that the process might be painful.
“Just remember it’s a very different medium,” Andy had said. “There’s got to be some give and take.”
Owen tries to keep this spirit of exchange in mind as he follows Josh and Ryan down a hallway into a galley kitchen. A girl with electric blue hair offers him a soy meal-replacement drink from a fridge that appears to be exclusively stocked with identical glass bottles filled with chalky-looking liquid.
“No thanks,” says Owen. She shrugs and takes one for herself.
He follows the young men into a brightly decorated and aggressively casual meeting room, where they settle around a table. Owen chooses an orange leather armchair that seems less saggy than the others, but finds himself sinking down further than expected. The blue-haired young woman is with them, though Owen has somehow missed both seeing her come in and getting her name.
“So, as you know, we’ve been in preproduction for a while now,” says Josh of the curly hair. “We’ve got our own ideas we’re excited to show you and some concept art, but right now the question we’re wrestling with is how the player actually wins.”
“Wins? By staying alive, I guess,” says Owen. When nobody responds, he adds, “As in, not dying?”
Ryan shakes his head. “Not specific enough.”
“Everybody dies,” says the blue-haired girl. “Eventually.”
“I think it could be enough,” says Josh, considering. “But we need to complicate it.”
“You’re basing this on the novel, right?” Owen asks. “The plot is already laid out there.”
“Sure,” says Josh. “But we can’t just follow the book beat by beat. It has to be interactive.”
“It’s about agency,” says Ryan. He spreads his hands out on the table and Owen can see he is wearing a series of dark metal rings shaped like dragons. “People want the illusion of control. They want to feel like their choices are meaningful, even if they’re not.”
“So, like life, then,” says Owen.
“Exactly,” says Ryan, as though Owen has not made a little joke, or possibly the joke is so little that no one deems it worth acknowledging.
“In real life, the best way to survive a plague is to be alone,” Owen offers. “Just go off somewhere away from other people.”
“But that doesn’t make for a very interesting game,” says Ryan.
“Well, that’s what David does,” says Owen. “In the book.”
“That’s not all he does,” says the girl, tapping a pen on her notepad.
Josh stands up and moves over to a wall-mounted whiteboard. “Okay, so part of the goal is to be the last man standing.” With a dry-erase marker, he writes LAST MAN STANDING. “And maybe something else. Maybe something harder?”
The girl tries again. “Well, the kids are the ones getting sick. That’s the heart of the book, isn’t it? The player character should have to save as many kids as possible. That’s the challenge.”
Josh points the uncapped marker at Owen. “Tell us more about the player character. The main character, I mean. David.”
“He’s a science teacher,” says Owen. “A microbiologist by training. He’s overqualified for his job, but a lifelong learner. And he has an interest in pandemics, kind of as a hobby, so he’s able to guess what’s happening a little sooner than everyone else.”
“So he puts it together himself,” says Josh.
“Not all by himself. But he has the opportunity of seeing things unfold up close. And, like I said, he takes an interest. He tracks the warnings coming out of the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control.” Owen takes out his phone. “They post health advisories and alerts of new infection clusters worldwide.” He pulls up the CDC page and starts reading out the titles of some of the bulletins. “Salmonella Outbreak in Utah; Pneumonic Plague in Madagascar; Mystery Virus Being Investigated in New York City.”
“New York? Look out,” says Ryan. “It’s starting.”
Josh laughs.
“Huh,” says Owen. The conversation continues around him while Owen clicks on the advisory, posted just that morning.
August 10, 2020: Twenty-eight reported cases including four deaths attributed to a suspected coronavirus in Manhattan. Unidentified respiratory virus with possible airborne infection. Foodborne pathogen ruled out. All surviving patients hospitalized, with one-third in critical condition.
“You still with us, Owen?”
“Yes,” says Owen, putting down his phone.
“I think…” begins the girl, clearing her throat.
“So I’m thinking we should have an ongoing tally,” says Josh, “of how many kids he saves. That’ll be part of it.”
“Right, great,” says Owen. “That makes sense.”
The girl with blue hair gets up with a glare of loathing and leaves the room. Josh and Ryan exchange a