Everything's Fine Game

An interactive fiction game plunges players into the work-life balance of game professionals

Game Design • HTML/CSS • Storytelling • Illustration • Game Theory

The title is a satirical homage to the well-known "everything's fine" meme. Just as the meme's dog remains in denial amidst the chaos, so too do many game industry professionals, who, despite facing overwhelming pressure and challenges, keep up appearances, suggesting all is well. The title also stems from a quote from Schreirer’s Press Reset book, where a commenter on the game industry states, “If this is what happens [crunch and layoffs] when you give your team names like Trauma and Kaos, then I’m calling my game company Everything’s Fine Studios."

Play Game on Itch.io

Info

Role

Game designer

Timeline

1 week

Tools

Twine

Procreate

Game Topic

The game critiques the pervasive "crunch" culture within the video game industry—a sector with a staggering valuation of 177.8 billion dollars and still growing (Dumont & Bonenfant, 2023; Yuan et al., 2011). Despite its vast contributions to creative mediums, the industry is paradoxically infamous for demanding and often inhumane working conditions. These conditions are characterized by exhaustive working hours, relentless schedules, and, as documented in Jason Schreier's Blood, Sweat, and Pixels (Schreier, 2017). I took significant inspiration in the ending event of the game from “The Pizza Party Where Everyone Got Fired," where a whole game design team was gathered to celebrate the release of a game only to find the celebrations transform into moments of mass layoffs (Schreier, 2015). These layoffs are impactful incidents for the workers who had uprooted their families for the position and were hoping for stability (ea_spouse, 2004).

Illustration Process

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