Kara Stone is creating low-carbon games

For all the conveniences that modern technology is supposed to bring to our lives, tedium still exists — and usually at the worst possible moments. Within the first few minutes of our online call, I realized that developer Kara Stone was speaking at a delayed pace, a result of an abhorrently high network latency. This was after I managed to swipe another pair of headphones when my first pair decided, obstinately, not to connect to my computer. I apologized for the umpteenth time as I fumble with tangled wires, buttons, and knobs. Throughout it all, Stone seemed unbothered, responding to my frantic gestures with a measured “Sure.”

Stone also believes that technology shouldn’t always be the means to an end. Her oeuvre is centered around environmentalist and feminist themes, with the role of technology being examined and its use, repurposed, in her creations. Her latest game, Known Mysteries, is hosted on a solar-powered server that she built from scratch, which is being run from her apartment balcony. She told me she didn’t have any engineering or web development background; her experience with hardware is mostly around Arduino boards, which are known for their low-cost and approachable design on microcontrollers for devices.

“I had some understanding of how to use a Raspberry Pi and so forth, but it wasn't extensive,” she said. Everything was put together through online guides, simply figuring things out, and getting “a lot of help from people who I know do web development.” And even if the server goes down for a few hours a day, she’s not too concerned. “Full access to every user is such a capitalist mindset,” she said in an interview with The Guardian.