II: Influences — Chapter 5

Summary

• Ichigo, a game programmed by Sadie and Sam with help from Dov’s Ulysses engine, took three and a half months longer to complete than planned.
• The rigorous programming led to physical injuries – Sam's fingers became blistered and Sadie burst a blood vessel in her eye.
• Before Thanksgiving Sam passed out on the street due to malnutrition.
• A composer named Zoe, Marx’s ex-girlfriend, was hired to write the game's score.
• In November, they finished recording the score and added further contributions by a sound designer, elevating their game.
• The characters in Ichigo age during the course of the story, making the game unique and more challenging to design. Ichigo's journey is reflected in their character, making them unrecognizable to their family when they finally return home.
• The debugging started after the game was written. They made and improved their list on a whiteboard, eventually leading to an empty board a week before the winter break, indicating the game was finished.
• Walking Sam home one snowy morning with no one on the streets, Sadie asked if he actually saw the Magic Eye last December.
• Sam slipped and hurt himself while walking home alone after leaving Sadie at Dov’s apartment. He reminisced about how he felt warmly about Sadie, his gratitude and fascination with life, and about a poem he once heard.
• Sam's mother, Anna, decided to move west in 1984. One night on their way home from the theatre, they saw another woman, also named Anna Lee, fall and die on the pavement in front of them. The traumatic experience led Anna to decide that Los Angeles, where she was born and which has fewer skyscrapers, was the right place for her son and herself to go.