“I think it’s a very rare thing to make a game or anything, really, to put it out in the world and to be able to return to it not as the author but perhaps as a reader.”
Demi Schänzel is a researcher and game designer from Aotearoa (New Zealand), who advocates for “compassionate design practices and digital kindness.” They are the creator of Library of Babble, one of the most extraordinary digital spaces I have ever explored.
In the Library, visitors can read messages from other people and leave their own – and they navigate a shifting landscape of scintillating Miami cocktail colours. It was a real pleasure to chat to Demi last year and learn about how the Library came together.
Can you tell me a bit about your background and how you got into making things like Library of Babble?
Demi Schänzel: So I feel like, relative to a lot of my peers in the field, I got into game design specifically quite late. You know, early- to mid-20s. And before that point, I was also always terrified of the prospect of programming. I knew I could never be a game designer, at least from this side of things, I think, because I knew I’m hopeless at mathematics and I couldn’t possibly program.