Recently I published a new (desktop) browser web game called…
Meanderware: Things I loved about cyberspace
…Also in keeping with my habit of “games with really long names”. This one is slightly shorter than my last two, but you could still maybe use it as an incantation.
The name “meanderware” is based on what people used to call my first netart project. I always loved the term. It kind of encapsulates that era of internet exploration, or fascination with digital work.
The joy of existing in a digital space.
I’ve been extremely busy with workshops, collaborations, and game dev, so haven’t been able to properly talk about it here… Finally I found some time! Ok so…
Meanderware: Things I loved about cyberspace is another playable essay.
It’s a poetic breadcrumb trail of thoughts about cyberspace, the internet, and the inherent ephemeral nature of our digital work. You explore these spaces riddled with giant skeletons and doors. To progress, you gather thoughts from the skeletons. The doors are hyperlinks that lead elsewhere.
This last bit is something I really love about it!
Hyperlinks are at the heart of the internet. It’s the core design of the world wide web. Everything linked together as this breadcrumb trail of discovery. One website leads to another, another, another…
I will always adore this about the web.
I guess now people call all this the “indie web“. The doorways in “Meanderware” lead to various places on the indie web. I hope it serves as a jumping board into cool new things for people.
It might be 101 for some people… but it’s often information we older people take for granted. Younger people don’t really know that this internet is possible. It’s something we need to keep alive, and teach people to be empowered.
I was inspired by a lot of reaction to my last playable essay (individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big tech asset flip shovelware r?a?n?t? manifesto)… To do something like this again.
Tons of younger people said that they were inspired to get into this movement of web culture, and development, because of it… To make experimental software, and websites.
I think if I keep putting stuff like this out, maybe it will reach more people that decide to pursue this mode of creation.
If you think about it, younger people (or those that don’t know about this stuff) are stuck on social media platforms where the only mode of creation is to be reduced to a “content creator”. I always hated that term because it entails being a source of content for a platform that will never really pay you for the work that you essential do for free for it. Sure the payment is to do it for “the exposure” (followers), but that’s still exploitative.
If you participate in this indie web (the internet that always was), or indie software development, indie game creation… You are empowered to really be your own artist. You own what you create.
All this aside, I know that in the era of “AI stealing everyone’s work” this may seem like a lost point, but I also think that if you are too complicated to steal then it defeats the entire principles behind AI.
I like playable-essays like this because it’s impossible to reduced it to parseable content. A big reason for killing Flash was that it is not parseable by search engines. Now that seems very desireable.
So if you make stuff like a playable essay, where you use all these creative facets (writing, sound, code, art…) that create a sum of parts (like a game), then it’s just too weird to be of use to the AI content mill.
I think originality is something that can’t ever be stolen. I think it’s hubris to think that AI can destroy that.
I feel old now… I remember way back in the early 2000’s talking to programer friends who were all about that programming will one day become obsolete and be completely machine generated. Everything digital will be automated one day! So you have to “learn the hard stuff”, that way you can’t be replaced… These conversations still have not changed.
All this aside, aside… I did very much enjoy making a browser based thing again! It runs on desktop browsers only. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux, so finally I hit the trifecta.
I am pretty serious tho about making more of these. I really like the idea of eventually making a collection of playable essays that are something of a book. Each chapter being another playable piece that you experience the messanging in.
It would be very cool to do this!
People do appreciate it, and even more so, are inspired to pursue creating this stuff themselves, so that makes the entire thing worth doing.
You can play Meanderware: Things I loved about cyberspace on…
Itch.io https://alienmelon.itch.io/meanderware
Or hosted on tetrageddon https://tetrageddon.com/meanderware/
It’s classic netart! Do enjoy all the javascript and wild CSS. :)
((You reached the end when you find the ball pit.))
