ncase posts
Posts: 255
Files: 345
What's Nicky Learning? (Jan 2020)
(reading time: 8 minutes)First off, thank y'all for the kind response to my What's Nicky Learnt This Decade? post! It means a lot to hear it resonated with you, and I didn't get cancelled on the internet over it. 💖Also, here's your monthly Wall of Thanks and Polygon Avatar rewards!Now, back to our regular, Patreon-exclusive What's Nicky Learning? post...😎 Misc HabitsOdysseus tied himself to a mast to resist the Sirens...
What's Nicky Learnt This *Decade*? (& more!)
Okay, I'm actually really nervous to share this.Here's a whole bunch of personal stories that I've never made public before – about being queer, going indie, and mental health:🌈 What Did I Learn This Decade? (2010-2019) 🌈💖 (35 min read. content note: some "heavy shit") 💖I've grown a lot this decade, via trial-and-error-and-error-and-error. And I couldn't have done it without y'all – thank you for al...
Curse of the Chocolate-Covered Broccoli (+Updates!)
(reading time: 3 min)Thank y'all for the lovely response to the first-ever What's Nicky Learning? post! 💖 I'm pleased lots of you found it valuable, even specifically useful to your jobs.The full post is Patron-exclusive, but as promised, the Emotion in Learning section is now public, for any of you who want to share it with colleagues/friends!🍫 Curse of the Chocolate-Covered Broccoli 🍫(9 min read)・・・・・Also as promi...
What's Nicky Learning? + Design Doodles (Nov 2019)
(total reading time: 18 minutes)Welcome to the first-ever, Patreon-exclusive WNL?+DD post!What's Nicky Learning: emotion in learning, the physics of sound, drawing from imagination, jugglingDesign Doodles: adventures with anxiety inside-out design, voice gender trainer 5000- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -🤔 Emotion in LearningSo earlier this year, I learnt my whole career was based on a lie. As one does.I make games to help folks lea...
Patreon Changes, as voted by you!
(reading time: 3 min)But first, a video of my latest prototype of Voice Gender Trainer 5000, to prove I haven't been procrastinating.🎥 Spectrogram + Formants 🎥 (unlisted video) todo: actually explain what spectrograms & formants are.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Three weeks ago, I sent y'all a survey to decide the future of this Patreon! Here's what you said (on av...
My next project + Vote on the future of my Patreon!
THE IMPORTANT BIT: Vote on the future of my Patreon via 👉THIS SURVEY 👈. Thank you thank you! 💖· · · · ·Thank you so much for all the replies to my previous post! If you recall, it was a mix of existential dread + 11 project ideas....I figured out my next project idea!As with all my major life decisions, I used a spreadsheet. A row for each project, a column for each decision criteria, each cell a rating from 0 to 5. (This is the one...
Fearsonas + Patreon Rewards + What's Next?
First, thank you so SO much for the powerful response to Adventures With Anxiety! It means a lot to see that this story – inspired by my own life story – can help other folks' life stories, in some small way. 💖In fact, let me brag a bit, and show off the fanart folks have drawn of their own "anxiety animals." Or should I say... "fearsonas"?(for more fanart + credits, see twitter thread)Speaking of art from fans, here...
Adventures With Anxiety... is OUT!
After 7 long months, here it is here it is here it is!🐺 https://ncase.me/anxiety/ 🐺😱 browser, 30 min playtime 😱And if you are looking to tame your wolf, I also wrote a page with Mental Health Tips & Resources (+ a personal story of my mental health journey)💖Mental Health Tips feat. Anxiety Wolf 💖Thank you all so, so much for your support over all these months. This has been the longest project I've done in several years, and...
Adventures With Anxiety Release Date: SEPTEMBER 17
This will be the last Progress Update before AwA... is... OUT! 🎉Since the past update, I playtested & polished up the game + added sound effects + made more art and animation. Here's some art from the credits:Beebee doing a rockstar dance:And here's what all the art & code & writing looks like together:(from Chapter 2, “The Party”)Whoof, it's alllll finally coming together...- - - - - - -The Schedule:What's Left To Do:Sep 2...
Progress Update: ALL ANIMATIONS ACCOMPLISHED
Alright! As of today:Acts I, II, and III are DONE.Act IV is ALMOST DONE. (art is done, just need to put spritesheets into the game)Here's a compilation of animations – modified to avoid spoilers! – from Acts III and IV:Also, here's a sneak listen at a musical track from Act III:🎵 Adventures with Anxiety - The Wolf Who Cried Wolf (mp3) 🎵And as always, the Progress Update Diagram:Rough Estimate: AwA is 80% done, and will launch 6 ...
