ncase posts
One Megapost on Mass Violence
It's been a sad month.As I mentioned in my last Patreon update, I was going to write a summary of the research I've done on the social psychology of violence – or, "emergent evil". What I didn't expect was for this summary to become my way of coping with all the worldwide trage...
June 2016 patron supported
Thank you so much for the support this month!
"Emergent Evil", and other shtuffs
I really, really thought my first project with PBS Frontline would be out this month. It's a Parable of the Polygons-esque explainer on the social psychology of terrorism. However, given the recent tragedy in Orlando, (on which I wrote some pissy, ill-advised reflections) that project's goin...
May 2016 patron supported
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April 2016 patron supported
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How To Simulate The Universe, In 134 Easy Steps
http://ncase.me/OVC2016/ Here's the word + picture version of a talk I gave a few days ago at OpenVisConf! (a gathering of art/tech peeps who do data visualization, you know, charts and stuff) My talk was about systems and simulations – and how they can make us more empathetic, more empowered,...
I'm at Frontline! + Society Sim Prototype
I mentioned it a few Patreon posts ago, but now it's actually happened – I'm a Knight/Mozilla OpenNews Fellow at PBS Frontline! My name appeared in the credits of their latest documentary on Saudi Arabia this week. Not sure why. I didn't do anything for that documentary, other than wat...
March 2016 Patreon supported
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Two Half-Baked Prototypes
Hi everyone!For the past couple months, I've been in "exploratory" mode – making lots of tiny prototypes, rather than any one complete, self-contained project. Most of the prototypes were crap, so I'm going to pretend they never happened. But today, I'd like to show you two pro...
February 2016 patron supported
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The new ExplorableExplanations.com! (+other sneak peeks)
ExplorableExplanations.com If you're wondering why the thumbnail is from Bret Victor's essay on climate change, that's because Patreon's being a doofus and not picking the thumbnail I put right in the <head> tag, or even letting me change the thumbnail. I can't.ANYWAY.A lot of pe...
January 2016 patron supported
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It's finally out! Simulating The World (In Emoji)
http://ncase.me/simulating/ An interactive guide to thinking in systems. In emoji.At long last -- well I guess it hasn't been that long, since I made the first prototype a bit over a month ago -- this thing's finally out! It's about the systems that run our lives... and how we can use si...
December 2015 patron supported
Thank you so much for the support this month!
sneak peek: Simulating The World (In Emoji)
http://ncase.me/simulating-wip/Oh joy oh joy, do I have a holiday gift for you!This project's very close to being done, and I could publish it before the end of the month, but all my friends recommended I wait until after the holidays. So, it will come out on Jan 4th, 2016. In the meantime, thou...
You, In My Upcoming Interactive?
My next project is coming out in a couple weeks, and I'm pretty excited! It's an interactive explanation that helps you build your own interactive explanation. It combines all the stuff that's been on my mind for the last six months -- from systems to simulations, from education to exist...
November 2015 patron supported
Thank you so much for the support this month!
Simulating the World... in Emoji!
http://ncase.me/emoji-prototype/Golly oh goodness do I have a new prototype for you.So, remember Parable of the Polygons? I'm prototyping a tool that lets you make your own Parable of the Polygons. That is, an easy-to-use, in-the-browser tool to make simulations of complex systems -- be they soc...
I'm going to be a Knight-Mozilla Fellow!
Or, The Big News You Probably Already Found Out About But I Was Too Exhausted To Post Onto Patreon Until Now: https://opennews.org/what/fellowships/2016meet/The Knight-Mozilla OpenNews Fellowship (previously just MoJo, short for Mozilla Journalism, which frankly is a much better name) is a 10 month ...
My XOXO 2015 talk is up!
This one's about chaos, and adapting to chaos. My talk was actually uploaded exactly one week ago, but I couldn't get around to posting it here on Patreon until now. That's coz last weekend, I was at the Mozilla Festival in London! (then promptly fell sick afterwards) I was rather busy t...
October 2015 Patreon supported
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Behind-The-Scenes: The Spooky Edition
Hey hey! It's my second Patreon exclusive behind-the-scenes post. This month: two and a half prototypes, and apparently... either academic research is sorta interesting, or maybe I'm just a really boring person???Behind-The-Scenes Oct 31stAnd don't worry, I haven't forgotten about th...
I'm Talking at IndieCade, Apparently!
This Friday, I'll be on a panel with a bunch of other indie gamedevs, talking about how to use games to say shtuff. Given that I've made Coming Out Simulator, Parable of the Polygons, and most recently, Neurotic Neurons, the conference organizers thought I could say shtuff about using games ...
New Prototype - Ingroups & Outgroups
Because Neurotic Neurons took several months of mucking about before settling on something, I'm going to try something new this time -- make a whole bunch of prototypes first, then decide which one(s) to fully flesh out. This also means I can explore more directions at once, and I'll get to ...
September 2015 Patreon supported
Thank you so much for the support this month!
My First Patreon Exclusive: Behind-the-scenes
First off, welcome new backers! Thank you so much for supporting me -- and for those who pledged before last week, thanks for sticking around! Also, there's a few *actual* Patron rewards now, including "getting credited" and "drawn character reward". If you're already pledgin...
Neurotic Neurons - an interactive animation
http://ncase.me/neurons/At long last, my explorable explanation on neurons & anxiety is finally out! Just like how Parable of the Polygons put interactivity into the blog post format, Neurotic Neurons puts interactivity into the "animated explainer" format. (Think Vi Hart, CGP Grey, Minute P...
August 2015 Patreon supported
Thank you so much for the support this month!
Neurons! An interactive animation.
You know how Parable of the Polygons was basically a half-game half-blog-post? I've been thinking about what other mediums we could inject interactivity into. One in particular, I think might be a great candidate: edu-videos, like CGP Grey, Minute Physics, or Vi Hart!This is my prototype of just...
Your name thanked in my next Explorable?
This is patron-only post. This one's just for you. Because seriously, you've all been supporting me this far, and I just wanted a little way to thank you! So, if you'd like your name thanked in I'd Like To Be A Machine, my upcoming explorable explanation on neurons & anxiety, please ...

















