“OK, I’ve got a lot of games to get out the door if I’m to satisfy the quota and keep the Department of Public Entertainment off my back.

“OK, I’ll just take this game that I’ve already done and change it a bit. I’ll reprogram it to take advantage of the new 3-bit graphic cards. Change a few things.

The programmer programs.

“OK, this one is a mess. There’s too much going on in this one. I’ve got strawberries that submerge and preserve memories. I’ve got drugs that recover them. I’ve got an alien invasion of spore people that kind of have emotion, but kind of don’t. As usual, this is going to be a mish-mosh mess. Fine, it doesn’t matter.

The programmer programs:

The car was waiting for you outside. You open the driver's door and got in. Your wife is in the passenger seat, and your son is in the back seat. He smiles as you start the car.

“OK, I need something to take off the edge.

“OK, much better.”

The programmer programs:

Hills rolled by like waves rolling in a sea, reaching high, falling deep; the surface, strange shades of sunlight and marine. Hills gave way to fields, flat and green, where you walked with a bucket, picking deep red strawberries with your mother in the summers of your youth.

“OK, this is getting too personal. I’m putting too much of myself into this thing”

The programmer programs.

“OK, I was having lunch with a friend, who writes the soundtracks for much of my work. We were talking about the creative process and how these intuitions happen. Like I’ve programmed out a story, or they have scored a soundtrack, and then there all these possibilities. You can’t do them all at once.

“OK, sometimes I try, and end up with a mess something like what I’ve got on my hands with this 3-bit deal I’m working on now.

The programmer programs.

“OK, like this part of the game that happens in the hotel room. Should there be a murder, or should there not be a murder? Who is in this hotel room? The character. I can’t believe I still haven’t got the character nailed down. Doctor? Detective? Some random kid?

“OK, I’ll take a close look at this and then I’ll know what’s what, instead of this muddle of what might or might not be …”