getinthedamnbox: games, sounds, and other work by Matt B

BUY2BILLIONFOLLOWE

In the spring of 2016, I began working on a game called BUY2BILLIONFOLLOWE. I had intended it to be a brief project, with the goal of capturing a particular mood that had swallowed me up at the time.

As the year became more dire, however, so did my vision for the game. My feelings wandered; the work stretched. I’ve abandoned this project many times, but something always draws me back. I can’t leave that room with the humming wires and the strange machine, no matter how hard I try.

My fiancée was visiting family up north during the first week of November, so I had the apartment to myself. I decided that by the time she returned, BUY2BILLIONFOLLOWE would be a complete experience, no matter how unpolished. Solitude made it easy to induce the mood that had originally inspired the game, so I harnessed that to the best of my ability. I eviscerated broken features, hacked away bugs, and slammed together assets. This is the result.

BUY2BILLIONFOLLOWE is an unhewn game, but I’m proud of it. It’s fitting that I’m publishing it on November 7, the day before this nightmare of a year reaches a climax. I need to move on. Maybe after tomorrow, we’ll all be able to do that.