One of the reasons that make me so fond of The Office, even almost a decade after its ending, is seeing how the cast, crew and producers still care for each other. Michael was disrespectful, Angela was judgemental, Dwight was insane, yes. But Steve Carell, Angela Kinsey and Rainn Wilson, along with the others, have, to this day, much affection towards each other.

First of all: what’s the definition of a successful game? As anything else in life: it depends. For a big company who invested millions in a development team, marketing, research and advertising, success is probably defined primarily in terms of revenue and profit. For an indie game, money, of course, is also necessary. But maybe it’s more important for it to be critically acclaimed and loved by its audience; money may then come as a consequence of a growing, supportive fanbase.

In this blog, I frequently mention my game Stanley’s Day At The Office, TV show The Office and podcast Office Ladies, by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey (who played Pam and Angela, respectively, in the TV show). There is one aspect that is relevant for all of these three types of media: sound.

Along all of the seasons of The Office, crossword puzzles came to be one of the defining traits of Stanley Hudson’s character. Whether it’s in a meeting in the conference room, in a sales call or even in his desk, he will frequently be looking down trying to solve his favorite type of puzzle, while not really paying much attention to the surroundings.

When I first told people I had this idea for an Office based game centered on Stanley’s character, everybody asked me if pretzels were to be included. Of course! Pretzels are the main collectable items in the game, and in this post I’ll discuss the famous Pretzel Day episode and how it ties into the game. If you haven’t watched it yet, better skip to next post.