You’re the writer of the latest game in a once popular, lucrative game franchise called Shattergate. You’ve never actually played any of the Shattergate games, granted, but somehow you’re writing it anyway. And you’re so screwed.
That’s the premise behind an interactive fiction game called The Writer Will Do Something, which begins at a Monday morning meeting that’s about to get ugly. Your team is six months away from shipping the finished product, and you’ve just heard the first reactions to the game from outside consultants: it’s “unambiguously catastrophic.”
It’s ok, though, because the writer will do something to fix it. Oh wait, you’re the writer. Fuck.
Created by Matthew S. Burns, The Writer Will Do Something peeks behind the curtain of game development at a nightmarish time in what many video game fans would consider a “dream job.” Thanks to the limitations of time, money, bureaucracy and the decisions you’ve has already made, it seems like there’s no way to turn this heavy, lumbering ship around before it crashes on the rocks.
Or can you? Do you tell the truth when the creative director asks you what’s wrong with the game? Or should you try to keep your head down and keep your job? Either way, you’d better hurry—the game’s shipping in six months and you’re so, so screwed.