The meeting room was full of commotion this morning, as everyone on the design team had been gathered together to talk. Groups of people were whispering with each other, and the atmosphere seemed relaxed. The Lead Designer entered the room and threw a pile of papers on the table. He started sorting through them while the rest of the team were just idly chatting.

“Oh, be quiet please,” his voice was not very loud, but the rest of the room knew they needed to keep down now. Feet were removed from the table and people leant forward to focus on what was happening.

“What’s this all about William?” Called out one of the graphics team.

William let out a sigh and turned to face the board behind him. He touched the screen and it jumped to life. The board showed various details on it about how the game creation was progressing. He turned back to face everyone and flicked his hand. The board sprang into motion and an email appeared on the screen. There was audible shock around the room as its contents were read.

“Last night,” William leant forward onto the table with his hands and looked around at everyone, “after everyone had left, this email was sent out.

“There are a number of baffling things about this. From the time stamp on the email we know it happened after everyone had left for the night. Even the cleaners were out of the building. We have reviewed footage on the security cameras and there was definitely no one in the building at the time.

“We had some people from the security team check into the details, and it appears that it did originate from this office, but not from anyone’s computer, laptop, or phone. We have yet to pinpoint where this came from or who did it.

“While we try to get to the bottom of this everyone is a suspect. But at the same time we don’t believe any of you would do this. It is pointless. You have nothing to gain from doing this.”

All the members of the team looked at each other with a mix of suspicion and confusion. Eyes darted back and forth.

“Do we know who they went out to?”

“That is another issue. Somehow the outgoing addresses have been blocked from us. We are trying to work around it, but we are not in a position to do anything about this.”

“Can we stop it?”

“No, it’s already done, and we cannot do anything that will drag our name through the mud. Instead, we are going to set up a team to monitor this and see how it goes. Some of you may be moved around to different teams in the meantime while we get things settled.”

Grumbling happened at this remark. Everyone knew it meant sleepless nights, unpaid hours, and takeout food.

“We’re just going to have to see where this takes us,” William pushed papers around the table and soon they were handed out to everyone in the room. They listed the new job assignments and expectations.

The email sat on the screen as William left the room.

Player,

You have been selected as one of the few people to try the Alpha version of our new game.

Broken Shadows is a deep dive simulated reality game set within a fantasy world, and due to your contributions to other games our studio has produced you have been given this Early Access Key. We hope you enjoy your time in our new game, and we look forward to playing with you.

Signed,

Broken Shadows Development Team