Barnburners

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• Announcements·9 Sept 2026Official

  Devlog #4 - Rough Edges

  In the last devlog I showed off Franchise mode and said it was built, but had barely been played. It has been getting played since via a playtest, and there has been plenty to fix and improve. A lot of the last few weeks has been going back over things. How the skating feels, how the building sounds, whether a menu is annoying after you have used it a thousand times. I keep calling it polish, but a lot of it is rework I wish I thought of earlier. There are a few new things too. This is the current development build, so some of the newest stuff is still being tested. Franchise and the collectible rewards are full game stuff. Still trying to get the skating just right I wrote about this back in July, and I am still working on it. Turning at speed now has a wider arc and flows more "naturally". Reversing direction means stopping before going the other way. Let go of the stick and the player actually glides, which means his legs stop moving. At low speed you can still pivot quickly. I want you to be able to pick up a loose puck without it feeling like an Austin Powers 40 point turn. Getting that balance right has taken a few passes, because I want it to feel like ice while still feeling better than the current NHL games (in my opinion). A recent replay. Running into a player also used to stop both players. Glancing contact lets you keep moving now, while a proper collision now can take out both players, D level beer league head down style. The goalies have had more work on when to leave the crease and what to do once they get the puck. They'll "look" for an outlet before going out to collect it, then make the play and get back. For shooting, one timers need a pass arriving where your forehand can actually reach it. Holding shoot could turn a pass behind your back into a perfect shot, which even for this game was a bit unrealistic. Offsides and icings have had a bigger pass too, including delayed offside, tag up logic, and CPU teammates that try to stay onsides. Both are...
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• Announcements·16 Aug 2026Official

  Devlog #4 - Major League

  Just a heads up - Franchise mode is not in the demo. The demo is four teams and a game of hockey. This devlog is about stuff in the full game. And it is work in progress. It is built and it runs, but it has barely been played by a person (basically just me). With that said, this is one of the biggest things in the game that nobody has really seen. Franchise setup. Season length goes down to a handful of games and up 60.Seven rooms The mode has seven rooms and the shoulder buttons move between them from anywhere, so you are never backing in and out of menus over and over again. The season hub. Next game, your division, and a club report telling you what actually needs attention. Things like who is hurt, who is scoring, and if you have any trade offers. The hub is where most of the core “gameplay” pieces live. Play the next game yourself, sim it, or sim to the playoffs. That last one exists because I do not want to play every game every season, especially testing out longer franchise runs. The room This is the part most likely to change. Every player has a general disposition: leader, workhorse, etc. On top of that sits a mood that moves up and down. It comes from where you play him, whether the club is winning, whether he is producing, what he is paid against what he is worth, who is coaching him, and whether he is hurt. All of these things affect the game directly. Mood reaches the ice as effort when you play a game, it moves the result if you just sim, and it reaches the money, because a man who is unhappy asks for more to re-sign or won’t give you the time of day. If you bury somebody at the bottom of your lineup for long enough or send him to the minors, he asks for a trade. Every rival GM can see that he asked, and he fetches less because of it. That is the cost of letting a room go bad, and all of this is modeled after a certain current Detroit captain who needs to go away. How they feel, and how they fit. The left column is sorted unhappiest first. Beside it i...
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• Announcements·8 Aug 2026Official

