Game Producer!
by Jason Bergman

Minimal Transcript (commands only)

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In case it's not completely obvious from the title above, this is a full transcript file, containing all game text and a walkthrouhg of a perfect score in Game Producer!. For the complete transcript, with all in-game text, refer to the "gp_transcript_full.txt" file, which should be available in the same place you grabbed this one (if not, visit www.loonyboi.com/if/gameproducer/ and get it there). 

Note that this is a game played on normal difficulty as a male character. While other difficulty settings only change the amount of time given, playing as a woman does change certain puzzles. For more on this, refer to the game guide document (available at the above URL as well as wherever you got this file from). 

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*** Transcript generated by Zoom

Start of a transcript of
Game Producer!
Copyright (c) 2006 jason bergman
Release 1 / Serial number 060924 / Inform v6.30 Library 6/11 S
Standard interpreter 1.1 (3Z) / Library serial number 040227

>n
Waving your hands in front of you erratically, you slowly inch your way forward down the corridor. After a few cautious steps, you push your hands out to your sides and hit tiled walls, slightly damp and cool to the touch. Confident that this is, in fact a corridor, you continue to move towards the light, which seems to be getting brighter with each step. Eventually you make your way to a small room.

Dimly Lit Room
You are standing in a damp, dimly lit room. It seems to be covered in a variety of tiles, most of them cracked and showing their obvious age pretty badly. While the room does have light that seems to be coming from above, it's very faint, and you can't actually see well enough to tell if there's a definite light source above you. 

Directly in front of you to the northwest is a brown wooden door, fashioned with a silhouette of a man and the word "Gentlemen" written under it. Next to it to the northeast lies a green wooden door. On this door is a silhouette of a woman and the word "Ladies". 

>nw
You push your way through the door marked "Gentlemen" and emerge in a small room, nearly identical to the one you were just in. Looking behind you, you can find no sign of the door you just walked through, only more of the same cracked, damp tiles.

Dimly Lit Room
This room is virtually identical to the one that preceded it, the only significant difference of note being the presence of three, rather than merely two doors. To the northwest lies a short plastic door, which you will clearly have to get down on all fours to walk through. In letters large enough to cover half its available surface, this door reads "Easy". In front of you to the north is a metal door large enough for you to walk through normally, a fact that might explain the large text reading "Normal" on its face. To the northeast is a wooden door that you'll need to stoop down slightly in order to walk through. The difficulty of this act may explain its label, which is simply "Hard". Perhaps as a way to aide you in your trek through this door, a wooden cane is leaning up against it. 

You can't quite place it, but these doors remind you of something.

>n
You confidently walk up to the metal door and push it open, revealing a never-ending vision of pitch-black nothingness. At the very least you can feel a light breeze coming from the other side (wherever that may be), so you move forward into the darkness.

The next thing you know, you're lying in bed and quite comfortable. Your eyes are closed, but you can feel the light breeze of the table fan next to your bed on your face and the sunbeams coming through your windows are warm and comforting on your arms. 

Wait...sunbeams?

Your eyes snap open and you glance over at your alarm clock and realize that you've overslept. Slightly panicking, you leap out of bed and quickly get dressed. 

Bedroom
Your bedroom is spartan, but it's yours, and that's what counts. Your few possessions are scattered around the room: your completely unreliable alarm clock, the wooden dresser you've had since you were a kid, a miniscule television set, and piles and piles of clothing, some dirty, some clean. 

But none of that is important right now. What matters is that you get to the office as quickly as possible. The door to your living room (and the world beyond) lies directly in front of you to the north. 

Your keys sit on the dresser. It's probably a good idea to take those with you.

>take keys
Taken.

>n
You race out of your bedroom and dash through your living room, making a break for the door. You hurl yourself outside and hurry as fast as you can to get to the office.
 
Lobby
You're standing in the lobby of AXL Games, publishers of many fine, fine PC and console games and not too coincidentally, the company you work for. The lobby is modest, featuring a small couch, a table with some industry magazines and a desk. Manning the desk is Sally, AXL's intrepid receptionist. 

There are three corridors leading out from the lobby: to the northwest is the path towards the kitchen and QA pit. Directly ahead to the north is the path towards the Big Man's office, and the corridor to the northeast leads towards the PR, marketing and PD departments (and among other things your own desk). 

Seeing you walk in, Sally looks up from her computer and smiles. "Good morning," she says."The Big Man is waiting to see you."

>nw

Kitchen
The office kitchen is small, but it gets the job done. There isn't much in the way of furniture here, but there is a small table and some chairs, both of which are rarely used by the staff. There's a refrigerator, which is usually stocked with soda and juice, a coffee machine and a microwave oven. Above the fridge is a cabinet (currently closed) and in the corner of the room lies an unremarkable trashcan.

Directly in front of you are stairs leading down to the QA pit. Behind you to the southeast is the lobby.


>drink coffee
You push the button on the coffee machine and wait for a moment for the little styrofoam cup to fill with piping hot coffee. Once it's finished, you pick up the cup, blow on it a few times and drink the coffee down. It's just the way you like it...instant, hot and black as the night. Finished, you discard the cup in the trash. 

Just moments later you feel yourself waking up. You know you really shouldn't rely on caffeine like you do, but damn it, the stuff works.

>se

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>n
Praying he doesn't mention the fact that you overslept on the day your game is supposed to go gold, you nervously open the door to the Big Man's office.

The Big Man's Office
The Big Man's office is, contrary to its occupant's nickname, quite modest. While it is the largest such office at AXL Games, it's hardly enormous by modern standards, and is only marginally larger than your dentist's examination room. 

The office is constructed around an enormous desk, at which the Big Man himself is seated. His desk is covered with an overwhelming number of (no doubt quite important) papers, enough that the piles have engulfed his keyboard. 

