Last month, I published a small Twine game called You Are Jeff Bezos. In it, you wake up in the body of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and proceed to spend every red cent to his name. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. I mean, there’s also a frame narrative where you flee the police and try to crawl down a sewer. And a hidden ending involving a hedgehog. But basically, that’s the whole thing. Above: You Are Jeff Bezos The game started as a joke, and it probably should’ve remained that way, but people made the mistake of encouraging me. I wrote it in four days. Bezos’ money is measured as liquid currency rather than assets, because I didn’t want to take the time to model anything more complex. I threw together the “cover image” used for its store page in about two minutes, using standard fonts and a Creative Commons logo. It has no business standing alongside all these polished and beautiful games on the itch.io storefront. I might’ve expected like five people to play it. But here we are: 110,000 views, write-ups on Vice and Newsweek, and a humbling number of donations later, I’m forced to admit I may have hit upon something. I’ve heard from educators who showed the game to their students. It’s apparently the “best modern agitprop” someone’s ever seen, and more than one player called it “one of the best horror games ever made.” Friends praised it as socialist praxis. Also someone drew fanart??… [Read full story]
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