calling my fellow people of the salt

19/10/23 GDLP

Earlier this year, we interviewed v buckenham about their new game-making tool Downpour, an APP you can use to make games in MERE SECONDS. And anyway, I got early access, and I made something, and it’s a bit silly but also a little bit serious too.

https://downpour.games/~gdlp/people-of-the-salt

I made something to help me deal with POTS — Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. It’s been 2 and a half years since I got sick and honestly, I am at my wits end. There are, quite frankly, too many symptoms to deal with. And it’s every single day. Ridiculous! When other people get sick, there’s usually a very straightforward process in place. You fall over and cut your knee? Whack a plaster on it, kiss it better. Got a headache? Drink some water and have a painkiller. You’ll be fineeee. But with POTS comes cognitive difficulties, memory issues, and all this pain and nausea make it hard to go about fixing problems. The slightly embarrassing thing is, the sicker I am, the harder it is to think, and I’ll often find myself in this stasis of just… feeling bad. No end in sight. Until… now.

The thing I made, it’s a game of sorts, or a website that tries to make fun of games (because POTS is a big rigged whack-a-mole). You can find it at 🧂 https://downpour.games/~gdlp/people-of-the-salt 🧂 I rely heavily on the people around me to point me in the right direction but tbh I wanted some independence back. I wanted to capture my brain on a good day, take it out of my head, and trap it in my phone so that I can access it on the bad days. And it’s worked. I share it in the hope it can help others with POTS. It’s got a few hidden links and stories, so I hope it’s vaguely enjoyable also.