Progress Update: Lots & lots of animation
So how's my slightly-overscoped anxiety simulator doing? In the last 3 weeks, I did: Four in-person playtests! The first two were good, but the players felt one of the antagonists was unrealistic. After fixing the dialogue & clarifying that character's motivations, the next two playtests went near-perfectly! I think I can "lock in" the story, and now it's just fixing typos & making words more concise. A lot of final-quality ar...
Progress Update: Playtestin' + Polishin' + Music
Good news: We're in the final lap!Not-as-good news: The final lap is pretty long.But still: Not bad!(can't see diagram above? click here)Rough estimate: Adventures with Anxiety is ~60% done, and on-track to release mid-August!Since my last update 3 weeks ago, I took all the rough art & dialogue and stitched them together. For the first time, someone can play through the full story, opening screens to credits roll. In the meantime, I commi...
50% Done? + Thoughts on science & learning
(reading time: 3 minutes)We're 50% there!... probably.In the past two weeks, I finished the rough art for Acts II, III, and IV. I thought it'd just be placeholder stick figures, but I ended up drawing lots of "final-version" art.For example, here's some art from Act II! (Context: you, the anxiety-wolf, can release a "Special Attack". Instead of telling your human words, you show them an image. Your human just drank som...
Progress + Process!
(reading time: 3 min)Two weeks ago, I launched the demo for Adventures with Anxiety... and I'm elated it resonated with so many folks! I hope it helps others with anxiety feel less alone – and, maybe, learn how to better live with scary emotions.And of course, it's all thanks to your support! I couldn't make these weird experimental games without y'all paying my food and rent.Though, I feel guilty that my Patreon post schedule&#...
"Adventures with Anxiety!" New story-game demo
In this story-game, there is a human with anxiety disorder. You play *as* the anxiety disorder.😱ADVENTURES WITH ANXIETY (demo) 😱 🐺 browser, 7 min playtime 🐺Also, thank you all so much for your kind responses to my last post, where I admitted I was feeling stuck, project- and life-wise. Your tips on strategies for getting "un-stuck" were clearly helpful, because soon afterwards, I was able to finish this demo in a couple weeks!...
An Interactive Guide to Quantum Computing? & more procrastination
I'm a bit ashamed about this, but I think it's important I be open and transparent with you: I feel stuck.Specifically, stuck on the Adventures with Anxiety story-game. In February, I made a lot of progress on it! But in March, I gave two talks, so I did zero work on AwA. (Which is fine – I'm glad I did the talks, hopefully they were helpful!) But even after 2½ weeks back, I still haven't regained my momentum on AwA, and I'...
My 5-min Micro-talk! “Human Brains Are Awesome, Human Brains Suck”
Here's the micro-talk I gave at the Game Developer Conference two weeks ago! This one's about games & the cognitive science of learning.📹 Human Brains Are Awesome, Human Brains Suck (5 min)I recorded my own version because, wow, my legs & voice were probably shaking the whole time I was on stage at GDC. Everyone's micro-talk slides advanced automatically. I had no control over the timing. Oh godI also gave another(?!) talk earlier ...
2 Talks & A Game: The 8-Week Plan
Hi all! Quick end-of-month update, to keep y'all in the loop about what's to come.The Tentative And Probably Too Hopeful 8-Week Plan:Mar 4-10: Preparing & giving a free talk at the NYU Games Center! If you'd like to see me blabber about cognitive science, learning, and games, here's the RSVP link. (Don't worry, it'll be recorded too)Mar 11-17: Finish Act 1 (of 4) for my upcoming game about anxiety. IF we're lucky, I mi...
Sneak Peek + Short Stories + Music
After years of struggling with anxiety disorder – and slowly healing – I think I'm finally in a good space to make this next game. I'm excited/nervous! It's a "conversation-based fighting game" between a human and their anxiety.You play as the anxiety.(can't see GIF? try this link!)I'm also excited coz this'll be my first interactive story since We Become What We Behold (1½ years ago) or Coming Out Simulator (...
The interactive science experiment: RESULTS
A few weeks ago, I launched a randomized controlled web-experiment. My question: does being asked to predict an answer, before being shown it, help you retain information better? N=1600+ responses later, here's my results!🔬 Ten World Stats (RESULTS) 🔬Spoiler: null result, I messed up the design, science is about running head-first into brick walls until a breakthrough happens.But, every bomb has a silver lining. I want to do more web-ex...
An experiment... for SCIENCE!