The walls on each side are made of frosted glass and through them you can see the foggy outlines of people as they walk by. 

Noticing you walk in, the Big Man looks up, gestures to the chair directly in front of his desk and says, "Oh good, you're here. Please, sit down."

>sit down
You take a seat on the chair.

Once you sit, The Big Man says, "Have a little trouble getting up this morning?"

Instinctually, your heart skips a beat. 

"Don't worry about it. Really. I've been there."

You let out a slightly audible sigh of relief. 

With that bit of awkwardness out of the way, he continues. "I'm sure you know how important an FPS title like Regicide is to this company. It's coming out at a critical time, and we need this to be on time and rock-solid. I have faith in your ability to deliver this product by midnight tonight, but just for the record, it is imperative that we get this out of the door on time. Any later and we'll miss out on a whole day's worth of manufacturing, and we can't afford that." 

The Big Man stands up, and starts to pace around the room. "In addition to simply getting this game polished and complete, I need you to make absolutely sure that our marketing and PR departments have all their needs taken care of today, or at the very least, that you do everything in your power to help them. You know as well as I do that it doesn't matter if we have the greatest game ever made -- if it's not marketed properly it won't sell, and we have a business to run here." 

Still pacing in circles around the room, he continues. "I'm sure you can find out exactly what everyone needs, but I heard that the QA team is having some problems. I heard that John in PR has a journalist coming in today to play the game. You should make sure they're all set with that. And make absolutely sure you leave time for yourself to actually play the game today. If you blindly kick this out the door, the end result will suffer. Trust me, I've seen it happen far too many times.

Finished pacing, he sits back down behind his desk. "According to my watch, you've got around 12 hours left, so I'd get going if I were you." He stands up and walks you over to the door. "Go on now, there's lots to be done and not a whole lot of time to do it. I look forward to seeing the final result. "

Lobby
You're standing in the lobby of AXL Games, publishers of many fine, fine PC and console games and not too coincidentally, the company you work for. The lobby is modest, featuring a small couch, a table with some industry magazines and a desk. Manning the desk is Sally, AXL's intrepid receptionist. 

There are three corridors leading out from the lobby: to the northwest is the path towards the kitchen and QA pit. Directly ahead to the north is the path towards the Big Man's office, and the corridor to the northeast leads towards the PR, marketing and PD departments (and among other things your own desk). 

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>ne

Product Development Department - Your Desk
You're standing in the product development department at AXL Games. All around you are fellow producers going about their daily tasks, which for most of them currently involve either talking (or yelling, for that matter) on the phone or playing their respective games. 

The corridor continues on towards the finance department to the northwest, while marketing is directly to the north and the PR department is off to the northeast. Behind you to the southwest is the corridor back to the lobby. 

Your cubicle is here, containing your desk (currently closed), a PC, phone and other miscellaneous stuff.
 
On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

Your phone is ringing.

>answer phone
You pick up the phone.  "Hello?"

"Hey, it's Bob down at Spaz Graphics. Listen we've got a problem."

You sigh into the phone. "What now?"

"Well here's the thing...we haven't gotten paid. I know it's not your fault, but we're gonna have to make a big deal out of this if we don't get paid today."

Uh oh. "How big a deal are we talking about here?"

"I'll make it as simple as I can. If we don't get paid today, we're not going to sign off on the gold master, and we're certainly not going to fix any bugs QA sends over."

Yikes. While technically you could ship the game off to manufacturing without their approval, it's not something you want to go doing. But even more serious is their threat regarding bugs...if they don't fix any lingering bugs, the final product will suffer. And if it suffers you suffer.

"Okay, listen...I'm going to do everything I can to get you guys paid immediately. We'll be in touch." 

Before he has a chance to respond, you've hung up the phone. You should probably do something about this as soon as possible. 

>open drawer
You open the desk, revealing a bottle of whiskey, a design doc and a milestone invoice.

>take whiskey
Taken.

>take doc
Taken.

>read doc
The design doc reads:

Regicide

A next generation FPS by Spaz Graphics

ABSTRACT:

"Regicide" is a next-generation first person shooter featuring online multiplayer for up to 32 players, real-time stat tracking and persistent stats that are saved across all servers worldwide. The core campaign can be played either solo or with up to three additional players, with the game adjusting itself on the fly as new players join or drop out of the game. 

(The document continues on for about two hundred more pages. You really don't have the time to read much more than that)

>take invoice
As you pick up the invoice, a weak (and entirely pointless, since this invoice is only one sheet of paper) paperclip tumbles off the corner and lands on your desk.

>take paperclip
Taken.

>sw

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>nw

Kitchen



>d
You walk down the stairs, walking straight into the darkness. 

QA Pit
The QA pit isn't literally a pit, but it is a dark subterranean room filled with rows of computers and their accompanying testers. It's here that games are put through their paces day and night, testing (and frequently breaking) every game published by AXL. 

Looking around, you notice that something seems unusual about the testers. Instead of playing Regicide (as they should be doing), they're all playing various games from other companies, including at more than a few terminals, Minesweeper.

Behind you, the steps lead back up to the kitchen, while on the other side of the room, stairs lead down to the sub-basement.

As you enter the room, Steve runs up to you. "Dude, thank god you're here."

>talk to steve
Clearly distressed, Steve immediately begins talking a mile a minute. "Okay, so here's the situation. The server's out. That's bad. Really bad. Without the server we can't track any bugs, which means we can't submit them, which means the developers can't fix them. And that means the game's currently a buggy mess and there's nothing we can do about that up here. " 

He wipes some sweat off his brow and continues, "So here's what I need you to do. I need you to go down into the sub-basement, find the server and get it running again. I need to stay up here so I can make sure that when the server does actually start running again the network doesn't freak out on us. And please, hurry. This is like a catastrophe here, and the longer we wait to get it running again the worse it's gonna be."

