wasn't actively looking for work and had a really really sweet gig with
@kongregate
, but ultimately decided to explore the role because Epic seemed pretty serious about bringing me on
@kongregate
Fun fact: my very first day at the office I was sitting in the Arena and I saw Tim sprint by holding a laptop with one hand and coding with the other.
I knew right then and there that I was gonna be fine.
@kongregate
Let me tell y'all a thing.....
Raleigh is fuckin' awesome. I love it here. I love that there's so much to do and see and I'm a short drive away from pretty much any nature experience I could want
@kongregate
So I flew out to Raleigh and a few grueling interviews later I was officially offered a position.
I accepted and said my teary goodbyes to my kong friends and off I went
the vast majority of devs care about the thing they're making, to the point of emotional and mental obsession
Just because some bugs slips through to live or one weapon does .00015% less damage than you'd like it to doesn't mean we don't care
@kongregate
just shy of 2,000 days later I'm still blown away by the talent we have at Epic.
Truly my co workers are the most incredible game developers in the whole industry
@kongregate
Then, about a year ago, I achieved a lifelong goal and transitioned into a design role. Ever since I was in 3rd grade and running DND tables at recess I've wanted the role of "game designer"
@kongregate
But back to work itself. My first week was actually pretty tough. I'm one of those people that learns things quickly and expects too much from myself so when I'm slow out the gate it just makes me feel dumb and stupid and like I'm bad at everything
@kongregate
To be clear though it wasn't all puppies and sunshine
we lost my Grandmother (likely to covid). There were days at work where shit wasn't going right and I cried in the parking lot for 5 minutes before stepping back inside.
of all the contributions I've made to Epic, the one I'm most proud of is a slack channel called "aaaaaaaaaaa"
All it is is people just screaming "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
have a bad day? Miss a deadline? Something in personal got you wigged out?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
@kongregate
It's been obvious from day one that Epic fiercely cares for the people they employ. I've felt that every day since I walked through the door. I still feel that today and Epic has 100% made my life objectively better, and for that I'm eternally grateful
@kongregate
I had a meeting with my lead on Friday and told him these things and he was all like "eh don't worry about it you don't need to be an expert in a week your onboarding is really 90 days long"
oh hey so there's.... a lot more of you here now.
I'm Riley! I balance things on Fortnite. Hang around here for
- memes and shitposts
- chats about cool video games
- random design breakdowns
- Baltimore Ravens posts
- Aggressive friendship
It's a good time
@kongregate
I can and will thank Epic though. It's been an insane journey, and being here has wildly WILDY exceeded any and all expectations I had when I accepted the role 5 years ago
@kongregate
I actually didn't expect much of anything from relocating to Raleigh. I hadn't really jived with Portland, Oregon much and just kinda was in the mind set of "whatever I'll work here and live here and that's that"
Two supermassive black holes are set for a collision course. The black holes are roughly 1600 light years apart, which is close, in space terms, and will collide in 250 million years.
PLEASE NOTE: I did not makes all of this. We have an insanely talented team at Epic and a lot of work went into this from tons of other friends as well
You always impress, Fortnite fam! The team is working hard to deliver a smooth Chapter 3 experience for the millions of players who joined us, by far the most players we’ve ever seen at the launch of a season.
@kongregate
(tryna wrap it up now)
And through all of that, I've been able to surround myself with some of the smartest, hardest working, passionate, and talented people I've ever met in my life
"i see daddy issues happening all the time, and most of the time i just click away, because i'm not sure what's bad, or actually something i need to care about"
- actual quote from the meeting i am in rn