Javier Barnes
Head Designer at Pixel Noire Games, former Lead Game Designer at Monster Legends
Where to hear and read about Javier Barnes1 episode or test
Javier Barnes is Head Designer at Pixel Noire Games and a former Lead Game Designer on Monster Legends, with over 10 years in top-grossing mobile games. The thing most worth learning from him is to change a struggling game radically, relaunch it or hand it to a fresh team before killing it, and to reuse what you learned.
the team that makes you start to climb the mountain, it's not necessarily the team that is going to bring you to the top
How Among Us Became #1 Mobile Game
Javier Barnes: the story and the lessons
1Who Javier Barnes is
Barnes has over 10 years in top-grossing mobile games. He was lead designer on Monster Legends and a systems designer on Minion Rush and Asphalt 8. He is now Head Designer at Pixel Noire Games.
He talks about game launches from a designer's seat: what to measure in an early prototype, how to build early engagement, and when to cancel.
Barnes reads Reddit gamer groups to see what players want. He watches how players behave and what they are tired of, then uses that to judge what kind of game people will want next.
2How Barnes explains the 2020 Among Us and Fall Guys breakout
Barnes says timing matters as much as a game's features. Among Us and Fall Guys arrived during and just after lockdown, when players wanted a break from hardcore games. Barnes sees the same market spot that Fortnite and Battlegrounds filled.
He puts it this way: "they hit the market at the very, very good moment".
Lockdown left gamers tired of hardcore titles and wanting rest with others. Reddit gamer communities were playing demanding games more than ever during lockdown. After a few months, players wanted something restful that still let them interact.
Among Us connected people with friends they could not meet in person anymore.
Barnes favors plug and play games with a strong social layer. Among Us and Fall Guys need no practice and are not stressful, so you don't need a thousand hours to enjoy them.
In his words: "You don't need to be good at it to get fun and to perform". He calls the category "light headed" social games.
Barnes ties the size of a light social hit to price and reach. Among Us is free on mobile and under five dollars on Steam. Fall Guys is premium, but its wide Play Store distribution gives it room to grow.
He thinks Fall Guys could become the Fortnite of light social games, and expects the gap to show over time, not at once.
3Barnes on saving a struggling game before you kill it
Barnes says try a radical change before cancelling a game. Among Us spent about 2 years in obscurity before spiking around August 2020. Fortnite jumped after a massive change inside the game, when it became a battle royale.
He advises building games so you can experiment with them a lot. "before you kill games, try to do like radical changes in your games".
Barnes warns against pouring money into a game that isn't working. Both hits came overnight, not through small steady gains, so spending year after year is the wrong fix.
Change the game radically instead of adding spend.
Barnes suggests relaunching shelved games to see if the market moved. Reading company histories, he sees cancelled games that could work if released today. A relaunch costs little compared with building a new game.
"if you have games that you think could be awesome and you canceled for whatever reason, try relaunching them".
Barnes wants the next game built on what the last one taught. After a cancellation, the next project should relate to it, reusing the technology, assets, genre and audience learnings. A failed match three should be followed by a different match three.
The team is hungrier than ever to win with that same audience.
Barnes has seen studios jump genre after each failure and lose their learning. He describes a failed open world followed by a car racer, then a match three. Each failure pushes them toward a plan to get rich fast.
That throws away what they learned about the audience and the tech.
4How Barnes would handle cancellation decisions
Barnes would offer a doomed game to two other teams first. Before a team cancels its prototype, ask two other teams whether they would take it on. If any team wants it, hand it over.
Outsiders may bring radical ideas the original team cannot see. He has never tried this himself but thinks it could work.
Barnes keeps team ownership of the kill decision but adds a second opinion. Companies copying Supercell let the team decide when to cancel, which gives strong ownership. Barnes adds a second team as a check.
His reasoning is that the team that starts the climb is not always the one that reaches the top.
How Among Us Became #1 Mobile Game
Among Us and Fall Guys took off in 2020 because they fit a market moment, and Fortnite followed a similar late breakout. The episode explains how to treat slow games, radical pivots and cancellation decisions so a game gets a real chance to find its market.
Barnes has over 10 years in top-grossing mobile games. He was lead designer on Monster Legends and a systems designer on Minion Rush and Asphalt 8. He is now Head Designer at Pixel Noire Games.
He talks about game launches from a designer's seat: what to measure in an early prototype, how to build early engagement, and when to cancel.
Barnes reads Reddit gamer groups to see what players want. He watches how players behave and what they are tired of, then uses that to judge what kind of game people will want next.
Barnes says timing matters as much as a game's features. Among Us and Fall Guys arrived during and just after lockdown, when players wanted a break from hardcore games. Barnes sees the same market spot that Fortnite and Battlegrounds filled.
He puts it this way: "they hit the market at the very, very good moment".
Lockdown left gamers tired of hardcore titles and wanting rest with others. Reddit gamer communities were playing demanding games more than ever during lockdown. After a few months, players wanted something restful that still let them interact.
Among Us connected people with friends they could not meet in person anymore.
Barnes favors plug and play games with a strong social layer. Among Us and Fall Guys need no practice and are not stressful, so you don't need a thousand hours to enjoy them.
In his words: "You don't need to be good at it to get fun and to perform". He calls the category "light headed" social games.
Barnes ties the size of a light social hit to price and reach. Among Us is free on mobile and under five dollars on Steam. Fall Guys is premium, but its wide Play Store distribution gives it room to grow.
He thinks Fall Guys could become the Fortnite of light social games, and expects the gap to show over time, not at once.
Barnes says try a radical change before cancelling a game. Among Us spent about 2 years in obscurity before spiking around August 2020. Fortnite jumped after a massive change inside the game, when it became a battle royale.
He advises building games so you can experiment with them a lot. "before you kill games, try to do like radical changes in your games".
Barnes warns against pouring money into a game that isn't working. Both hits came overnight, not through small steady gains, so spending year after year is the wrong fix.
Change the game radically instead of adding spend.
Barnes suggests relaunching shelved games to see if the market moved. Reading company histories, he sees cancelled games that could work if released today. A relaunch costs little compared with building a new game.
"if you have games that you think could be awesome and you canceled for whatever reason, try relaunching them".
Barnes wants the next game built on what the last one taught. After a cancellation, the next project should relate to it, reusing the technology, assets, genre and audience learnings. A failed match three should be followed by a different match three.
The team is hungrier than ever to win with that same audience.
Barnes has seen studios jump genre after each failure and lose their learning. He describes a failed open world followed by a car racer, then a match three. Each failure pushes them toward a plan to get rich fast.
That throws away what they learned about the audience and the tech.
Barnes would offer a doomed game to two other teams first. Before a team cancels its prototype, ask two other teams whether they would take it on. If any team wants it, hand it over.
Outsiders may bring radical ideas the original team cannot see. He has never tried this himself but thinks it could work.
Barnes keeps team ownership of the kill decision but adds a second opinion. Companies copying Supercell let the team decide when to cancel, which gives strong ownership. Barnes adds a second team as a check.
His reasoning is that the team that starts the climb is not always the one that reaches the top.