>d

Sub-Basement
The sub-basement is a small room, cold and dark and disturbingly reminiscent of the one from your dream last night. The walls aren't tiled here, but they are dripping, and there are pipes running along the ceiling. 

This room is both a storage center and the location of the QA server, a decision that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to you. 

There are two bookshelves here, one filled with cables of all shapes and sizes and one with broken video cards. 

In the corner of the room you can see a beer fridge. Behind you stairs lead back up to the QA pit.

There is also a QA server here, although it is currently inoperative.

>open fridge
You open the Beer Fridge, revealing a bottle of spoiled milk.

>take milk
Desperately hoping that you'll never have to use it for anything, you hold your nose and reach out and grab the bottle of spoiled milk, adding it to your inventory.

>l at fridge
The Beer Fridge is one of those small refrigerators that you would expect to find in any dorm room. Why there's one in the sub-basement of a major video game company is a question worth asking, but it's here nonetheless.

Judging from the fact that it doesn't feel even a little bit cool, it's a safe assumption that it's broken. You're no expert at such things, but this is probably due to the fact that the motor, usually the noisiest part of a refrigerator such as this one, is completely silent.
 
>l at motor
You move in close to get a better look at the defective fridge motor. Sure enough, it's just dead weight. As the fridge is plugged in, you have a feeling that it may have simply shorted out. A closer look at the motor reveals two metal contacts.

>l at contacts
The little metal contacts are connected to the fridge motor, and it looks like these tiny bits are the source of the problem. Chances are that you could kickstart the motor if you found  a way to connect these two pieces of metal. 

>use paperclip on contacts
With the paperclip tightly grasped between two fingers, you reach out and carefully place it on the metal contacts and pull your hand away quickly before you can be shocked by the resulting surge of electricity. 

No sooner do you pull your hand away than a large spark lights up the room, followed by the hum of the refrigerator motor springing to life. It only takes a few seconds for the fridge to start spewing out cool air. 

>take server
The QA server is hot to the touch, but it won't burn you, so you reach out and take it, slumping it under your arm, letting the cables fall around your body.
You should probably do something with this ASAP, as the warmth under your arm is starting to cause a real problem for you. Unlike Steve, you'd really rather not smell like armpit all day long.

>put server in fridge
Being careful not to pull out any of its many cables, you slide the QA server into the now cold fridge. Within seconds the fridge works its magic, and the server makes a pleasant whirring noise as its fans start back up.

>u

QA Pit
The QA pit isn't literally a pit, but it is a dark subterranean room filled with rows of computers and their accompanying testers. It's here that games are put through their paces day and night, testing (and frequently breaking) every game published by AXL. 

Behind you, the steps lead back up to the kitchen, while on the other side of the room, stairs lead down to the sub-basement.

Literally seconds after you walk in the room, Steve runs up to you. "Oh man, that was awesome! I don't know what you did, but the server just returned from the dead. Sweet. I'll get these guys back on track. When you get a chance, come find me and ask me about QA so we can work on those bugs."

Steve walks over and checks on a particular tester, making sure he's not having too much fun.

>ask steve about qa
Steve says, "We filed all the A level bugs, but we haven't gotten any confirmation that they've been fixed from the developers. Did you get them paid? They won't fix anything until they're paid."

>u

Kitchen



>se

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>ne

Product Development Department - Your Desk
You're standing in the product development department at AXL Games. All around you are fellow producers going about their daily tasks, which for most of them currently involve either talking (or yelling, for that matter) on the phone or playing their respective games. 

The corridor continues on towards the finance department to the northwest, while marketing is directly to the north and the PR department is off to the northeast. Behind you to the southwest is the corridor back to the lobby. 

Your cubicle is here, containing your desk, a PC, phone and other miscellaneous stuff.
 
On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

>nw
Even at a cool company like AXL Games, the finance department is a snoozefest. Where the cubicles in the PD, PR and marketing departments are loaded to the hilt with crazy crap (to say nothing of the circus that is the QA pit), the finance department has plain cubicles lined with typical photographs of loved ones and family members. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

As you approach the area, you pick out Raoul's desk and make a b-line for it. If anyone can get this invoice paid immediately, it's Raoul, although past dealings with him have been quite frustrating. Hopefully he'll understand the urgency involved in getting this thing paid, although there's a part of you that's already preparing for the worst.

Finance Department - Raoul's Desk
Raoul's desk is, like everyone else's in finance, best described as sparse, containing a PC that almost always has a spreadsheet open, a calculator, a whole lot of papers and a big coffee mug that never seems to be empty. 

Finance itself is always a dead end, but the corridor you came from is behind you to the southeast, and will lead you back to the relative comfort of your desk. 

Raoul himself is a dark haired (with spots of gray on the sides) and sour faced man. He dresses a bit on the conservative side for this office, which means rather than wearing jeans and a t-shirt, he's wearing actual pressed slacks and a button-down shirt.

As you approach, Raoul looks up and says, "Hey. What do you want?" He pauses for a second to take a sip of coffee. "I'm in the middle of like a thousand things."

>talk to raoul
Raoul replies, "I really don't have time to talk about random things. If there's something important, just come out and ask me about it." He takes a sip from his coffee and continues,  "I have better things to do with my time."

>ask raoul about invoice
Raoul snatches the invoice out of your hands and replies, "Let me see that. Oh yeah, I remember this one. This is the Spaz Graphics milestone 15 invoice. I'll get it paid, don't worry about it." And with that, he takes another sip of his coffee and goes back to his spreadsheet.

This invoice needs to be paid now...you might need to try a different approach.

