Today I read a post by the lovely @riverflows on hypersensitivity or hyper sensitive persons. This write up really hit ( this hypersensitive ) home. I resteemed the post on my blog but if you're too lazy to go back and are interesting in reading it, here's a link: I'm Not Too Sensitive - Are You?.
Right now, I'm distracted by a sound outside but let's try to focus. Apparently it wasn't outside but part of the 'maximum concentration' soundtrack that I was listening to with my earplugs in. As soon as I unplugged them, the noise stopped. Didn't work for me, the concentration thing, so I switched the playlist to music with text - something called 'Heartbeats'. Welcome to the world of a hyper sensitive person! ;>)
This morning, as well as yesterday, I read up on the Natural Medicine discord chat - where I like to hang out - and people were talking about hyper sensitivity, among other things. There was also a test to find out if you fit the club and I scored 24 out of 26 with ( if I'm right ) a score from 14 and higher labeling you as hypersensitive. Did I finally find a label to put on myself, after decades of feeling like somebody who's just overreacting, oversenitive, perhaps depressed?
Anyhow, this post was supposed to be related to creativity and those who read my recent blog entries will be aware of the fact that I'm focusing on game making these days. As mentioned in The Impatient Creative - An Update on My Mindful Game Making Adventures, I learnt about a dinosaur game making jam two days ago. Although I only started seriously - for lack of a better word - making games this month, the jam comes a little early. Nevertheless, being a huge sucker for dinosaurs, I couldn't not enter this contest.
Earlier tonight, while going on a short hike, I came up with the idea of hypersensitivosaurus. The following catch phrase came to mind:
What would hypersensitivosaurus do?
Imagine any situation and place yourself in the feet of this Jurassic animal. What would you do if you were it? A hyper sensitive giant lizard.
I then imagined a game starting with a dinosaur in his bed, waking up from an alarm clock.
You're hypersensitivosaurus. The most sensitive giant lizard that ever roamed the earth.
It's 7 am, raining outside and your nose is stuffed. You have a slight head ache. Even worse, it's Monday. First day of the work week.
What would you do?
a) Act like a grown up ( whatever that means ), stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself and get out of bed. Get dressed, take a shower, have a coffee and go to work.
b) Call in sick, stay in bed the whole day and go for a Jurassic Park marathon.
c ) Stay in bed the whole day, without even calling the office. Put your phone on airplane mode and perhaps send your boss an email later.
I guess you get the idea :>)
I really hope I can find the time, peace of mind and skill set to make this game before the deadline of this one week game jam. I believe it's the 3rd of October. If I don't make it, I might actually finish the game anyway, in my own time, at my own ( dinosaur ) pace.
To get back to the theme of hypersensitivity
I also thought of a superhero called Hypersensitive(hu)man, donning a huge 'H'. This idea was inspired by another recent discord chat where @plantstoplanks talked about her niece telling her that she ( as an aunt ) had 'love' as a super power, as well as by the earlier mentioned post by @riverflows where both she and @binkyprod talk about sensitivity being a superpower. It's only logical that I - as a hypersensitive person - like to agree with that. It's a matter of learning to channel your hypersensitivity though, instead of being trampled by other, less sensitive dinosaurs.
This post was meant to be about dinosaurs and (hyper)sensitivity, so I will save the superhero called hypersensitive(hu)man for another time.
I was about to watch Jurassic Park under the guise of 'research' for my game but - one way or another - I can't find the DVD. So, instead, I will watch another movie, possibly David Lynch's 'Elephant Man' ( 1980 ). Let's see how this hypersensitive human is gonna react to that pretty emotional drama ;>)
P.S. My idea - and something that I need to keep reminding myself of - is to make mindful ( and somewhat educational ) games. Hypersensitivosaurus - besides being a funny name ( and hopefully fun game ) - would just be one example of a game dealing with hypersensitivity, a theme that ( especially sensitive ) I think all people can relate to and some might actually learn from.