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The Explorables Jam... is done! + 19 new explorables!
🕑 Added 2018-08-20 20:41:03 +0000 UTC After three weeks of jamming, peeps made 19 new small, playful explorable explanations! Here they are:🎉The Entries for the Explorable Explanations Jam! 🎉
There's a few I'd especially like to highlight, for doing something inventive with interactivity... (maybe I'll borrow their ideas for future projects!)
From Cells To Systems by SpacieCat
All about 1D cellular automata! Definitely more fun to read than Wolfram's 1000+ page tome. The unique thing this explorable does: you can change the simulation's rules by directly manipulating the simulation itself! (In contrast, almost all my sims have you change rules with sliders & buttons) I wanna see more sims designed this way!
Understanding The Mandelbrot Fractal by Paul Butler
Not only is this a good example of how to go up the ladder of abstraction step-by-step, but there's this interaction at the end: you explore the fractal by painting it. It's an effective way to build up the idea of a heatmap! (In hindsight, I'd wish I'd done that for Better Ballot.)
How To Make a Good Puzzle by Tom Hermans
There's comics about crafting comics (Scott McCloud), there's short films about crafting films (Every Frame A Painting), there's writing about crafting writing (Strunk & White)... why are there no games about crafting games? Well, there is now! I like the way this one embeds games inside itself, and contrasts good design & bad design. Also some of the puzzles are genuinely tasty-hard challenges.
Recáman Sequence by Xenia Fedorova
This one's short and sweet, and has a really creative use of sound! In the simulation at the end, not only do you see a visualization of a chaotic number sequence, you hear it as well. You listen to math!
These are just a small sample of all the great stuff peeps have made for this jam. Again, you can play with and learn from all of them, here: https://explorabl.es/jam/ Enjoy!
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Epilogue:
This jam was fun to create, co-organize, and watch as peeps made amazing things! Buuuuut it did take away a lot of time from me to make Patreon-funded explorables. I'm sorry, and I hope the 19 new explorables above make up for it!
Overall, I think it went pretty well for a first-time jam. We even had an in-person kickoff event, due to lots of luck & generous contributions from the explorables community! Though, maybe 3 weeks was too long? Maybe a weekend-long thing would be more accessible. (Also: I tried participating in the jam myself with a team of others I met at the kickoff event. We totally overscoped. That said, I made new friends, so that's always a plus!)
What's Next?
- “An Overly-Philosophical Behind-The-Scenes Update”, in which I'll explain my thoughts the last few months on: 1) balancing how many people my things reach "vs" how helpful they are to those they reach, 2) what do I want to help others with, anyway? and 3) how can I involve y'all – fans, supporters, friends! – in my learning & teaching process? That's what this next mega-post will be about. (also, a sneak peek of my next explorable!)
- Going to XOXO! If any of you are going to XOXO this year – which may be their last – I'll be around as an attendee! (I gave a talk at XOXO a few years ago) Let's meet up and say hi!
And <3 as always,
~ Nicky
Comments
Nicky Case
Oh awesome! I hope the GameUp community likes & benefits from these new explorables! :)
Scott Price
Hello, Nicky - I'd like to join the chorus thanking you for organizing this ... and for writing it up and discussing the work *around* the jam entries. I'm looking forward to exploring these, and to reaching out to some of the author/designers to consider putting them in front of young explorers through GameUp. This is fantastic work and I hope that this event only galvanizes more designers!
Nicky Case
Thank you! I saw you were working on this sim on the r/Explorables subreddit. (I forgot to leave a reply – ack, I'm a lurker, there's too many social media stuff to be active on) I'm fascinated by bio-regulation feedback loops; I'm currently learning systems bio, and just started reading Uri Alon's Intro to Systems Bio textbook! > I want a high explore to explain ratio to encourage play, but dang they can get lost... Oof, yeah this is a really hard design problem! (And as Chris Walker pointed out, I sometimes go too far the "explanation" direction, with Too Many Words: <a href="https://blog.polytrope.com/too-many-words/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://blog.polytrope.com/too-many-words/</a> ) It's tricky! One thing I try to do is split the simulation into a series of simulations, each one introducing *ONE* new element or *ONE* new interface control. (And any explanation goes in-between those simulations) This way, the reader/player can climb the ladder of abstraction one rung at a time, instead of being asked to jump to the top in a single leap.
Jon Darkow
Nicky, I am a high school teacher and I love the idea that a phenomena can be explained/taught with an explorable. I created the insulin sim. I like using minimal words to communicate an idea with the hope that the intended dynamics can be discovered through exploration. I still find it super-challenging to address the exploration-to-explanation ratio. I want a high explore to explain ratio to encourage play, but dang they can get lost... Thanks so much for your inspiration.
Nicky Case
I really liked the Taxicab one! Very well designed, nice buildup of the explanation, and hopefully helps others understand Bayes Rule – a very beautiful and useful idea I think more people should know, especially now. Also, thanks for the feedback re: jam length! I was worried that multi-week-long jams might be bad for people *with* jobs, since that feels like a larger time commitment, but you're right, opposite could be true: more time means, well, more time
Nicky Case
Oh my gosh, that's so beautiful! <3 <3 <3 I'm so happy things went well with you and your parents, and I'm deeply, deeply honored that my story could help a fellow queer out in some small way. I'm going to frame _your_ Patreon comment now. Thank you! Kick ass at Psych 101!! 💥
Gal Green
Hi Nicky, I'm the one that made the Taxicab one, thanks again for organizing this jam :) I think the three weeks time frame worked well, I would've never made it on time if I had only one week. Maybe if I didn't have a job, but I'm guessing most people have jobs / school... So I think future jams should be at minimum two weeks if we want high-quality creations. Anyways, thanks again for making this whole thing happen <3
ShadowSandbag
Wow these were super neat, I'm going to go look at the rest of them, it was awesome for you to host this!
Jacob Hopkins
Dear Nicky Case, it's me again you probably forgot about me, I made one comment a long time ago about coming out simulator, and the game, you replied to my statement and I framed it, I got into college, I'm now a full time student and I just wanted you to know that I wouldn't have been able to get this far without the new found confidence I got from coming out to my parents, and that's all thanks to your coming out simulator, your my role model, keep it up, gtg psych 101
