On the second day after opening the game to the public, just under a hundred accounts were created, followed by sixty-four the next day, and then thirty-nine more accounts. It seemed like the number of new accounts would decrease each day, which was expected. A bit surprisingly, today we had one hundred and twenty new accounts. Maybe this is a sign of success. Maybe the game started spreading from player to player, with existing players inviting others because they liked the game. Or maybe someone shared the game’s link on a popular forum, attracting new players who wanted to try the game.
Maxim was checking our application, which shows basic game data every fifteen minutes. He looked at the reports the way a mother would look at a thermometer when her child has had a high fever for days. He, like us, was aware that it is difficult to repeat such a project, considering everyone is starting to work. A designer and three programmers working for eight months—it’s not easy to gather and maintain. It wasn’t until the fourth year that we learned enough to embark on something like this, and we didn’t yet have an eight-hour workday to distract us. This was a unique opportunity, one that is hard to replicate. Besides, Elena said there’s no theoretical chance she would work in this team again and go through the rock and roll with Maxim’s constant plan changes. Maxim used a similar expression when he fell off his roller blades and got hurt. He concluded the whole story about stitching, pain, and difficulty in movement with one word—rock and roll. I didn’t understand when that word started being used for agonizing states or intense suffering.
We still didn’t have any partnerships with publishers or game promoters. We researched their websites and searched for information about them on forums. They all seemed like scams or wanted to interfere with decisions about game development.
The current influx of players is the result of minimal guerrilla marketing we could do and the sharing of the game link by our friends, family, and acquaintances. If the game doesn’t quickly catch on among players, the number of new accounts will eventually decrease. We now have over five hundred player accounts in the game.
These days, monitoring the game reports is the main activity and it’s interesting. It occupies my mind and helps me not to think about Boyana’s departure.
In the evening, Yanko organized a night out at the London club. First, we all sat at his place. Mirna, Sanya, Elena, Iovana, Petar, Ian, Maxim, Lazar, Marin, of course Yanko, and I. Yanko loves big parties. When we entered London, we almost filled the club.
Lazar stayed with Mirna the whole time, and someone unknown to us approached Elena. Maxim commented, and only Ian and I could hear him due to the loud music.
“Mirna doesn’t tell Lazar she has a boyfriend because she likes to watch Lazar trying. She tries it with David too and sometimes succeeds. It would normally make David uncomfortable for Lazar to approach a girl with whom he’s had some inexplicable, twisted relationship for four years. Elena had probably argued with Stefan for the tenth time in four years, she’s practically free now, and some guy over there approaches her. That would have made David uncomfortable earlier, like Yugoslav communists when Soviet tanks entered Budapest. However, David doesn’t get the situation at all and is spiritually with his friend Boyana, who has arrhythmia and for that reason, he thinks she loves him.”
The idiot was right about everything except the arrhythmia, I hope.
“Max, you’ve really outdone yourself for a medal.”
Alcohol didn’t sit well with me. I was the first to leave for home.
When I got home, there were messages from Isidor, from the Tiquismiquis team. He was curious about what we used to make the game. I wrote that we used PHP on the server and Flash in the browser. He replied that we should have used ColdFusion and that PHP is pointless, it will soon be obsolete. I don’t engage in such debates, and I think it doesn’t matter what we used as long as it works properly and doesn’t slow things down. I wrote that I agree and that we would use ColdFusion now, if we were starting over. Hopefully, he’ll be able to sleep easier now.
I would like to sleep as soon as possible too, but I had one dilemma that kept me awake for a little longer. I had planned to go home again before October. Last time I traveled by my father’s car, but that’s not an option now. The bus ride takes almost nine hours and it’s not very pleasant, mostly due to the loud music I don’t like. On the other hand, Uncle Dane is coming to Novi Sad soon, and I could return with him. That’s my father’s suggestion, he likes me spending time with respectable neighbours and having them get to know me better. Maxim also planned to go with me to Banja Luka, but that wouldn’t be a problem. Uncle Dane likes meeting new people. Either way, I’ll have to decide soon. The bus music or Uncle Dane’s conversation.