For years, I've been making interactives to explain science. Today, I launched an interactive to do science!Specifically, I want to know if interactives actually are better than static content at helping people learn. Question: does being asked to guess/predict an answer, before being shown the answer, help you retain information better? Hypothesis: yes, but let's test that. So on my web page, it randomly assigns you to a static version (...
My Books 2018 + Reflecting on 4yrs on Patreon
Can I just say how amazing public libraries are? Just the fact they exist? Anyway, I read 67 books in 2018, and here's the three that changed me the most:📖 The Most Meaningful Books I Read In 2018 [8 min read]You know what else I'm super grateful exists? You! Awww stop blushing, you know I mean it. You supporters literally pay for my bread and butter (well, brown rice and beans) and gift me space, time, and resources to be creatively a...
Habits I (Tried To) Make in 2018
In 2018, I resolved to form one new habit a month! A third of them failed. Still, here's what I learnt in the last year – maybe it'll help you in the new year?✏️ Habits I (Tried To) Make in 2018 [9 min read]Above, you'll read how I stumbled to create habits like meditation, spaced repetition, voice training, quitting one embarrassing habit, and more. Hope it's useful/interesting!– – – – –Another thing I've been...
Parable of the Hill Climber
Once upon a time, there was a hill climber.The hill climber wanted to climb the tallest hill. However, the land was foggy and they couldn't see far. So, they climbed in whatever nearby direction seemed uphill.They climbed & climbed, and finally reached a peak. “At last,” the hill climber said, “I've climbed the tallest hill!”What our protagonist has done is known as the "Hill Climbing" algorithm. Given a point on a landsca...
New Explorable! + Nicky's Oct Reading List
Lesson learnt: don't release a new project on a Friday just before the weekend, coz people will miss it. Also, in case you missed it, my new explorable came out Friday!💭 HOW TO REMEMBER ANYTHING FOREVER-ISH 💭For you $2/$5/$10+ tier supporters, your Names/Polygons/Peeps are in the credits at the bottom! (link to a standalone credits page, if you want to right-click-n-save your rewards)By the way, I want to try doing something new this mo...
★ NEW EXPLORABLE! How To Remember Anything Forever-ish
It's finally out! An interactive comic on the science of memory, spaced repetition, and shoeboxes.HOW TO REMEMBER ANYTHING FOREVER-ISH👉https://ncase.me/remember/ 👈(+ a tweet with short promo video, for your RT'ing pleasure)Thank you all again for sticking with me these past few months, through the progress and stumbles! I say this every time, but I mean it every time: it really means a lot that you've gifted me the opportunity t...
Screenshot Saturday: Alllllmost Done!
So, good news: all the writing and art for my next explorable is done. I mean, I'll have to do some edits post-playtest, but right now I can say we're in the final lap. This thing's still on track to being done at the end of the month, with a week or so of "buffer time" just in case.Here's some of the art + writing from the Preface & Chapter 3:The Preface is short: I want to frame Spaced Repetition as not a "study hack...
Screenshot Saturday: Comix! (+ Patreon Rewards)
Thank you all so much for your feedback on Chapter 1 of my upcoming explorable! (If you missed it, I shared it in this Patron-exclusive post.) I'm trying to get into a regular-ish habit of sharing progress & setbacks, so here goes: another Screenshot Saturday!This week, I finished all the interactives, writing, and art for Chapter 2. Chapter 1 was The Science of Spaced Repetition, Chapter 2 is The Art of Spaced Repetition. First I show why SR...
Screenshot Saturday: The Leitner Box (+ Anxiety Wolf?)
It's Screenshot Saturday again! I want to make a habit of sharing my progress (& setbacks) with you peeps. This week, I made a simulation of my favorite spaced repetition system, The Leitner Box!It's like a board/card game you play against yourself. The prize: storing as much as you want into your long-term memory, indefinitely.Here's a GIF of the sim:This sim shows you how the Box works over days, weeks, months... and after I add sli...
![ncase post [Patron Exclusive!] Prototype of my next explorable from patreon](https://img5.unionfaps.com/storage/9/eo/yh/ba8889-019e79cf-9f96-73ae-bee5-c5bbdd294f7d.png)
[Patron Exclusive!] Prototype of my next explorable
Hi all! Thanks again for your thoughtful responses to last week's behind-the-scenes post. I want to get better at sharing my process with y'all – and involve you in the process. Speaking of which, here's a patron-exclusive sneak peek at my next explorable!👉Spaced Repetition Thing, Work-In-Progress 👈(plz use Firefox/Chrome for now)It's a bit (read: very) scrappy and unpolished, but I hope it gets the core ideas across. And ...
