Hot Air is a web-based arcade game that challenges players’ abilities to decode the language of U.S. partisan politics.
Hot air balloons, each containing an anonymous tweet from a member of congress, rise at an ever-increasing rate towards the player at the top of the screen. The player must read the tweets and decide, based solely on the text, whether or not it came from a congress member on their team (i.e. party affiliation). The goal is to deflate the opposing team’s tweets with a well-placed dart, while letting your own team’s balloons pass by unharmed. Once a balloon has been deflated, the true author of the tweet, along with their political party affiliation, is displayed.