Nicky's August Mega-Update

This month, I moved back to Toronto! Just temporarily, though. I have to hang out in Canada for a while due to work visa reasons.

Anyway, I've been feeling stuck on my main projects lately, so this month, I thought I'd take a quick break to make a bunch of smaller stuff! Here's what I've been up to:

1. [Untitled Game About The News]

Here's a GIF of a prototype in action!

Very meta. The whole screen-within-a-screen mechanic will be used to talk about feedback loops. Specifically, the feedback loop of how the news focuses on conflict, so it makes its viewers more angry & polarized, so creates more conflict, so the news focuses on that – and so on.

Since I work in "the media" now, I really wanted to make a game just kinda highlighting this vicious cycle. (Although, actually, anyone who has a social media account is now part of "the media".)

But anyway, speaking of feedback loops & systems...

2. Evolution > Revolution (blog post about systems thinking)

Here's the post!

Sometimes I just want to dive deep into an idea, but it doesn't translate well into being an interactive. This is one of those ideas.

Most revolutions fail. (Think of the Arab Spring, and Spring-inspired movements in the West, like Occupy) So, how the heck can you bring about social change? This is a question I've been mulling over since Parable of the Polygons, and finally, I bothered to put my thoughts on it into words and drawings, and made that blog post.

And just yesterday, I published another not-an-interactive:

3. The Other Side (short "comic" about political psychology)

Here's the comic! (and in vertical blog form, too)

This year we've seen a lot of political polarization – not just between the parties, but even inside the parties – and not just in the US, but also the UK. (Canada seems... okay for now)

I think the first step in reducing polarization is to, at least, understand where "the other side" is coming from. So I spent a couple days drawing the above info-comic, summarizing three theories on the psychology of liberals & conservatives. (the theories themselves come from a liberal, a centrist, and a conservative)

The most inspiring part of Systems Thinking, I believe, is how seemingly contradicting views can actually be different perspectives of the same thing, and how – if you try hard enough – you can almost always find common meta-goals.

. . .

And one more thing: the video of my EyeO 2016 talk is out! (listener discretion is advised: dark personal story towards the end.) 

And one more "one more thing":

Drawn rewards!

If the character in the Untitled News Game – or the character in my twitter/Patreon/Github profile picture – looks familiar, that's because they're from my very first Internet Famous game, titled :the game:. Millions of peeps played that Flash game way back then, and Markiplier & JackSepticEye recently Let's Played it for nostalgia's sake.

I... don't talk much about :the game: anymore because I made it when I was 13 and it is embarrassing for me to look at now. Also it's too meme-y. But! The one thing I still liked from :the game: was its silly, simple hopping characters. (I also re-used them in It's A(door)able)

Anyway – I suddenly realize, those could be my drawn backer rewards! I could draw y'all as hopping lil' peeps. They're cute, they're easily customizable, and they mean a lot to me, personally. That game :the game: was the first time I learned that people liked the stuff I made, which really meant a lot to me when I was 13, insecure, still in the closet, not sure what to do with my life.

SO YEAH, THAT'S ALL THAT

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE MEGA-UPDATE

HAPPY AUGUST 23RD 

<3, nicky