Like a guardian angel, Nick sent miracle news a day before my game launch. Newsletter subscriptions for the game nearly doubled overnight, thanks to this buzz outside of the gaming news world.
Joe our PR guy called me that morning, too, on my way into work. “We’ve gotten so many urgent merchandising inquiries from toy and apparel companies, and new wellness, skincare, and fitness product placement requests. Hurry up and get to the office!”
That afternoon, women’s interest magazines reached out to ask for copies of the game, company press releases, and high-resolution game images so they could publish online game reviews around the holidays. I’d just finished putting together press kit mailers to send out to editors, but this influx of requests made marketing so easy because these publications and websites sought me out, and not the other way around.
In our last afternoon team meeting before the big day, all of us looked like the apocalyptic zombies we’d designed in the game, but we were in good spirits. Ultimate Apocalypse would be in the hands of people outside of the Seventeen Studios walls!
In an unexpected company announcement, Ian revealed that Asher’s Girls of War game would have a soft launch on the same day of Ultimate Apocalypse’s release. “Our goal is to maximize our PR opportunity for Seventeen Studios by launching two of our amazing games on the same day. This is rarely seen in the game industry, and we expect exponential press coverage because of this two-for-one surprise release.”
I passed Asher’s office on my way to mail a few press kits. His shaggy hair, full beard, and untucked lumberjack shirt that pulled too tight on the buttons made me feel a little better about my own unkempt appearance.
“Hey,” I said, shifting the leaning tower of padded envelopes in my arms. “How’re you doing?”
He looked up and a smile spread across his face. “Oh good, I thought you were the finance guy, hounding me for budget numbers. Isn’t he annoying?”
“I wouldn’t know, I had no game budget,” I said drily.
“Oh, right, I’m an asshole. I forgot . . . sorry.”
“Just stopping by to say hi, wish you luck on your game launch, and to thank you for talking to HR about Ian.”
“I have my own apology for you, too.” He dipped his head down, so low that his overgrown beard merged with his chest hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t think you could produce a video game. More proof that I’m an asshole.” An apologetic asshole was way better than just a plain ol’ regular asshole.
“Ash-hole apology accepted.” I put the envelopes down and extended my hand.
He reached out to shake it and then hesitated. “Before we call a truce, are you sure you don’t wanna talk smack tomorrow when our games launch? We’ll get real-time download numbers so we can see which game, you know, wins.”
I lowered my hand. “Fine then. Tomorrow we’ll see whether my male stripper and female warrior game can outdo your big-boobed war-ravaged women one.”
His eyes sparkled as he laughed. “Deal!”
“I need to get to the mailroom before the last pickup. See ya.” I padded out of his office.
While tasked with putting postage labels on my mail, I thought through the launch-day download scenarios. If Girls of War came out on top, which everyone expected, I’d be okay with that. Our studio considered GoW to be one of their biggest flagship games. What I didn’t want was for the GoW beta release to blow my game out of the water, though. Time had run out for any last-minute maneuvering, so we’d just need to wait and see.
And pray.
And possibly vomit.
NOLAN STOPPED BY my office while I was checking download links to make sure there were no typos in our Ultimate Apocalypse game description.
“Hey, stranger, got a second?”
I smiled and waved him in. Nolan was back! “For you, yes.”
“Guess what?”
“I’m terrible at these guessing games.”
“Try anyway.”
“You’re an alien life-form who wants to take me to your native planet so I can rule as queen.”
“Okay, never mind, you do suck at this. I got a job offer! A few actually. One from your friend Jane’s company, and another at Epicenter Games!”
My stomach sank like an anchor. Epicenter was in the Bay Area. And of course, the other position was in NYC.
“I was so inspired by our conversations. And you were right. I needed to stand up for what I wanted in life. Fight for it, even when it’s hard, just like you do. So I ‘Sheryl Sandberged the shit out of this,’ as you say.” He chuckled. “I passed on the New York job because I wanted to stay in gaming. I’m taking the Epicenter job.”
“Oh. Then you’d need to move soon, right?” An uneasiness in my gut made me grimace. He would leave, and that would be the end of us. Not that there was an us.
