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Off By One: Serious Games
When a Russian hacker uploads Coliseum Arts' latest computer game to the Internet, its designer Owen Nickerson fears that the company he founded will soon be bankrupt. To keep the business afloat, Owen agrees to participate in a mysterious government project.
While investigating the leak within his company, one small mistake sets off a chain reaction that puts tens of thousands of lives at risk.
To set things right, Owen seeks the help of Finnish crime reporter Astrid, and the pair are swept away on an adventure that will take them to the heart of the post-Soviet underworld.
While investigating the leak within his company, one small mistake sets off a chain reaction that puts tens of thousands of lives at risk.
To set things right, Owen seeks the help of Finnish crime reporter Astrid, and the pair are swept away on an adventure that will take them to the heart of the post-Soviet underworld.
- GenresCrime
251 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 14, 2021
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April 7, 2022Hex, Spies and Video Games!
You can find "Off By One: Serious Games" at the Amazon Kindle Store:
https://www.amazon.com/Off-One-Seriou...
Chapter 3: Peacemaker
Owen left Ike’s body lying face up in the street. The young man entered the hotel, brandishing his weapon, a revolver with three shots remaining.
“Three shots might be enough,” he thought.
He was sure there would be another attack, but Owen was ready. From his position on the ground floor, Owen looked up at the three doors along the hotel’s interior-facing second-story balcony. Sanchez was waiting behind one of those doors. Taking a guess, Owen aimed his gun at the one in the center. He took a step forward.
The door on the right burst open and Sanchez emerged, blasting wildly with his rifle.
With the measured confidence of a trained gunman, Owen adjusted swiftly and fired a shot. It hit the target. Sanchez roared in anger and pain but didn’t drop.
“Damn,” Owen cursed and spent a second shot which finally brought the man down.
Only one bullet left. He would have to save it for Ambrose.
Holstering his gun, Owen took up his enormous Bowie knife. Stalking across the hotel lobby, he reached the opening to the bar. Pausing for a moment, he took a few deep breaths to slow his heart rate then entered.
Owen spun left and lunged. The swift attack caught Levi by surprise and Owen drove his “Arkansas Toothpick” into the barman. Levi never had a chance to let loose with his sawed-off shotgun.
Running for cover, Owen ducked behind the bar. Had he been slower by half a second, he’d have been gunned down.
General Ambrose fired his weapons so rapidly, the shots sounded like beating snare drums. Although Ambrose’ firepower seemed unlimited, especially when compared with Owen’s single bullet, the young man knew a secret the general did not.
Crouching low, Owen pressed a panel on the bar’s back wall. The “click” told him he’d unlocked the hidden passage. That’s when everything went wrong.
First came a deep rattling sound. This escalated to a high, hideous whine. Random colors flashed everywhere. There was an explosion of inexplicable, flashing alphanumeric characters. This went on for several seconds before the entire computer locked up, hard.
The monitor went black.
“Shit,” Owen muttered, shutting off the power to the CPU. The terrible screech faded away.
It could not be denied. Famed game designer and programmer, Owen Nickerson, had a crash bug in Peacemaker, his new western-themed 3D shooter.
“Oh, bless your heart, Owen. You owe a dollar to the Swear Jar,” cooed the slim man leaning over the lead programmer’s shoulder.
“Can it, Mitch,” scolded the lead.
“I told you losers we would break your damn game,” Ryan announced, proudly. “It crashes at every secret door. The bar. The fort. The courthouse. I already talked to Jarrod. He says you have to fix it.”
Test lead Ryan, stood nearby Owen’s programming workstation, grinning. The young man practically sparkled with energy, humor and good-natured aggression. He had high, hollow cheekbones, dark brown skin, neatly trimmed hair and a button-up checked shirt. Ryan was a jerk, but that’s why Owen loved him. Nice testers didn’t find all the bugs.
“By the way, Mitch,” Ryan continued, “nice outfit today.”
Mitch was dressed from head to toe in gold. Every item on his body looked as if King Midas had touched it. Boat shoes, socks, pants, canvas belt and dress shirt all matched.
“What’s special about it?” asked Owen. “He dresses like that every day.”
“No, Owen,” Ryan corrected. “Mitch dresses in a single, bright color every day. But I’ve never before seen him in this particular shade.”
“I’m glad one of y’all noticed,” Mitch drawled. “It was to celebrate the game going ‘gold’ today. But I guess that’s not going to happen.”
“Oh, we’re going to release the gold candidate today,” Owen declared. “The bug is new to this build. That means it’s in one of…err…one of forty-five files. I can’t believe we made that many changes before going into QA. Son of a bitch!”
Throwing a mild tantrum, Owen kicked out and dented the sheetrock wall behind his workstation. The blow shook the high shelf holding his collection of vintage action figures and toppled a 24-inch tall Shogun Warrior robot. The toy fell backward, striking the wall. This jarred its firing mechanism and fired a gleaming, plastic fist into the air.
Mesmerized, the three spectators watched as the projectile arced gracefully upward. When it came down, it struck Owen in the dead center of his forehead.
“Oh, my god!” laughed Mitch. “That was amazing!”