  Dev Log #3 - One week, a thousand of you

  Thank youOver a thousand of you downloaded the demo in its first week. I'm one guy building this thing, so watching that number climb has been pretty surreal. Lots and lots of work still to be done but... Thank you, genuinely. Extra thanks to everyone who left feedback in-game, in the Discord, or left anonymous play data on. I can't watch anybody play, so the only way I find out something's broken is when you tell me or the numbers do. Both did, a lot, and demo-1.1.0 is most of what came out of it. Week one, by the numbers A few things from those who shared data that made me laugh: You scored 153 goals and rang the iron 130 times. 85 crossbars, 45 posts. That's nearly as many pings as goals. Ya'll can't buy a goal sometimes eh?Hardest shot on record: 108 mph. Longest goal: 88 feet.426 hits thrown, 47 of which ended with somebody breaking the glass.49 goals went top shelf, and 25 came after a deke that left a jockstrap hanging from the rafters.There were 23 own goals. 18 of those were scored by an actual human. Woof.15 fights, and collectively you served about 47 minutes in the box. Week 1 Demo Polish Pass! - The whole cast got redoneCrazy what time not trying to put together a demo and make sure it work allows for. There have been a few tuning passes that have gone out. Skaters, goalies, the ref, the coach, the crowd, even the zamboni. all got a polish pass in between watching the metrics. Jersey stripes are real textures now instead of projections, the goalies got proper pads and masks with actual designs, and both sticks were built from scratch instead of placeholder assets I'd been living with. It's closer to the look I've been chasing since the start. It's not finished, not by a long shot, but the models are simpler than they were, so lower end machines should pick up some performance too. Let me know what you think! Or if you hate it, tell me that. What week one turned upSome of you were getting multi-second freezes, usually right at a faceoff. I could see it h...
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• Announcements·3 Aug 2026Official

  Barnburners Demo is now Available!

  The demo is live! The Barnburners demo is available now!Four teams are available - Chicago, Seattle, Montreal and Toronto - playable in exhibition and in local or online multiplayer. There is arcade 3-on-3 as well that slows down fatigue, causes bigger hits, and faster shots, along with a few drills if you want to learn the controls. Periods are locked at a minute thrity. Two "house rules" are unlocked: MEGA HITS and BIG HEAD. Franchise mode, pond hockey, and a lot more is not in the demo.What this isBarnburners is an arcade hockey game - fast, physical, my love letter to old time arcade hockey games. It is coming to Early Access later this year. The demo is a slice of where it is now, not a finished game, and the point of putting it out this early is to find out what a large audience thinks and enjoys. Tell me what is broken If something feels wrong, breaks, or just is not fun, I want to hear it. That is part of why the demo exists. Bugs, crashes and anything that looks wrong Feedback on how it plays - controls, speed, difficulty, the fights, etc. The Discord is the fastest way to reach me. There is also the in game feedback section that comes I can see. Known issues A few things I already know about, so you do not need to report them: Hosting online - some routers and ISPs will not let you host. The game tells you within about ten seconds if that is you. The game tries to swap hosts and a proper fix is on the list.Online play - Can be a bit laggy and jittery, but please let me know if anything is "gamebreaking".Goal light - a bright ring can appear around the lamp during celebrations. Everything else, let me know! If you want to follow alongWishlisting the full game is the single most useful thing you can do - it is what decides whether Steam shows Barnburners to anyone else. Thanks for playing.
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• Announcements·28 Jul 2026Official

  Devlog #2

  On June 14, I got the steam approval to put a playtest build out online for the first time. Twenty two people have opted in to tracking since, and 50+ people have installed according to Steam. That is not a big number, and I am not going to pretend it is, but it is more than were playing it in May, and that's pretty cool. Since that first build there have been sixteen releases, from big adds to small patches. Here is what actually came out of it. June 14. The rink floats in a black void and the crowd is basic and glowing. The same camera today. The things you asked for My last devlog put the feedback up on a public page with a status pill on each theme, and I said the pill flips when I ship it. Update on some of those: "It's too fast to follow." The most common note by a mile, six people said it. There is a GAME SPEED setting now, and the default is SIGNIFICANTLY slower than what I originally had. I also added reaction time to the AI decision making. They no longer pass the puck around like crazy and instantly. They "take time" to think and also make mistakes. "The defense is relentless." Defenders play real zone coverage instead of all 5 players chasing the puck, and they run actual systems now - breakouts, forechecks, a power-play overload. I tried my best to implement some real hockey plays and I'll continue adding in more. "I can't keep the puck on quick passes." This one was open for a long time. A pass now gets caught in a cone in front of you instead of snapping to your stick from any angle, and a puck you win off a battle sweeps in rather than teleporting. Looks more natural to me. Also the overall speed of the game helps this a lot. "The skaters don't feel like they're on ice." Still in progress. I've changed how turning works while boosting and how stamina affects turn radius. Will love to see how the current changes affect this. I don't want the game to feel as floaty as the current EA games, so its a fine balance. "The tutorial needs clearer prompts." FI...
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