>i
You are carrying:
  a bottle of spoiled milk
  a design doc
  a bottle of whiskey
  a keychain

>put milk in coffee
You quietly lean towards Raoul's desk. With the bottle of spoiled milk firmly concealed in your hand, you fake a sneeze, doubling over for dramatic effect. Just as you're straightening your self up, you cover the coffee mug with one hand and pour a tiny bit of spoiled milk into it with the other. 

"That's disgusting," Raoul says, referring to your sneeze, not the toxic substance you just poured in his drink. "Next time stay home sick and spare your coworkers that sort of display." 

And with that statement of contempt, he reaches down for his coffee. You watch as he brings the mug up to his lips. The whole thing seems to play out for you in slow motion as you eagerly wait for him to drink the tainted coffee. 

He sips, and for a moment, everything seems normal. You begin to wonder if you put enough in to have an effect, but then suddenly a look of horror comes over Raoul's face and he sits straight up. His eyes dilate and he goes pale. 

"Uh," he squeaks out. Back perfectly straight, he stands up. "Excuse me for a moment. I have to uh." And he sprints for the bathroom, leaving his computer delightfully unoccupied. 

You toss the bottle of milk into a nearby trashcan. You won't be needing that ever again.

>use pc
With Raoul out of the picture, you can safely get to work on his PC. You sit down at his desk and fire up the accounts payable software. It only takes a moment to pull up the exact invoice you need, and with a click of a button, it's been paid. Considering how painless the process is, you have to wonder what Raoul's problem is. In any event, you can get on with your day now that this crisis has been averted, but you should probably let the guys at Spaz Graphics know that the money's been put into their account.

>se

Product Development Department - Your Desk

On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

Your phone is ringing.

>answer phone
You pick up the phone.  "Yes?"

"Hey, it's Bob down at Spaz Graphics. Listen, I don't know what you did, but the money's been wired into our account. Thanks a lot. Consider us at your disposal until Regicide goes gold.

Hey, I gotta run...thanks again!"

There's a click, which you take as your cue to put down the phone.

>sw

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>nw

Kitchen



>d

QA Pit
The QA pit isn't literally a pit, but it is a dark subterranean room filled with rows of computers and their accompanying testers. It's here that games are put through their paces day and night, testing (and frequently breaking) every game published by AXL. 

Behind you, the steps lead back up to the kitchen, while on the other side of the room, stairs lead down to the sub-basement.


Steve walks over and checks on a particular tester, making sure he's not having too much fun.

>ask steve about qa
Steve says, "It took us a while, but we finally nailed all those A level bugs. The devs were really cool to work with once they got paid, so I think we're all good there. We'll start on the B level bugs now."

>u

Kitchen



>se

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>ne

Product Development Department - Your Desk
You're standing in the product development department at AXL Games. All around you are fellow producers going about their daily tasks, which for most of them currently involve either talking (or yelling, for that matter) on the phone or playing their respective games. 

The corridor continues on towards the finance department to the northwest, while marketing is directly to the north and the PR department is off to the northeast. Behind you to the southwest is the corridor back to the lobby. 

Your cubicle is here, containing your desk, a PC, phone and other miscellaneous stuff.
 
On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

>play game

You play Regicide for 30 minutes and take note of a glitch in the game's interface. After writing it up, you send it over to the developers. It's a good thing you caught that one.

>n

Marketing Department - Maria's Desk
While you'd like to believe that in this industry great games always sell because they're great games, you're not naive. Marketing is one of the most important hubs in the industry machine, and without the men and women in the AXL Games marketing division your games wouldn't be carried in retailers at all. Still, you're always quite skittish about coming over here. You like the marketing people at AXL, and you're pretty sure they're not evil, but marketing always seems like some kind of mystical voodoo to you. You don't know how it works, and you're comfortable with that. 

On the other hand they always get the best swag (even better than PR), and you're occasionally lucky enough to get your hands on some of it. 

AXL's marketing division is populated by various marketing managers. Some are senior level, others associate, but they're all neck-deep in advertisements, printed materials, television commercials and all the other things to persuade people to buy your games. 

Behind you, the south corridor leads back to the PD department.

Seeing you walk in, Maria, the senior marketing manager on your project grabs you and pulls you over to her desk. "Hey, can you do me a favor?" She says, "This is driving me nuts."

>ask maria about favor
Maria sighs and says, "Okay, so here's the situation. I've got these ads that I need you to look at. They're supposed to go out the door today at six o'clock, but I haven't had a chance to look at them yet." 

You gesture for her to continue, and she does. "Well, this is kind of embarrassing. I...um, I can't get the box open." 

You stifle a laugh. 

"See, I told you it was embarrassing! These people -" she gestures around to the other desks, "- have been absolutely no help whatsoever. Here, you take a look at it. Maybe you can get the damn thing open." 

She reaches under her desk and pulls out a large cardboard package. "Please help! If these don't go out the door by six o'clock we're not going to have any ads hit for at least two months after launch."

>l at box

The package is rectangular and covered in long sheets of cardboard, taped closed with thick ribbons of packing tape. If that wasn't bad enough, the whole thing is circled by tightly wound twine. Clearly someone didn't want this package opening up in transit.

>l at keychain
This is your trusty keychain. It's a simple metal ring containing the keys to your office and apartment and a Mexican army knife.

>l at knife
Your Mexican army knife is a souvenir from your trip to Tijuana. It happens to be the only thing you came back from Tijuana with, as other than a raging hangover, the clothes on your back and some hazy memories, you managed to leave everything else behind. It's fairly similar to the world-famous Swiss army knife, except it's significantly cheaper (both in value and overall presentation), and has no spork.

>use knife on box
Opening it to reveal the blade, you take your Mexican army knife and carefully attempt to cut the twine covering the cardboard box. Unfortunately the blade isn't exactly of the greatest quality, so it takes a great deal more time than you would have hoped, but eventually you manage to sever the twine and remove it from the box. 

