Smash-a-rona
Wow, I started writing the article months ago, but it feels like yesterday…and 10 years ago. Time in 2020 is unlike the before-time. Here in San Francisco, we were in shelter-in-place and quarantine for a long time. With the upcoming post-Thanksgiving covid spike, we may be returning soon.
How have I been coping? Among other things, I spent time developing Smash-a-rona; a simple physics game where the player defeats viruses.
Yep, that’s right. I’ve been channeling my stress about current events, into developing a game about them.
I was working on some background research and data visualizations related to Covid-19, and it was seriously stressing me. At this point, though, it was early in the year. What data that could be found, revealed alarming patterns and trends. But this wasn’t the main source of my stress.
It was the absence, suppression, and censorship, of data that had me loosing sleep.
I managed to finish a piece on how sampling can impact our understanding of epidemiological data. I also developed a scrolly-telling version with animated interactive charts.
