This is Empty Inbox: there's a word, and you have to use it

The Empty Inbox page is now up, with eleven screenshots. Let me use the occasion to explain what the game actually is, because so far I've talked about the project without mentioning the important part.

Empty Inbox is an office simulator. You work customer support at Evership. Barbecues going rusty, drones that refuse to dive, sneakers in the wrong size. You open the case, read the complaint and write the reply. No picking between three options: you write it yourself, word by word, in a text box, with the clock running.

Put like that, it's an office job. And an office job is boring.

The word of the day

Which is why the team has a game of its own. Every morning they conspire and pick a word: TEMPEST, GLITCH, whatever comes up. And using it in every case of the shift isn't an optional challenge the game offers you, it's mandatory among yourselves. It's what makes a support shift worth turning up for.

The problem is Quality, who reads everything that leaves your keyboard. Each reply is scored in parts: opening, diagnosis, solution, closing and spelling. Landing the word earns points. Forcing it shows, and takes them back.

So the real game isn't getting the word in. It's getting it in without the reply suffering for it, and finding the gap where it fits on its own. Sometimes there is one: a rusty grill right before a barbecue weekend really does look a lot like a tempest. Sometimes there isn't, and you have to choose between keeping Quality happy and keeping faith with the team.

Everything around it

Not everything arrives by email. There are public complaints on Y, where you get exactly 120 characters and anything you write is read by everyone. And there are tickets flagged urgent, on a countdown, that won't wait for you to find the perfect line.

When you get stuck you can ask a coworker. Marta hands you the line almost finished; Felipe leans more towards blaming a technical fault and moving the conversation to DMs. Everyone has their own school, and they don't all score the same.

And between shifts there's an actual office, with scenes on the rooftop and conversations that aren't about barbecues. The story builds in those gaps.

When

Still no date. When I have one it will go out in the newsletter before anywhere else, and here afterwards. The game is coming to Steam for PC and Mac, and to itch.io.

Thanks for sticking around.