The grant-folk didn't go for it, not even close. The submission got a score of 65 out of 100. I have two reactions:

Me:

This is disappointing, but par for the course. Getting grants is hard, and it's normal to miss a number of swings. They gave fairly good feedback, and we actually did pretty well for where I'm coming from (outside of an institution, no previously awarded grants). We learned a lot by going through the process. I can rest, prepare, and try again next year having addressed their concerns.

I also was able to talk to some teachers and have ideas for a micro version of the game that could be used in classrooms almost as-is, so this will give us time to get some kind of minimum viable product living out there in the world.

Also me:

You poor, simple FOOLS. Thinking you could defeat me, ME? The MISTRESS OF ALL EVIL?!

Skin in the game

Not at all because I was sad and needed to google animals, I did some work going back to the game's roots for the creature's designs: nudibranches (and squid)!

So cute! So squishy! CL's creatures don't look much like them, though. It'd be cool if things could be more... squishy? I had a system at one point to have deformable skin. Playing around with that again:

Some errors: that weird popping-out of the skin when it bends far. Math is hard. If you happen to know about polygon convex hulls (and related things), I could probably use a hand?

Other projects

I'm also taking a look at heating up two other games that have been on the backburner for a while now. I'm partnering with an artist to give my first game, Starship Rubicon, a facelift.

Old:

New (VERY VERY work-in-progress):

IMO my original art never really popped, so it's super exciting to see it decked out to be a lot more colorful — it'll be an interesting design challenge to keep that color while also preserving visual clarity amid the explosions.

Second, I have a geology board game that's been begging to have its rules solidified enough that I don't make up new ones every time we play through it.

It'll probably need a kickstarter once it gets solidified, but seeing as I've never made a board game before, this is another one I'm gonna need to find some collaborators for.

🌈 Friendship is magic 🌈
~ Wick