Unfortunately you managed to break off the blade in the process, making it completely useless now. Although considering how flimsy the blade turned out to be, its usefulness was clearly in doubt from the beginning. 

>i
You are carrying:
  a Broken Mexican army knife
  a design doc
  a bottle of whiskey
  a keychain

>use keys on box
Preparing yourself for the worst, you take the sharper of your two keys and get to work raking it across the thick packing tape that covers the cardboard box. You're doing your best to keep the contents safe, which makes this slow work, but it pays off. You soon find yourself tearing off large chunks of packing tape, eventually revealing the ad mockups inside, which are thankfully intact. 

Maria runs over to you, clearly overjoyed. "Thank you! I can't believe it was so hard to get those out of there! When you get a chance, come over and ask me about these ads. I want to pick your brain."

>ask maria about ads
Maria says, "Okay, here's the first ad. Remember, these are just mockups." She holds up an image depicting a giant leather boot (with a knife in it, of course) pushing a scrawny faced man into mud. The image only shows the boot and his unfortunate victim, but you can also see an AK-47 barrel coming in from the right hand side. The text underneath reads, "Get ready to be the king's bitch -- REGICIDE. Now available."

"So," Maria says, "What do you think?"

You grimace slightly, which pretty much says it all.

"Right. No to the bitch." She puts down the board and scribbles a few notes on a piece of paper.

>ask maria about ads
Maria says, "Ready for more? Let's see what else we've got here." She holds up an advertisement showing a burly soldier in a dirty white shirt and combat fatigues. He's facing away from you, but is turning slightly in your direction, and you can make out a definite sneer on his face. In each hand is a large rifle, and he has various other weapons strapped across his body. The text underneath reads, "The king is dead. Long live the king. Regicide. Let the bloodbath begin."

"So," Maria says, "Is this one any better?"

You give her a thumbs up. 

"Excellent!" She says. "I'll let the ad agency know." And she writes down a few more notes.

>ask maria about ads
Maria says, "Okay, last one. Let's hope it's a good one." She holds up an advertisement showing a muddy boot standing on top of what looks to be a trashed cardboard crown from a fast food restaurant. You can make out a combat knife strapped to this person's leg. Underneath it reads, "The king is dead. Long live the king. Regicide. Now available everywhere."

Maria looks at you and says, "So? Is this any good?"

You give a mild thumbs up. 

"Okay, so you like it, but it needs work. That's okay."

She gathers up the advertisements and puts them into a box. "That's the last of them...hey, I really appreciate your help on this. It's always good to have input from someone on the production side. I gotta get these off to the printer now...thanks again!"

And before you can say so much as "You're welcome," she's run out the door.

>s

Product Development Department - Your Desk

On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

>ne

Public Relations Department - John's Desk
The PR department is usually a dead zone, as the various PR managers have a tendency to be off on press tours or wining and dining journalists. Today things are slightly livelier, as John, the PR director is actually in the office.

The corridor continues on to the north towards the demo room and the PD department is behind you to the southwest.

Seeing you enter, John strides over to you and pulls you towards his desk, which is completely covered in magazines and press clippings. 

"Hey, good to see you," he says. "I'm sure you're overloaded with stuff today, but I need a favor."

>talk to john
John says, "Here's the deal. We've got a journalist in the office today from GameSpleen.com. He's coming in at 4:00 today and will be here until about 10:00. Do you think you can go shmooze him a bit?" 

Without waiting for a reply, John says, "Awesome. I totally owe you one."

>sw

Product Development Department - Your Desk
You're standing in the product development department at AXL Games. All around you are fellow producers going about their daily tasks, which for most of them currently involve either talking (or yelling, for that matter) on the phone or playing their respective games. 

The corridor continues on towards the finance department to the northwest, while marketing is directly to the north and the PR department is off to the northeast. Behind you to the southwest is the corridor back to the lobby. 

Your cubicle is here, containing your desk, a PC, phone and other miscellaneous stuff.
 
On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

>play game

You play Regicide for 30 minutes and discover an obscure but critical bug. You send that over to the QA department to verify. It's a good thing you caught that one.

>sw

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>nw

Kitchen



>drink coffee
You grab and gulp down another cup of hot, steaming coffee.

>d

QA Pit
The QA pit isn't literally a pit, but it is a dark subterranean room filled with rows of computers and their accompanying testers. It's here that games are put through their paces day and night, testing (and frequently breaking) every game published by AXL. 

Behind you, the steps lead back up to the kitchen, while on the other side of the room, stairs lead down to the sub-basement.


Steve chuckles to himself about some private joke.

>ask steve about qa
Steve says, "Well, we're all done with the B bugs, so it's just C level and polish from here on out. I'll get the boys cracking on those now."

>u

Kitchen



>se

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>ne

Product Development Department - Your Desk
You're standing in the product development department at AXL Games. All around you are fellow producers going about their daily tasks, which for most of them currently involve either talking (or yelling, for that matter) on the phone or playing their respective games. 

The corridor continues on towards the finance department to the northwest, while marketing is directly to the north and the PR department is off to the northeast. Behind you to the southwest is the corridor back to the lobby. 

Your cubicle is here, containing your desk, a PC, phone and other miscellaneous stuff.
 
On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

>ne

Public Relations Department - John's Desk
The PR department is usually a dead zone, as the various PR managers have a tendency to be off on press tours or wining and dining journalists. Today things are slightly livelier, as John, the PR director is actually in the office.

The corridor continues on to the north towards the demo room and the PD department is behind you to the southwest.


John sighs audibly.


>wait
Time passes.

John sighs audibly.

>wait
Time passes.

John picks up his cell phone (which was apparently ringing, although you couldn't hear anything), opens it, says "Not now!" and closes it again.

