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Videogames about self-care are exactly what we need right now

In the days following the results of the American election, programmer and game maker Jessica Hayley considered running a “Fuck Trump Game Jam” in order to “channel [her] anger into something that felt productive.” But upon reflection, she realized that the games that would come out of such a move would likely be something she wouldn’t want to contribute to. “I still wanted to do something, but I didn’t want the outcome to be a bunch of hateful games,” Hayley told me. “So I decided to turn the idea on its head and make a jam where the goal is…

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The conference schedule for Two5six is available now

Two5six, our annual conference and festival, is a three-day celebration of a life well-played. If you haven’t been to Two5six before, you still have several days to buy a ticket for our conference and other events. The final schedule is now available for our conference next Saturday, May 16th. You can view the full festival schedule on Two5six’s website. Saturday’s conference will bring together leaders from game design and other industries to discuss the connections between games and other creative spaces. Game designers David O’Reilly (Mountain), Kara Stone (Sext Adventure), and Torfi Frans Olafsson (Eve Universe) will share  the stage…

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Cyclothymia shows us how to deal with a mental health issue through astrology

This is not the first time Kara Stone has talked about mental health through a videogame. Previously, she had us participate in the rituals that her doctor prescribed—taking medicine, breathing exercises, practising absolute somatic control—in MedicationMeditation. Now, with her latest game, Cyclothymia, Stone reveals how she has learned to cope with her swaying moods through astrology. Stone says that cyclothymia, the mood disorder not the game, is something that she feels and goes through. It’s generally considered a milder version of bipolar disorder, meaning that a person with it tends to have periods of euphoria that shift into episodes of…