Recently, I joined a book club, and after telling them I write about games for a living, we quickly agreed on reading the book Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. What followed was a hunger for games I’ll never get to play.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a fictional story that follows the lives of Sam, Sadie, and Marx, a trio of friends who create a game development company together – Unfair Games.
Throughout this journey, they craft a variety of games, to varying degrees of success. Regardless of whether they came out in the 90s or mid-2010s, I was left desperate to play the fictional titles for myself. I was also surprised to realize the book illustrated a major gap in a fair few genres in real life.
Fictional Games We Desperately Need
A young genderless child finds themself lost at sea after a giant storm washed them away from everyone they love. Using very little speech, movement, or understanding, they must navigate treacherous seas and mysterious lands to find their way back home to their family… but will they remember them when they return?
That’s the broad concept for Sam and Sadie’s first game, otherwise known as Ichigo.
The story seems interesting enough for anyone to enjoy. It’s an action-adventure that’s bound to have puzzles, and it features a unique protagonist not seen often in video games. Combine that with the passion described by Zevin, and Ichigo becomes utterly idyllic as a game.
In fact, even weeks after completing the book, I am still dying to play Ichigo in all of its indie art style and adorable but heartbreaking story.
Alongside Ichigo, there is Both Sides, a game that features two alternative universes that switch as you play. One is sweet, kind, and much like the one we live in now (on a good day), and the other is brutal, scary, unfamiliar, and resembling the world on our worst days.
Similar to Ichigo, the premise sounds interesting enough, but again, it’s the passion Sadie and Sam have for the locations that sells it. Both use their own trauma, fears, and life experience to sell a game that showcases both sides of an adventure RPG and left me eager to dive into Mapletown.
Finally, Sam and Sadie craft two MMOs, which are a little touch and go for me (ESO does have my heart, though) — Mapletown and Pioneers.
Mapletown feels much like if Minecraft, The Sims, Eco, and Second Life came together to create an MMO. It’s like a cozier GTA where the main aim is just to live and love, rather than any nefarious activities. Gay marriage is legalized in this world, they have an eccentric mayor, and for the most part, you can just explore and enjoy.
Pioneers is relatively similar, only based on the Oregon Trail, with a historical setting. It strips back all elements of technology and essentially functions as if Story of Seasons and Stardew Valley got married, became an MMO, and allowed you to run businesses.
As I just mentioned, I’m not a huge fan of MMOs, but I don’t think you need to be to see how lovely both of those games would be if they were real.
A Missing Adventure
But it’s more than just ‘these games sound cool and I want to play them.’ Instead Tomorrow’s games feel unique. It feels like Zevin has managed to capture a distinct gap in the MMO and adventure genre without even releasing anything.
Take Pioneers for example, sure we have Stardew Valley, Story of Seasons and of course it’s inspired Oregon Trail, but there isn’t an MMO that manages to successfully bring players back into history, allowing them complete freedom to run stores, fall in love with other players (or NPCs), grow crops, or really just live.
This is a major gap in both the MMO and Farming Sim genres, and Zevin offers a game that would expertly combine the two. We don’t have anything quite like Pioneers, and Tomorrow has left me begging for that gap to be filled. Give the people what they need! And by people, I mean me, and what they need, I mean a historical MMO with farming sim components and the passion offered by Sam.
Then you have Ichigo, which is perhaps one of the most interesting games in the book. This game reeks of the classic 90s game passion, with topics not often visited in the age of the 20s.
It’s heartfelt, done simply because the developers loved the idea, and is filled with simple marketing we see today. In the book, they offer it to a laptop company, to which the game comes free with purchase. And let’s just say, if Ichigo released today and did the same thing, then I’d be getting a new laptop.
Throughout Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow, Zevin injects passion into every game she explores. She fills the pages with adventures that feel unlike any other game I’ve played and showcases them with the passion indie developers pour into their titles.
There are so many amazing games out there, but to find one as different as this book presents is rare, and has left me starving for games that don’t exist.
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