Recently I've taken an interest in game development. As someone with varied interests, game dev gives me ample opportunities to explore.
I've been able to investigate natural processes like plate tectonics in pursuit of more realistic terrain, I've been developing my own artistic style in Blender, and I've reimagined software architecture by stepping out of the familiar patterns of web development.
As I develop the requisite skills, I've been building the technical and conceptual foundations of several games, mostly in the simulation and strategy genres. One of these, in collaboration with a former coworker, simulates the operation of a private space corporation in the near future, with a satirical tone and consideration for realism in the engineering challenges involved.
Another is a "grand arc of history" game in the vein of Civilization that incorporates an anthropological lens in reimagining and subverting the tropes of the strategy genre. I draw inspiration from James C. Scott's Seeing Like a State and The Art of Not Being Governed. I plan to give in-game people groups their own languages, procedurally generated through techniques I developed in my Language Workshop project.