>wait
Time passes.

John sighs audibly.

>wait
Time passes.

John picks up his cell phone (which was apparently ringing, although you couldn't hear anything), opens it, says "Not now!" and closes it again.

>wait
Time passes.

John picks up his cell phone (which was apparently ringing, although you couldn't hear anything), opens it, says "Not now!" and closes it again.

>wait
Time passes.

John types something at his PC. He seems a little busy.

>n

Demo Room
The heart and soul of any video game company (or at the very least, where disputes are settled over games of NHL or Street Fighter), the demo room at any video game company is the Shangri La of dorm room students worldwide. The AXL demo room is no different. A small room constantly kept at a temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit (so as to prevent the PC or consoles from overheating, naturally), the walls are covered with framed magazine covers of past AXL successes. 

But of course when you walk in, your eyes immediately gravitate towards the simply stunning 60" plasma screen television mounted on the wall. Piano black and bright as noon on a snowy mountaintop, there isn't a game in existence you wouldn't like to try out on it. Directly across from the screen (at the precise, optimal distance for viewing, of course) is a black leather couch, so comfortable you could swear it was stuffed with angel wings. 

In addition to magazine covers, the walls are decorated with seven flat-panel speakers. A subwoofer is positioned directly behind the couch. That may deviate from the standard home theater setup, but it's ideal for your purposes -- when an explosion goes off, you feel it right where it counts. 

Underneath the television (should your eyes drift down when looking in that direction, which is extremely difficult) is a rack containing the various A/V equipment, video game consoles and a ridiculously high-end PC. Positioned off to the right hand side, not at the ideal place, but as good as can be expected, is a small desk with a reasonably comfortable desk chair. On the desk is a mouse and keyboard.

Seated at the desk, hands on mouse and keyboard is a tall, thin and pale gentleman. He's staring up at the screen, playing Regicide and you can see the image reflected across his body. The effect is a little disconcerting.

The journalist gives you a look of disbelief, shrugs and writes something down on his notebook.

>talk to journalist

Finally willing to acknowledge your presence in the demo room, the journalist looks over at you. "You work here, I take it?" Without waiting for a response, he says, "I gotta say...I'm not terribly impressed by what I'm seeing here today."

>talk to hack

The journalist sighs and turns away from the monitor. "Well, I guess you're probably going to want to know why I feel that way. Fine, fine. Let's talk."

>talk to tool
The journalist stands up and clears his throat as if getting ready to orate to an important audience. You look around for a moment and wonder if perhaps the glorious Roman senate had shown up behind you without your knowledge, but no, it's really just you and this nutjob in here. 

"As I'm sure you can imagine, I play a great deal of FPS games. I make it my business -"  he emphasizes the word, as if to prove his own importance, "- to play as many games as possible. Particularly in this genre." He turns his back to you and begins speaking to the wall for no apparent reason. Perhaps he thinks it will make him seem more dramatic, but it only serves to convince you that he is indeed quite a loon. Or to use a more apt description, let's just say his QA database has quite a few A-level bugs left in it. 

"Now, because I play so many of these games, I have become uniquely attuned to the quirks of the genre. Things like noticeable lag in multiplayer, muddy textures, weak voice acting, underpowered weapons and a level editor so limiting I couldn't recreate Pong with it."

Somehow you manage to keep your composure during his relentless string of insults to a game that you have slaved over for the last eighteen months. You're just glad it's you hearing this, and not the hardworking people at Spaz Graphics who have been working weekends and overtime non-stop just to get this game finished in time for this jerk to come in here and lecture you on why it sucks so terribly. You open your mouth to say something but nothing comes out. Instead the journalist turns back around, yawns a little, and continues.

"But it's not all bad, of course. Even the worst FPS appeals to me on some level, and I pride myself on being able to find the good parts, no matter how buried under loads of suck they may be. No, I was quite taken with the quality of the interface. It's clean and well thought out. It's too bad the pathetic weapons weren't worked on with the same care." He sits back down and crosses his legs. He picks up his notebook and flips through some pages. "No, as much as I'd like to give this game a higher score, I'm afraid it's going to get around a 6.5. I'm sorry I have to be so harsh...I came in here expecting to play something of a certain quality, and instead I was given this giant ball of disappointment."

The journalist shifts in his seat and clears his throat. Clearly all that talking has weakened him a little.

>give whiskey to jerk
The journalist gets a smile on his face as he accepts the bottle and unscrews the cap. "Thanks! After playing that swill, I could really use a drink. And you've got the good stuff here, too! I must say, I'm impressed. Would you join me for a drink?" 

He takes a hearty swig and hands the bottle back to you.

>drink whiskey
You've never been much of a drinker, and you're certainly no drinker of hard liquor, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the greater good. You close your eyes and tip the bottle back. 

It's strong, that's for damn sure. It burns a little as it goes down your throat, and a warm sensation moves its way down your body.

Seeing your grimace, the journalist says, "Goes down smooth, doesn't it?"

The journalist gestures towards you and says, "Come on, don't bogart that bottle. Give it back here."

>give whiskey to a-hole

The journalist takes the bottle from your hand and tips it back, taking a sizeable gulp of the booze. As he hands the bottle back to you, he shakes his head from side to side and says, "Yow! That'll wake you up in the morning."

The journalist looks over to you and says, "C'mon dude, give that back here."

>give whiskey to dumbass
Clearly a bit tipsy, the journalist snaps the bottle out of your hands and says, "You know, for a hired gun, you're not so bad. I mean, you're sitting here drinking with me, right?" 

Not quite sure of how to respond to that, you nod silently. 

"It's too bad your game's such a pile of crap. Hey, gimme that bottle again, would you?" 

You gesture to his hand, pointing out that he's already holding the bottle.

