While, on the face of it, the game was very minimal, and the core mechanic very simple, the project got so bloated with particular behaviours, combinations that broke levels, and just not enough time to iterate in my spare time, I shelved it... ... for about 5 years.

I realised that the NEUTROPIA levels were ending with a "world domination" aesthetic, everyone a uniform green... it didn't feel very non-zero. So...I started to add LOADS of new types, with new colours, and abilities, and personalities—and then everything stopped...

My daughter's first school had this motto where they would "fill up each other's cup" and the kids would put on a chart who had filled their cup that day and why—and that's how I solved the "how much charge without numbers?" problem, the level indicates positivity and negativity.

Then a fellow game developer wrote this beautiful article about the game: nonzerosum.games/victoriasmi… and that only served to encourage me to elevate the game to the level of her words.

Then enough people had wondered out loud "Why the number faces? You know some people don't like numbers" and I started toying with som characters. But how would I indicate how much charge they have...?

LAUNCH DAY! It's finally here, after over a decade of (admittedly on and off) development... NEUTROPIA is ready to launch. Play at: nonzerosum.games/neutropia/ #GameDev #ScreenShotSaturday #LaunchDay #Devs #GameTheory #EducationalGames #GamesForChange #NonZero #NonZeroSumGames

For the last 5 years I've corralling my various and disparate games, essays, cartoons, simulations and diagrams into my website at nonzerosum.games and have been able to really flesh out the ideas that were core to NEUTROPIA... but I always intended to return to it.

About a year in it started looking like an actual game... bear in mind I learned to code on this project—and it was in Objective-C and then Swift at this stage! People kept saying "Why aren't you using Unity?" #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday

Some “inspo” for NEUTROPIA’s weeds, right there on my house #NatureFindsAWay #GameDev #ScreenshotSaturday (almost). The mads contribute by “fertilising” the map, when the greens plant there you get flowers :)

NEUTROPIA gradually got more minimal, as I refined the concept, small puzzle worlds. The neuts became little number faces, with just a dash of personality, and the dragon... rabbit still holding on in there.

The NEUTROPIA design kept evolving...

Next the "Neuts" of Neutropia needed to feel industrial and utilitarian. The game is all about emotional contagion—the core mechanic: positives build each other up, negatives drag each other down, and in the end the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts.

NEUTROPIA began with a cute #dragon as the player—much to the disappointment of my daughter, that changed.

I realised at this point, if I was going to try and push it further, and get it published everywhere, I'd need to port NEUTROPIA to #Unity sooner rather than later. This is how it started... well that's different.

About 2016 I introduced disco mode, and mood walls and... somewhere the dragon got lost... I realised if the message of the game is that we can all make a difference by being a positive influence on those around us, then a magical dragon rescuing us all doesn't really make sense.

These posts are a contracted "Dev Log" showing the many iterations over the last 10 years for my upcoming game NEUTROPIA which teaches non-zero dynamics. The 1st version was based on light-switches... they made little clicky noises. #GameDev #Games #MobileGames #GamesForChange

NEUTROPIA is coming along nicely… release next week I reckon #screenshotsaturday #gamedev #nonzerosumgames #gametheory #cute #happiness #positivity

It's finally here! Our first video interview episode on the 'Non•Zero•Sum James' podcast—with @Liv_Boeree View on: • Youtube: youtu.be/l7_FAYllmvM #AISafety #MAD #GameTheory #Economics #Philosophy #NonZeroSumGames #WinWin