Draknek & Friends Official Podcast Episode 08 featuring @leeshanglun.com is out now! Topics include the development of Sokobond, how Harry and Alan met, what Harry's been up to since then, and being comfortable with failure and personal growth.
https://pod.link/1777156468
I’ve forgotten how to post so this is me practicing the muscle of launching a thought into cyberspace ☄️
The social graph is incredibly resilient because it's based on _people_ and cannot ever be reduced to just the graph edges stored on disk on a billionaire's servers.
I was able to bootstrap/reconstruct mine from scratch using this tool, and without needing sky-follower-bridge.
For years I used wrangle to mean wangle, eg “I wrangled us free tickets to the show!”
Alright fine
Is Bluesky happening now
“After this I’m going to the Work in Progress night and play a game!” And with that perfect segue, the conference ends for the day 👏 #angles24
The takeaway I’m getting is that Freeplay is a community defined by our interest/passion/care for games and games culture – and it’s harder to be part of that community without actually engaging in the activity of playing games. #angles24
To her old self, Emily says: you didn’t feel part of the community because you didn’t actually play the games!
When she played A Long Goodbye (fixgritt.itch.io/a-long-goodbye), she *got it*. She felt connected through this beautiful experience and understood why it won an award
#angles24
Emily loves games and talking about weird arty indie videogames. She stumbled upon Freeplay and attended the awards in 2021 for the first time: “I finally found a space to talk to cool people about videogames!”
But she came away from the awards feeling bad. “Oh, these aren’t my people.”
#angles24
Finally we have Emily Reed who has never made a game or given a talk, giving a talk to themselves of 2 years ago. #angles24
The audience chose to be evil in the second poll and now Brandon is automatically calling the phones of people in the audience??? And that’s the chaotic end. #angles24
Let the audience see part of us inside the art. If you’re having fun then the game can have some too. It’s your game so you can do anything you want! #angles24
“Games are silly. They’re undignified.” – @brandonhare.com
👆true
Next up is @brandonhare.com, comedian game maker, and the only cool Twitter account (no word on Bluesky).
Brandon’s talk is very difficult to summarise live but so far it’s involved a sound test, a live poll, and lots of jokes (but don’t put jokes on your passport). #angles24
By observing and not rejecting the glitches & accidents, we can learn more about our tools and process and materials.
In conclusion: cursebend
#angles24
This approach is also found in my favourite Oblique Strategy: “honor thy mistake as a hidden intention”.
#angles24
When we make something we have intention, but it is also an act of discovery, of play: deliberate manipulation to find the unexpected (from Play Anything by @ibogost.bsky.social).
This can involve letting go of preconception, embracing the aleatory, or holding “irreverent attention”. #angles24
Next, we have Lou Fourie sharing “the curse of the rave demon”, a game that is an excuse to play with animation and maths and code. It’s full of “cursed broken baddd” glitches. We have an impulse to hide this away, but what if we took a playful approach? #angles24
A list of actions on a slide. Speak up Attend a rally Call or write to your MP Sign a petition Boycott Amplify Palestinian voices Educate yourself and others
We are witnessing a genocide unfold live. And so we must act in every way we can – @helenkwok.bsky.social lists some actions we can take right after the conference. And in our art-making, too: make games to tell the truth, disrupt the status quo, and work towards liberation. #angles24
This is the time to re-examine our relationships with institutions. They need us more than we need them. We must hold them to account, and boldly take a collective stand to build a culture of resistance. Who is our community, and who will we build coalition with to work towards justice? #angles24
As artists and game makers, how do we become truth-tellers? How do we highlight the injustice of the world or amplify the voices of the minority?
One example is @molleindustria.bsky.social’s work.
#angles24
In response, @helenkwok.bsky.social and @chadtoprak.bsky.social devised Transient Threads: a participatory installation artwork that allows the public to express their feelings.
The most common emotions that emerged: courage, card, anger, fear, surprise.
#angles24
Helen orients us to the scale of the violence and suffering caused by Israeli forces: murdered children and journalists, constant bombardment, mass displacement.
Closer to home, local cultural and political institutions were milquetoast in their response.
#angles24
Helen stands below a slide featuring the Palestinian flag at a pro-Palestine rally, along with the title of her talk: Making Games and Art when the World is Falling Apart
Now in the final block of talks of #angles24. To kick us off, @helenkwok.bsky.social presents on “Making Games and Art when the World is Falling Apart” focusing on the genocide in Gaza.
Your community exists to serve the people that make it up, not just for the sake of existing. It may be fleeting: a connective nexus in a time and place.
Ultimately, spaces like Sabby exist to facilitate love and kindness and helping each other. “Community is love and love is survival.” #angles24
A community is (necessarily) bigger than a person. For sustainability, distribute the load, avoid hierarchy and swap overs, keep each other accountable.
(Our doings must be rooted in care!) #angles24
And now on hierarchy, power, and credit. Null, the genius behind Sabby, warns against auteurism #angles24
Guiding principles are good but don’t let philosophy get in the way of doing and being: focus on immediate actions. Let perfectionism die – but don’t budge on ethics and safety.
“We had to hit the ground running and keep going.” #angles24
Consistency is important, flexibility is key. (Resilience requires it!)
Roll with what is needed. Experiments will lead to surprises. Keep that data.
There’s now an aside into Sabby’s Beyblade Tournaments, which frankly sound totally unhinged in the most beautiful way. #angles24