"Oh right, right. You gave it back. You had some, right? This is great, I mean, great -" He pauses for a minute and takes a huge swig. "- stuff. Oh yeah. I'll just hang on to this, if it's okay with you." 

You nod in approval. 

"Cool, cool. Hey, watch my stuff, 'kay? I gotta go...for a sec." He stands up, and sways back and forth a bit. He stumbles a little. "Wait, what was I saying?" He trips a little, but regains his balance...slightly. "Oh right, your game. I mean, it's not all bad, right? I mean -" he takes another pull off the bottle. "- that interface was freaking great, and you know, that's what it's all about, isn't it?" He drops to the floor, landing on his knees. "Oh man, I'm so wasted. What was I saying? Oh yeah, the interface. Work on that. It sucked. The whole thing was great, 'cept for that damn interf...interf...you know what I mean, right? Otherwise it was totally awesome, wasn't it?" 

You nod enthusiastically. 

He crawls over to you and puts his arm around your shoulder. You and me, we're gonna be famous, man. I mean really famous. Once people find out what I've got going on, man. That notebook - " He gestures toward his notebook. "Has all we need, man. We're totally gonna be rich, too. Rich as...as..." He trails off into incoherence. 

You let him slide off your shoulder and hit the floor where he instantly falls into a drunken slumber. His notebook lands right next to him on the floor.

>take notebook
With the journalist safely asleep, you quietly inch over to the desk and make a grab for his notebook. Without this he'll have no idea what he really thought of the game when he wakes up.

>read notebook
You flip open the journalist's notebook and turn to a random page.

This page has a list of television shows that were unjustly canceled. You're with him on Futurama, Babylon 5, Farscape and to a lesser extent Firefly, but then he just goes off the deep end, listing such gems as Birds of Prey, Buck Rogers and Space: 1999. There's also something called The Zeta Project on the list but he probably made that up.

You close the notebook in disgust.

>read notebook
You flip open the journalist's notebook and turn to a random page.

This page has what appears to be a mathematical formula for calculating who would win in a fight between The Incredible Hulk, Superman and Sephiroth. Guess who wins.

You close the notebook in disgust.

>read notebook
You flip open the journalist's notebook and turn to a random page.

This page seems to be an outline for a Final Fantasy VII fan fiction story in which Aeris and Tifa have a "cage match" for the honor of marrying Cloud. 

You close the notebook in disgust.

>read notebook
You flip open the journalist's notebook and turn to a random page.

This page has no title, but appears to be some sort of letter to Bungie. Not a person at Bungie, but actually the Master Chief, as if he were the head of the company. An excerpt, "...and why do you have to keep making more Halo games? Wasn't the first one totally perfect? And let's not forget about Marathon! Please, Master Chief...the world needs another Myth. Now, more than ever before."

You close the notebook in disgust.

>read notebook
You flip open the journalist's notebook and turn to a random page.

This page has a list of television shows that were unjustly canceled. You're with him on Futurama, Babylon 5, Farscape and to a lesser extent Firefly, but then he just goes off the deep end, listing such gems as Birds of Prey, Buck Rogers and Space: 1999. There's also something called The Zeta Project on the list but he probably made that up.

You close the notebook in disgust.

>read notebook
You flip open the journalist's notebook and turn to a random page.

This page has a list of television shows that were unjustly canceled. You're with him on Futurama, Babylon 5, Farscape and to a lesser extent Firefly, but then he just goes off the deep end, listing such gems as Birds of Prey, Buck Rogers and Space: 1999. There's also something called The Zeta Project on the list but he probably made that up.

You close the notebook in disgust.

>read notebook
You flip open the journalist's notebook and turn to a random page.

This page has no title, but appears to be some sort of letter to Bungie. Not a person at Bungie, but actually the Master Chief, as if he were the head of the company. An excerpt, "...and why do you have to keep making more Halo games? Wasn't the first one totally perfect? And let's not forget about Marathon! Please, Master Chief...the world needs another Myth. Now, more than ever before."

You close the notebook in disgust.

>read notebook
You flip open the journalist's notebook and turn to a random page.

This page seems to be an outline for a Final Fantasy VII fan fiction story in which Aeris and Tifa have a "cage match" for the honor of marrying Cloud. 

You close the notebook in disgust.

>s

Public Relations Department - John's Desk
The PR department is usually a dead zone, as the various PR managers have a tendency to be off on press tours or wining and dining journalists. Today things are slightly livelier, as John, the PR director is actually in the office.

The corridor continues on to the north towards the demo room and the PD department is behind you to the southwest.

John runs up to you. "So, are we all cool? Did you show him how awesome the game is?" John sniffs a little, then says, "Woah, what's that on your breath? Oh, wait...I get it." 

He pokes his head in the demo room and then walks back over to you. "Tell me you at least got his notebook." 

You nod. 

John slaps you on the back. "You're one of a kind, I'll tell you that much." He looks at the notebook in your hand. "Oh man, you can keep that thing. Consider it a war trophy. And thanks. I really owe you one for this."


>sw

Product Development Department - Your Desk
You're standing in the product development department at AXL Games. All around you are fellow producers going about their daily tasks, which for most of them currently involve either talking (or yelling, for that matter) on the phone or playing their respective games. 

The corridor continues on towards the finance department to the northwest, while marketing is directly to the north and the PR department is off to the northeast. Behind you to the southwest is the corridor back to the lobby. 

Your cubicle is here, containing your desk, a PC, phone and other miscellaneous stuff.
 
On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

>play game

You play Regicide for 30 minutes and make note of a couple of gameplay tweaks that would make the game more fun.

>sw

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>nw

Kitchen



>drink coffee
You grab and gulp down another cup of hot, steaming coffee.

