Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow Review

 

I came across this book one late night as I was scouring YouTube. I was looking on Amerie's channel and saw she had a review about this book and watched it. The story of this novel revolved around gaming and game developers intrigued me since I am a game developer myself and I decided to purchase this book some time later.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow  hereby referred to as TTT was written by Gabrielle Zevin and published by Penguin Random House. Gabrielle Zevin is best known by her book The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, but this is my first novel from her. As I previously stated TTT is a story of gamers and game developers. There is no plot to TTT. This is a character driven story. We learn about the lives of Sam Masur, Sadie Green, and Marx Watanabe coming together to create video games. Though the paths that lead these characters together were video games this story is also very much a story about the relationship of three friends. Some might argue that Sam and Sadie are the main characters of the story, but I feel that Marx is just as integral to this tale. 

Even if you're not a gamer I still think TTT will resonate you because it is a well written story. There is however an element of this story that can be confusing. The events of the story aren't told in sequential order and I can see how that would put some people off, but I'm so invested in the life of these characters that I can't help but continue reading and I'm glad that I did because there are some novel  character depth throughout. Sam, Sadie, and Marx grow while simultaneously regress over the span of the story that gives me feelings ranging from interest, frustration, and sadness.

As a gamer since my childhood like the main characters and someone who has dabbled in game development the gaming and game development side of the story is mostly accurate. The only inaccurate thing I spotted was a mention of the fruit in Pac-Man giving Pac-Man the ability to eat the ghosts. No, eating the fruit in Pac-Man does not deactivate the ghosts invulnerability; eating the big dots do. Eating the fruit just adds to your score. I know I'm a nerd because that inaccuracy irritated me! Aside from that the process of making a game was wholly accurate for the time periods, including the time it takes, the resources, publishing, marketing, and the fan and critical reception post launch. They even touched upon current political topics surrounding gaming like diversity and cultural appropriation. Actually, on the cultural appropriation part I found that part to be a bit flimsy. In a point in the story Sam is interviewed by a gaming journalist I believe from Kotaku about how their first game used Japanese names and aesthetics and was accused of cultural appropriation. I don't think anything like that would come up in a modern day. Cultural appropriation topics have come up in the modern day gaming, but Japanese cultural is kind of infused with gaming. The whole dichotomy of cultural appropriation comes with misuse and imbalance of power, but Japan is a dominant head in the video game industry even more so in the time period that the characters created their game. Majority of the most iconic and best-selling games from the 90s came from Japan all while Japan heavily uses Western locations and aesthetics in their games. Not to mention Marx, the third member of their team was involved in the development process and is Japanese as well so it just came across "off" in that regard. That was just a small piece of this three-hundred plus page book so it wasn't a big deal for me.

I want to deep dive into something very personal on here that I have never shared with the public. Much like Sam and Sadie of TTT I want to make games that will shake up the world and put smiles on people's faces. I was ten years old in my life when I decided I wanted to make video games for a living. It was the age of thirteen when I decided I want to do something to make that happen. I have been working on that since and would love more than anything to have my own video game studio and publishing company. Unlike Sam and Sadie I'm not a programming genius, or even okay at it. I took programming classes in college and even tried to teach myself programming, but it wouldn't click and I came to terms that I just don't enjoy it and find it extremely boring even the visual language programs like Ren'py.

I think I realized this so I eventually looked for people to work with. I first was working on someone else's game, but the man who was in charge dipped out for months at a time and didn't respond to my messages so I left and then a couple years later I decided to start my own game and looked for people to help me make the game I wanted. I recruited students in my area for the programming and art with me acting as the producer gathering assets, assigning roles, and seeing if everything was going smoothly. Reading this book made me realize I was like Marx; not particularly talented in any area (save maybe writing) with many interests, and serving as a producer for a development team. I have been very unsure and frustrated with how to see my dream realized since. 

My team of students eventually fell out due to school work, jobs, or personal beef and I tried again the following year, but that ended up the same way. I tried again going solo, but still found programming utterly boring and searching for jobs in the industry is futile with no solid experience; even quality assurance jobs now often ask for a year of experience, not to mention most game studios are spread throughout the country. When Dreams launched I felt that it was meant for me. I could finally make video games without having to learn programming, but the only caveat with that is any game you make under Dreams is owned by Sony so while I finally made one I couldn't sell it, but I thought it could be used to add to my portfolio at least. Still, I wasn't sure if it was worth making anymore of these games using Dreams and I was back just not knowing what to do, but after reading TTT, I felt inspired to go and make this happen and become a producer and eventual studio owner. I realized it's okay if I'm not a skilled programmer I can still do work as a producer.

A slight spoiler here for any people who want to go in knowing nothing of this book before they read it but this also made me realize how much of a privilege a lot of people have in order to make a game, especially in the 90s where this story begins. So, the three titular characters come in positions most people don't have. All three characters attended Ivy league schools with Sam and Marx going to Harvard with Sadie attending MIT. Sadie and Marx were also well-off coming from rich families. Sadie was also quite lucky to have a class taught by a famous game developer and to have a close relationship with him. While they were in school they were also able to take a semester off to finish their game because Marx was able to provide everything they needed: shelter, food, and equipment. Gabrielle Zevin did at least acknowledge that if they were born at a later time it would've been a bit harder for them.

I actually want to go into heavy spoilers now so if you have not read it I advise you to skip to the last paragraph.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!

So I really like how gaming itself was integrated into the storytelling. Near the end of the story a new chapter starts and in the perspective of a game world. The tonal shift through me off for a bit, but once I realized I was reading a playthrough of a game as it was happening it got me intrigued. Through visual and context clues you can surmise that the playable character is Sadie. You learn a bit about how Sadie plays video games. She's a bit of an impatient gamer; she skips through text only taking in what is absolutely necessary. And you also learn of her current mental state. Her journey through Pioneers to me signifies her journey through grief. She's retracted from game development and much of society with Pioneers being her only real social experience. Through Pioneers she finds her own comfortable life with a child that doesn't cry or get upset, a spouse, and a new location where she can be someone new and also herself. Over the course of the her playthrough she gains hearts while slowly opening her heart to the people of Pioneers particularly Dr. Daedalus.

Once it's revealed that Dr. Daedalus is Sam I was genuinely surprised and Sadie was too. She feels lied to and so pushes back once again. This entire segment is where we saw Sadie at her most vulnerable.

I also found Marx's death sad, but since we saw the death first before the events leading up to it, it didn't hit in the way it should but it was emotional and I honestly wasn't expecting anyone to die in this book and that death changed everyone's relationship even though it was already getting rocky once Sadie and Marx started dating. At the end of the book Sadie and Sam slowly start talking to each other more once Sam's grandfather dies and then a studio sends a proposal to make Ichigo 3. Sam always wanted to make another Ichigo since he thought Ichigo 2 wasn't as good, but wanted to make with Sadie while Sadie didn't want to or generally didn't like making sequels. They pondered over letting this team make this game, but we never find out if they did. The book ends with Sam and Sadie talking about their relationship and why they never got together which Sadie said she liked Sam better as a work partner and Sam getting on his plane saying that the two of them should make another game together. Like with a lot of general fiction I am disappointed when it ends like that when I have more questions. It was never resolved if Ichigo 3 gets made and we never find out if Sadie would ever go back to making video games. I really want to know more about these characters lives, but that also goes to show that Zevin did a great job in writing and making you care about her protagonists.

SPOILERS END!

To put things in conclusion I am very glad that I came across Amerie's video and decided to read this book. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is a must read not only for gamers, but for anyone who just wants to experience a great story.