Our game will soon be ready for release. We’ve reached a point where it would no longer make sense to stop. It simply has to be finished now. We held a meeting where it was agreed what else will be added to the game, and after that, it will be published. There will be no more negotiations about what else should be added or fixed. We know what the game will look like on the release day—June 20. Everyone has their tasks, and the agreement is that no one can be late. That probably means that by July, we should have the game finished, because this time everyone was serious, so we can multiply the estimated time by “only” two. As for the June deadline…
Max and Ian have given up on adding new elements to the game. I thought it would be impossible, and that we would be stuck in an endless loop.
Now that the release is becoming a reality, we’re talking more and more about finding investors or a publisher.
I was doing my part when Elena appeared online.
David: Elena…
Elena: What are you doing? And are you already late with the tasks? And why you are already late?
David: I’m working… I’m in the code. I’m just looking at your import statements sorted by length. What are you doing?
Elena: Well, I finished my part for the game today, and now I’m researching game publishers. Later, I’ll study.
David: What’s up with the publishers?
Elena: I’m reading about the ones you sent me yesterday. They take 60% of the game’s revenue, but they promise to invest a lot in promotion and say they have the resources and connections to make the game visible. With them, we wouldn’t have to invest our own money, but they take a large share.
David: They also have the best reputation on the internet. Good user ratings and so on. I’m not sure if that tells us anything.
Elena: That tells us they’ve invested a lot in their online reputation. And that’s with our money. Their documentation explaining how it works is huge. It’s as long as your error log files. And there’s even small print in there. I have to read all of it.
David: If we agree with them, we won’t have to spend the money from prominent families… and hang out with Petar.
Elena: Yeah, that would be nice to avoid.
David: You’ve been avoiding him before, I don’t know why.
Elena: The first thing that bothers me is his humor. It’s somehow deprecated. You’re okay with it. It does not bother you?
David: No, I just want to hear you say it.
Elena: You’re an old rascal.
David: Yeah. So, what are we doing with Max now? If we make a million, we’ll only have 400,000 left.
Elena: Yeah, a bare survival. I have to go, I need to get a lot done now. I can’t waste time listening to your flattering compliments (which there haven’t been much of lately since you’re hanging out with your new friend) and saying goodbye for half an hour. Go work.
David: I’m doing all this to strengthen our friendship, and look, I’m already succeeding. Don’t think there’s another reason behind it, and don’t think I enjoy it at all.
Elena: I believe you! Now, go work.
David: I don’t even dream about you anymore. I dreamed about Max again. Like, he, Ian, and I are building a house. Ian is doing some work, and Max and I are on the mixer. And Max is never satisfied with the concrete we’re making, of course. He can’t find the right cement-to-sand ratio. He mentions the golden ratio. After that, I dreamed that there’s a line on the boulevards in the city dedicated to pizza delivery, and no other vehicle is allowed to drive there. There’s a pictogram of a half-open pizza box on the asphalt. Max and I are driving, and he tells me there are too many details in the pictogram, and it’s not clean & neat.
Elena: What is that guy doing to us?
Lately, every day feels the same. I wake up late, work as much as I can, see Boyana in the evening, and then head home late, grabbing a sandwich at the Liman Grill 13 before bed (Elena says only idiots eat there that late). When I have to, I go to the university. The lectures will last for only a few more days, and I would like to spend more time there with those people, but I simply don’t have the time. I’ll have to go there soon to get some signatures.
I recently went to the theater with Boyana. The students were performing a play in a small theater. We sat next to a guy who was dressed like he was from another time, although he was young. When the play began, the actor called out “next!” The guy next to us went on stage. He was an actor, that’s why he was dressed like that. Good choice of seating.
Boyana was thrilled with the whole evening. The small theater was “a good choice on my part,” as Milica would put it. I didn’t even know it existed until recently. Neither did Elena. Max picked us all up and took us to see the play Plastelin. We were all impressed. If that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have gone out with Boyana there. I would have missed some magic. I forgive Max for all the troubles with the game.
I have to stop thinking about it now, focus, and do something, but I’m still in the small theater. I can’t work because the actors are making noise. Especially the one trying to prove he’s not an idiot. And he is jumping too. The guy’s been dancing and jumping for so long and yelling at the same time. Do the actors have training like football players?
I also remembered the previous play we saw there, Vernisage. I decided to remind Elena about it, even though she says she’s working.
David: Elena, Vernisage just came to my mind, what a play
Elena: You’re definitely taking your friend there now, that’s why you remembered.
I don’t know how she manages to think like this.