Frustrated, Owen stood abruptly and pushed his seat backward. One of the chair’s cheap casters caught on a bubble in the office’s gray, marinara-stained carpet. It toppled with a crash. The unexpected violence of the gesture made it seem absurdly melodramatic.
“You think this is funny, Mitch?” snarled Owen.
“You gotta admit, Owen. It’s a little funny,” Mitch answered.
“Really? The money we made from Apoplexy is trailing off. Now it is just an old game in the discount pile. Will you think it’s funny if Peacemaker doesn’t launch for Christmas and we go bankrupt? Will it be funny when the company shuts down and all your friends are unemployed?”
Mitch tried asking Owen to lighten up, but the game designer just talked over his protests.
“I don’t think it’s funny,” Owen said, glaring. “Wait! I have an idea. Why don’t you be helpful for once? Why don’t you just sit down at my workstation and find the bug? Go ahead, Mitch. Come on. I’m waiting.”
Mitch gaped.
“Are - are you - are you serious?” stammered Mitch.
Owen nodded.
“But the bug has to be in the engine or the game logic. You can’t expect me to debug code I’ve never seen.”
Owen stabbed a finger at his subordinate’s chest, “And that is why I have you working in tools!”
“Oh, wow!” Ryan said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, guys. I’ve made a terrible mistake.”
“What now?” Owen demanded.
Ryan remained placid.
He answered, “You see, Owen - I put up a sign in the test pit. It tells the team which Owen they should expect on any given day. This morning I set it to, ‘Game-Making Automaton,’but now I see that it should be set to ‘Full-On Pissy Diva.’”
Owen tried responding, but Ryan’s words had short-circuited his brain. He froze, momentarily. Finally, he looked to the floor and chuckled.
He sighed then turned to Mitch.
“Sorry,” he said. “The pressure just got to me and I took it out on you.”
“No, no. I get it,” said the tools programmer. “Like always, I forgive you. But y’all have to tell me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Mitch gestured toward Ryan, saying, “How does he always get away with talking to you like that?”
“Oh, I can tell you,” said the lead tester, smiling. “It’s because Owen knows that without my professional brilliance and unassailable gameplay instincts, the world would be referring to his last game as ‘Crapoplexy.”
Owen gave Mitch a chagrinned look and a shrug. Then he righted his chair and sat back down at his workstation.
Opening all forty-five suspect files in his text editor, Owen scrutinized the game code. He hadn’t had a haircut in months, which made debugging all the more challenging. Just to see his computer screen, Owen had to pause every few seconds to brush aside the sandy blonde forelock that continually fell in front of his dark green eyes.
Mitch leaned in to see what Owen was doing. The lead programmer scanned each file so rapidly that Mitch could barely make out a single line of code.
“I will never know how y’all do that,” said Mitch in astonishment.
Owen closed the last document and his eyes. He leaned back in his chair, forcing Mitch to move aside and out of the way. In his mind, Owen walked through each of the hundred different logic paths. Seconds later, his eyes popped open.
Reopening one of the files, Owen pointed to the screen. “Right here. Cole accesses my array. But… I start at 0. He starts at 1.”
“Off-by-one error,” Mitch concurred. “He’s reading from unallocated memory.”
“I hope Cole gets here soon,” said Owen. “I don’t want to make code changes without him.”
Mitch bounded into Jarrod’s office. The CEO’s workspace had the only view of the Coliseum Arts back-alley parking spaces.
He glanced out the open window and returned with his report.
“Y’all are in luck. Cole is here!”
Cole had parked his car behind the Coliseum Arts offices at the corners of B and Second Street in San Rafael, California. Exiting his vehicle, he heard the sound of gunshots emanating from the building. A horrible screeching sound followed.
“Well, something is royally cocked up,” he said aloud.
Though receding, Cole’s red hair was long and wavy, reaching to his shoulders and framing his face like a lion’s mane.
He lived in San Francisco, usually choosing to work from home. But now that the game was in Code Lock, Cole needed to be nearby – just in case.
He entered the side door on B Street, across from the Flatiron bar and slowly hauled his heavy tower PC up the dark stairs. A small man, Cole struggled to reach the top step. Using his hip, he pinned the machine against the wall of the stairwell, freeing his hands to unlock and open the office door. Grasping the computer with two hands, he hefted it and entered.
Three, equally sized rooms took up the majority of the Coliseum Arts office space, each separated by a wall and empty doorframe. First was the common area, with its two old sofas, coffee table, misaligned projection television and assorted computer stations.
Next came the programmer’s room, where the company’s three software engineers had set their desks parallel along the common room wall. Then came the artists’ space.
Beyond this was the closed door to the dark and mysterious ‘Test Pit.” The pit was a cramped, windowless room, barely the size of two walk-in closets. Despite its small dimensions, the pit housed seven game testers, each playing the release candidate of Peacemaker.
The two private offices were along the alley-side wall, across from the programmers. The CEO, Jarrod, had one. Miles, the company’s sound designer inhabited the second.
Passing through the common room, Cole walked to his desk and set down his burden with a groan.
“Glad you could make it,” said Owen. “Come over here and look at this.”