But did I still want there to be?
A rolling sense of sadness hit me, leaving me unsteady enough to grab the armrests of my chair. For months, Nolan had been there for me when I needed him the most. He didn’t care that I was career minded, so much so that my workaholic tendencies during a ship cycle meant eating microwaved Stouffer’s for nearly every meal. Most important, he liked me for who I was, flaws and all. Damn it, here was a guy I couldn’t live without, someone whose like-to-hate ratio was through the roof, and he was moving away.
He sat down on the corner of my desk and his whole face spread into a warm smile. “The headquarters is in Northern California, but I’ll be in an office for their mobile games just down the street in Lake Union. This is my last official week at Seventeen as an intern.” Nolan leaned toward me and whispered, “You know what that means, right? For us? Or do you not want to play guessing games anymore?” His gaze met mine and my heart melted, then burst into streamers and confetti.
Oh my god, yes. Oh my god. Oh my god.
I breathed in and out, steadily and calmly. Must not freak out. Must NOT FREAK OUT. My stomach turned happy flips as he stood up and slowly drew a card from his pocket.
“It means . . . we go celebrate!” He handed me a punch card. “I got my tenth punch at Cold Stone Creamery today! This entitles you to one free medium scoop with one topping. I thought maybe we could go tomorrow to celebrate my new job and your game launch.”
Nolan MacKenzie had my whole heart. All I wanted was for him to feel the same way about me.
“Th-thanks.” I put on the fakest of smiles as Nolan drop-kicked my shattered heart. I’d never been so sad to get free ice cream in my life.
LAUNCH DAY TURNED out to be weirder than I expected.
People ran through the halls yelling out download numbers. Someone right outside my office screamed, “Shit! GoW just hit fifty thousand downloads the first hour!” Our studio had never seen numbers that high on a launch day.
In comparison, I’d gotten maybe twenty thousand downloads, but since my game included expertly integrated product placements and merchandise sale opportunities, my game would hit profitability first. The limited edition Ultimate Apocalypse tees sold out within an hour.
Online reviews poured in for both games. GoW got accolades from both critics and players, and by noon his game had a four-out-of-five-star ranking on most of the popular gaming sites. UA hovered around three stars overall, with a wide range of ratings from one-star gaming haters (“game is stupid and shallow, like the game producer who made it,” “unoriginal and hack, unrealistic,” “guys don’t really look like that”) to my five-star raters (“finally, a fun game for women,” “hubba hubba,” “great story arcs, fun characters, and nice eye candy”).
Kat warned me about trying to defend my game online. “If you respond to the negative reviews, people will go on the attack, saying you’re too sensitive and you’re femi-nasty. Let it go. And let your fans defend your honor. Did you see your good critic reviews in the press?”
Joe emailed a launch-day PR summary to the entire company, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. My game had double the number of critic endorsements as GoW, plus Ultimate Apocalypse had been featured as the lead story in tech blogs and the Seattle Times daily tech section, and UA was trending on social media faster than GoW. BetaGank wrote, “Kudos to Seventeen Studios for its game originality and technical mastery. With Ultimate Apocalypse, they’ve set a new high bar for mobile games. An impressive FPS mobile debut from Seventeen Studios.”
Rain, one of the senior producers who had given me a crash course in production when I first joined the company, popped his head in my office. “Congratulations, Melody! I’m so proud of you!”
“Thank you, you were a great teacher.”
“And you were a great pupil. Did you see the email about the company launch lunch? Or maybe it’s lunch launch? Whatever. There’s free food to celebrate the launches today.”
My stomach muscles clenched tight. “I don’t really feel like going to another company event where women in skimpy cosplay outfits offer me an assortment of gourmet pig-in-a-blanket appetizers.”
Rain smiled. “When we have Zooful Nation launch parties, they’re circus themed and have cotton candy and peanuts and all kinds of shit. I can only imagine your launch lunch will be better than that. Ian usually gives a short speech, too.” He disappeared out of view. My stomach gurgled at his mention of lunch. Maybe I could get free food and then duck out.