Day 2—Wednesday:

“It’s almost one,” I said as I set my phone down beside my nearly empty plate of chicken lo mein.

“We should probably head back to the office,” Alice said as she raised her hand for the check.

“I’ll get it,” I said, motioning her to put her hand down.  Our server approached the table holding the bill and two fortune cookies; Alice grabbed hers and cracked it open almost immediately.  I handed the woman my credit card.

She unfolded her fortune as she popped half of the cookie into her mouth.  “’Take a break—enjoy the company of friends.’  That’s hardly a fortune,” she said as she finished the other half of her cookie.

“Fortune?  No.  But, good advice,” I shot her a smile.  She knew she worked too hard, but she was passionate about what she did.  She didn’t love the company, but she loved her job; more than anything, though, she just wanted to succeed.  I didn’t know much about her past or her family, but everything I’ve learned from her indicated that she distanced herself from them to prove that she could make it on her own.

“What does yours say?”

I picked my fortune cookie up from the table and opened it.  “’Strange opportunities are coming your way.  Take the leap!’”

“See, that’s a fortune!”

“Can’t deny that.  I wonder what kind of strange opportunities I have waiting for me.”

“Only time will tell.”

Our waitress returned with my card and receipt; I smiled at her as she handed them to me.  As she walked away, I pushed away from the table, reached for Alice’s hand as I motioned toward the door with the other, and said, “Shall we?”

When we got to the office, I sat down at my desk and connected my phone to my workstation.  The screen lit up and signaled to me that it was connected.  I launched my prototype.  I looked over at the large display to make sure that it was up for everybody to see.  Everything seemed to be running like it was supposed to.  I turned around and saw that everybody was there for the meeting.

Day 4—Friday:

All eyes were on me as everybody waited eagerly to see what I had dreamed up for our successor to Mudd-Runn.  There were only four of us in the company:  Matt, the owner; Alice, the programmer who did sound design work on the side; Terrance, our graphic designer; and me, the other programmer.  We had a bit of success with Mudd-Runn when it was suggested that our company develop mobile games, but customers had grown tired of our first title and we desperately needed something new to keep us afloat and maybe even allow us to turn a profit.

“So, what do you have to show us?” Matt asked with a bored expression on his face and his phone in hand.

“Well,” I explained, “I’m sure you’re all aware that sales for our first game are down drastically from where they used to be when we first launched.  There’s nothing we can really do about that because we’re in a crowded market that gets more and more crowded every day.  We’ve tried to keepMudd-Runn alive for a few months now and while we’ve seen some spikes in downloads here and there, it’s pretty apparent that the game is, for all intents and purposes, dead.

“Instead of trying to breathe life into the corpse of our last project, I think it’s time we move on to something new—something more exciting and innovative.”

The game was running a demo on the screen behind me as I spoke.  I touched the screen of my phone and was brought to the game’s menu.  I started up a new game and moved my character around on the screen.  There wasn’t much in the way of animation, but the new, albeit crude, sprites and environments that Terrance had sent me looked much better than the assets I was reusing from Mudd-Runn.

“What’s the point of the game?” Matt asked.

“To get to the end of the level,” I quipped.  He didn’t appear amused.

“We still have the physics engine from our last game,” I continued, “and it doesn’t make much sense to let that go to waste.  So, I’ve tweaked it a little so it can be used in this prototype.  It’s a physics-based puzzle platformer.  Each level will present players with a unique challenge centering on environmental attributes.  Gravity, destructible environments, water, ice, and so forth.  We’ll slowly ease players into these unique challenges and gradually combine environments in different ways to make the game fresh and interesting all the way through.”

With his eyes on his phone and completely oblivious to my presentation, Matt asked, “What are you thinking for longevity?”

“Well, there’s a lot we can do with the initial release… and this is something that can be easily expanded in the future.  We can introduce new environments with different gravities and surfaces with different frictions and so forth.  Since we’re going to be combining the challenges, we don’t need to have all the possibilities available right at launch.”

“Sounds good to me,” Matt concluded in a disinterested monotone.

“I like it,” Alice chimed excitedly.  Terrance nodded in agreement.

“Okay, then.  I want you all to focus exclusively on this new game,” Matt said decisively.  “Everything we have planned for Mudd-Runn is to be put on indefinite hold.”

It felt good to have such a positive reaction toward my idea.  I still felt like it was nowhere near ready to present for that meeting, but with everybody working on it, production on the game would go much smoother.

Everybody rose from their seats and made their way out of the conference room.  I nodded at them gratefully.

Alice was the last to leave; she stopped in front of me.  “We still on for tonight?”  She asked.

“Absolutely,” I responded.

“Good.  I’m looking forward to it,” she said as she exited the room.

I turned toward the screen and pressed the power button.  The screen went dark.  Blackness.  My eyes tightly clenched shut, the headache began to subside.  I opened my eyes.

Dr. Taggart sat across from me; a genuine concern was painted on his face.  “Are you sure you’re okay, Tom?”

To be continued…

Freefall is the creative property of Andrew T.S. Bedgood and is protected by US Copyright law.  Any use of this creative work without permission is prohibited.