>d

QA Pit
The QA pit isn't literally a pit, but it is a dark subterranean room filled with rows of computers and their accompanying testers. It's here that games are put through their paces day and night, testing (and frequently breaking) every game published by AXL. 

Behind you, the steps lead back up to the kitchen, while on the other side of the room, stairs lead down to the sub-basement.


Steve shifts back and forth and looks at the ground.

>ask steve about qa
Steve says, "We're still working on polish and those few lingering bugs. Check back with me in a bit and I'll give you an update."

>u

Kitchen



>se

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>ne

Product Development Department - Your Desk
You're standing in the product development department at AXL Games. All around you are fellow producers going about their daily tasks, which for most of them currently involve either talking (or yelling, for that matter) on the phone or playing their respective games. 

The corridor continues on towards the finance department to the northwest, while marketing is directly to the north and the PR department is off to the northeast. Behind you to the southwest is the corridor back to the lobby. 

Your cubicle is here, containing your desk, a PC, phone and other miscellaneous stuff.
 
On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

>play game
You just played Regicide. You should wait a little while before playing again so you can get a fresh perspective.

>wait
Time passes.

>wait
Time passes.

>play game

While you're pretty sure the gameplay in Regicide is as polished as it's going to get, you play it for another 30 minutes regardless. And much to your surprise, you find a minor way to tweak the game and send it to the developers.

You now have less than 6 hours remaining.

>sw

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>nw

Kitchen



>d

QA Pit
The QA pit isn't literally a pit, but it is a dark subterranean room filled with rows of computers and their accompanying testers. It's here that games are put through their paces day and night, testing (and frequently breaking) every game published by AXL. 

Behind you, the steps lead back up to the kitchen, while on the other side of the room, stairs lead down to the sub-basement.


Steve coughs a little and makes a survey of his many testers.

>ask steve about qa
Steve says, "We're still working on polish and those few lingering bugs. Check back with me in a bit and I'll give you an update."

>wait
Time passes.

Steve scratches himself in a way that you'd rather not repeat.

>ask steve about qa
Steve says, "I think we're just about done here...we've filed everything we could find, and the devs fixed 'em all in record time. I feel good about this game, I really do." He turns to his testers and says, "Good work, guys!"

From the depths of the QA pit some mild grunts of acknowledgement are heard in response.

>u

Kitchen



>se

Lobby

Sally smiles politely as you walk in.

>ne

Product Development Department - Your Desk
You're standing in the product development department at AXL Games. All around you are fellow producers going about their daily tasks, which for most of them currently involve either talking (or yelling, for that matter) on the phone or playing their respective games. 

The corridor continues on towards the finance department to the northwest, while marketing is directly to the north and the PR department is off to the northeast. Behind you to the southwest is the corridor back to the lobby. 

Your cubicle is here, containing your desk, a PC, phone and other miscellaneous stuff.
 
On your desk sits a magical gold disc, twinkling and reflecting the light around it.

>take disc
Taken.

>put disc in pc
Using this disc will cause Regicide to go gold, ending your day (and this game along with it). Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?

>yes
Confident that you've done all you can for this game, you pop the magical golden disc into your PC and burn a master disc. You hand it off to manufacturing, positive that any remaining issues can be fixed with a good old fashioned patch.

The Big Man's Office
Four weeks later, you're called into The Big Man's office to reflect on the project. You're a little nervous, but there's nothing you can do about it now, so you stroll on in and take a seat.

"Thanks for coming in," The Big Man says. "I trust you had a good vacation?" Without waiting for you to reply, he continues. "Let's go over Regicide shall we?"

He ruffles through some of the many papers on his desk, eventually picking one up. "Well the game certainly was polished, wasn't it? Good job on that one."

He puts down one piece of paper and picks up two more. "Let's see...how'd we fare on the marketing side? Ah, excellent. We had a solid marketing campaign from start to finish. Nicely done. We did a great job with PR out of the gate. That first review was really stellar, creating some good buzz around its first week of release. We certainly hit the ball out of the park with the print ads. I know Maria appreciated all the support you were able to give her on that."

He puts down the papers and leans back in his chair. He casually types a few keys on his keyboard. "Our GameRankings average review score was 94.1%! That's excellent. I couldn't have asked for better reviews. Well, that's not true. I always want perfect tens across the board, but I've learned to accept that simply isn't a realistic expectation."

The Big Man shuffles through some more papers on his desk, causing a couple of them to tumble slowly to the floor. After an eternity, he picks up two of them and reads over them carefully. "Ah, here we go. Based on current sales, retailer inventory and projected reorders, we're expecting to sell well in excess of -" He gets a wry grin on his face, enjoying leaving you hanging on his every word. "- two million copies. That's phenomenal!"

The Big Man stands up and walks around to the other side of his desk. He stands there for a second, but then leans himself against the desk, supporting his weight with one arm. "I suppose I should get to what you really want to know...whether or not we're making a sequel." He clears his throat and continues, "Obviously with sales this good, it wasn't a very difficult decision. You can let the developers at Spaz Graphics know that Regicide 2 is officially on. Let's make the sequel even better than the original."

The Big Man smiles and stands upright again. "I've taken up enough of your time. You have other projects in the pipeline to get to, don't you?"

You stand up, and he walks you towards the door and pats you on the back. "I'll check in with you in a couple of weeks to see how everything's coming along. Good work on this one. I'm proud of you, and I'm proud of this company. Keep up the good work." And with that he ushers you out the door.

As you walk back to your desk, you think about the game and the decisions you made throughout its development, and most importantly, your choices on that final day. As you think back on it, you're struck with a thought that pops into your head from time to time.

"They actually pay me to do this?"

You smile and walk back to your desk. Your next project waits.

    *** Game Over ***



Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, UNDO your last move or QUIT?
> quit
