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Screenshot Saturday: Making puzzles for "Crowds"

I think we're halfway there!  The above GIF (if you can't see it, try this imgur mirror) is the rough version of a level editor for The Wisdom and/or Madness of the Crowds.  With it, I've made a dozen or so puzzles about networks & complex contagions, and will be testing these puzzles with some in-person playtests soon.  Once the puzzles are set, the rest of the explorable should be easy to polish up.  With any luck, Crowds should be out in the second week of April!

(p.s: if you chose the $10+/mo "custom character" reward tier, check your inbox -- i just sent an email asking for reference pics for your characters)

By the way, thank you all so much for the response to my last post, where I wrote a lengthy thought-dump about how I'm dissatisfied with some parts of my work, and ways I'm looking to try to improve my craft!  It was meaningful to hear your thoughts on my thoughts.  I'll be sure to share more of my (messy, messy) creation process with you peeps :)

also, whoops, still haven't written up a post about Dynamicland yet.  will get around to that... eventually...

<3,
~ Nicky Case

Screenshot Saturday: Making puzzles for "Crowds"

Comments

Jim Toblas: Do you mean a way to access the source code so you can change tools?

Not Real Name

BTW, if Limor Fried is Lady Ada, why are you not Nikola TesCase?

jim tobias

Anyway, here's my constant whine: beginning with Loopy, I've been hoping/begging for a way to apply parameters to the parts and relationships in your world-builders, conditions and quantities for their interactions. E.g. with Loopy you can add more arrows to a relationship, but it clutters the landscape and doesn't allow complex ratios easily. I know these constructs deliberately lean qualitative, but numbers can do a lot, I've heard. Maybe there could be a meta-tool that applies to all of your tools, letting them be quantified and conditionalized? I don't know what that'd be called in programming terms these days. The UI could be a generic spreadsheet, separate from the simple visual editors you so rightly offer. Evan mentioned NetLogo, at the other end of the agent-based simulation spectrum -- so much parameterization, but the tradeoff in ease of programming, and the legacy visualization style don't match what you're after. Can we have a peanut-butter-and-chocolate moment? I would be happy to do something about this instead of just plead, if someone would tell me the best way to get started.

jim tobias

This is gonna be great -- very excit[ed | ing]! And Dynamicland looks incredible; should I move back to Oakland, or shovel more snow here in NJ?

jim tobias

Please do write the post about Dynamicland, I'm very eager to hear all about it! :)

Ryan Blazecka

Love the direction! ;)

Jared Cosulich

Thanks Evan! :) I have heard about NetLogo, and played around in it a bit! Hm, maybe I should reach out to their team...

Nicky Case

HA HA WHOOPS (typo fixed, thanks!)

Nicky Case

"sure to sure"? :D

Jonathan

Hey Nicky! Thanks for these updates. I've been meaning to ask if you have heard of Northwestern University's NetLogo platform (<a href="https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/)?" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/)?</a> That's what I was trained on when learning Human Complex Systems back in the day. I feel like there's a ripe collaboration between you two somehow, but I know you may have your own priorities. Keep up the awesome work!

Evan Shulman


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