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Fiction Science Fiction

Ibrahim Patella sat at his office desk at the Web Design company he worked for, sending out one last E-Mail on the list of people from corporate he had to send E-Mails to. His co-worker Connie was shoving a picture of herself on her vacation in the Bahamas on her phone into her other coworker's faces, one by one, saying "Hey! Look at this picture of my vacation in the Bahamas!" One by one.

Connie had showed, or forced her picture to the Coworker in the cuticle parallel to Ibrahim, and logic would denote that she would be in his cuticle next. Just as predicted, Connie was shoving her picture of herself on her vacation in the Bahamas on her phone into Ibrahim's face. "Hey! Look at this picture of my vacation in the Bahamas!" Connie said.

"Yes, yes, I see, Connie... looks like fun." Ibrahim said.

Connie then walked away. It was at this point that Ibrahim Patella's boss Mike Ryan walked into his cubicle with a pile of paperwork.

"Ibrahim, I need you to fill out this paperwork for me. Then do some Coding."

So Ibrahim filled out the Paperwork and then did some coding. After the coding was finished, Ibrahim received an email from his boss saying that he needed to send out some E-Mails verifying that the most recent website design project was finished.

Ibrahim Patella hated using his computer skills on someone else's terms, but the pay was above average. Another coworker's conversation over the phone in the next cubicle could be overheard.

"No, sir. 50 dollars is the minimum for that, we can't go any lower. You want to talk to my supervisor? Go ahead, but he'll tell you the same thing as me."

That evening after work, Ibrahim sat at his desktop computer, working on his little pet project as he was waiting on his dinner to cook in the microwave.

"So what Font should I use for the logo? I know! I'll use Papyrus Font!" Declared Ibrahin to no one in particular.

The microwave beeped, signaling that dinner was ready to eat. Ibrahim got up and went to the kitchen of his apartment to eat his dinner. Before he went to bed for the night, he checked his kickstarter page for his Indie Game Proposal and saw that he had raised 70% of the money he needed to fund it.

The next day was the same old same old.

"Ibrahim, can you please fill out these forms? Thank you!" Mike Ryan said.

Ibrahim sent the last E-Mail on the list of people from corporate he had to send E-Mails to for the day. After designing a website for a self-published author, Ibrahim took a quick break to check his Kickstarter page. He was up to 75%. He was so close to working on his own terms.

Ibrahim Patella had conceptualized several Indie games, one Indie Game was called 'Oasis Town': a game in which the player lives in a small town in a fictional country inspired by Mesopotamia and chooses between many medieval career paths to choose from. Another was 'Waterpark King' a game in which the players design and build their own personal virtual Waterpark, and another game called 'Burrito Builder' in which the player assembled Burritos, Tacos and Quesadillas for hungry customers.

A notification popped up on Ibrahim's work computer. A local Korean Food Truck was commissioning a web page for their business.

Ibrahim processed the fee and closed out the web window for the Kickstarter page. Ibrahim heard snoring from the cubicle behind his. Wallace was sleeping on the job, again.

When he got home for the night, he saw that his Kickstarter page for his pet project was 89% funded already.

A notification for another E-Mail popped up on the work computer, this time from Mike. There was apparently a "Big Project" coming up.

He then got a text from the Artist who he commissioned saying that the character and environment designs were finished. He texted back saying "Excellent work. I'll pay you tomorrow. Thanx."

That evening, Ibrahim saw that the Kickstarter page for his pet project was 90% funded, and took money from his Kickstarter account and transferred the money that he owed the Artist that he had commissioned. The next day Ibrahim Patella sent his letter of resignation to the Web Design company that he worked for.

"Finally...." Ibrahim muttered to himself. "I can make money on my own terms now!"

Ibrahim spent the final two weeks at his job juggling working and developing more Indie games. On his last day, Mike Ryan gave him a proper farewell. Pizza and Cake was served.

"We're going to miss you at Innoventions, inc. I would like to wholeheartedly wish you the best of luck on your future ventures!" Mike declared.

The Office clapped and cheered.

Ibrahim set up a studio complete with a web site to sell his game, uploaded his game to st.ream.com, and pitched to Game Drop and Big Buy that afternoon after he left work for the final time.

He spent the rest of the day uploading and pitching Burrito Builder, Waterpark king, and 'Oasis Town' under the name Ibby Capella.

Ibrahim was expecting to make less money than he was making at his old job, so he had a rummage sale, living off of the proceeds from selling the stuff he didn't need, combined with what was left over from his Kickstarter campaign. He was making fairly decent profit, but not as much as he made back at the Office, like he expected, despite his games "Oasis Town", "Waterpark King", and "Burrito Builder" being successes.

During an interview with 'Circuits Magazine', the interviewer asked

"What advice would you give to someone who is inspired to make and sell Indie Games?" Ibby said "If you're in it for the money, I strongly suggest you get a good part time job, because it might be a while before your game pays off. I quit my office job to focus on my Indie Game Development, and after selling everything I owned that I didn't need and moving back in with my parents in the suburbs, it took me two years to get back to the amount of money I was making at Innoventions. So get a part time job."

"So why did you give up on the Corporate world?" Asked the article writer conducting the interview.

"Because I wanted to be my own boss. When I first started on my own I was just barely getting by, but at least I was making money on my own terms."

Later on, Ibby thought to himself "I'm making my money on my own terms."

May 22, 2021 21:51

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