Cole complied. He watched Owen change a single character in an open file.
“OK?” asked Owen.
Cole slapped Owen on the back and walked away. The lead programmer took this as a sign that Cole had agreed with his fix.
Owen was mostly sure he’d solved the problem. In three hours, the game would be baked, transferred to the burn server and ready to be copied onto new test discs.
“All good?” asked the tall, prematurely graying man leaning around the wall from the common area.
“Hey, Jarrod. It is now. Found and fixed in less than three minutes,” Owen bragged to his business partner.
“Oh, look at that. Owen Nickerson is being cocky. I’m shocked,” laughed the CEO.
“All right, my lovelies! Stop your prattle. Pay attention to me, now!” called out Maxine, the Coliseum Arts Public Relations and Sales Manager as she made her grand entrance in the programmer’s room. “Dinner for the team, tonight. Eight o’clock at Larkspur Brewing Company. And my darlings, it’s the company’s Halloween event. Fair warning, either come in costume or be prepared to receive a wicked taunting!”
“I’m coming tonight, Max,” Owen replied. “But I’m going to be a little late. I’ve gotta finish the build.”
“You take your time, my love. Just as long as you’re there,” Maxine whispered in his ear, then kissed him on the top of his head.
The game build completed and verified, Owen carried the discs back to the test pit. Ryan accepted them graciously, then added a dig, “So, I just want to make sure. This version won’t suck like your last one, right?”
“If it does, it’ll be all your fault because your team didn’t find the suck earlier.”
“Oooh. I see how it is. Passing the buck, as usual,” said Ryan ominously, backing away and fading into the shadows of the test pit.
You can find "Off By One: Serious Games" at the Amazon Kindle Store:
https://www.amazon.com/Off-One-Seriou...
Chapter 3: Peacemaker
Owen left Ike’s body lying face up in the street. The young man entered the hotel, brandishing his weapon, a revolver with three shots remaining.
“Three shots might be enough,” he thought.
He was sure there would be another attack, but Owen was ready. From his position on the ground floor, Owen looked up at the three doors along the hotel’s interior-facing second-story balcony. Sanchez was waiting behind one of those doors. Taking a guess, Owen aimed his gun at the one in the center. He took a step forward.
The door on the right burst open and Sanchez emerged, blasting wildly with his rifle.
With the measured confidence of a trained gunman, Owen adjusted swiftly and fired a shot. It hit the target. Sanchez roared in anger and pain but didn’t drop.
“Damn,” Owen cursed and spent a second shot which finally brought the man down.
Only one bullet left. He would have to save it for Ambrose.
Holstering his gun, Owen took up his enormous Bowie knife. Stalking across the hotel lobby, he reached the opening to the bar. Pausing for a moment, he took a few deep breaths to slow his heart rate then entered.
Owen spun left and lunged. The swift attack caught Levi by surprise and Owen drove his “Arkansas Toothpick” into the barman. Levi never had a chance to let loose with his sawed-off shotgun.
Running for cover, Owen ducked behind the bar. Had he been slower by half a second, he’d have been gunned down.
General Ambrose fired his weapons so rapidly, the shots sounded like beating snare drums. Although Ambrose’ firepower seemed unlimited, especially when compared with Owen’s single bullet, the young man knew a secret the general did not.
Crouching low, Owen pressed a panel on the bar’s back wall. The “click” told him he’d unlocked the hidden passage. That’s when everything went wrong.
First came a deep rattling sound. This escalated to a high, hideous whine. Random colors flashed everywhere. There was an explosion of inexplicable, flashing alphanumeric characters. This went on for several seconds before the entire computer locked up, hard.
The monitor went black.
“Shit,” Owen muttered, shutting off the power to the CPU. The terrible screech faded away.
It could not be denied. Famed game designer and programmer, Owen Nickerson, had a crash bug in Peacemaker, his new western-themed 3D shooter.
“Oh, bless your heart, Owen. You owe a dollar to the Swear Jar,” cooed the slim man leaning over the lead programmer’s shoulder.
“Can it, Mitch,” scolded the lead.
“I told you losers we would break your damn game,” Ryan announced, proudly. “It crashes at every secret door. The bar. The fort. The courthouse. I already talked to Jarrod. He says you have to fix it.”
Test lead Ryan, stood nearby Owen’s programming workstation, grinning. The young man practically sparkled with energy, humor and good-natured aggression. He had high, hollow cheekbones, dark brown skin, neatly trimmed hair and a button-up checked shirt. Ryan was a jerk, but that’s why Owen loved him. Nice testers didn’t find all the bugs.
“By the way, Mitch,” Ryan continued, “nice outfit today.”
Mitch was dressed from head to toe in gold. Every item on his body looked as if King Midas had touched it. Boat shoes, socks, pants, canvas belt and dress shirt all matched.
“What’s special about it?” asked Owen. “He dresses like that every day.”
“No, Owen,” Ryan corrected. “Mitch dresses in a single, bright color every day. But I’ve never before seen him in this particular shade.”
“I’m glad one of y’all noticed,” Mitch drawled. “It was to celebrate the game going ‘gold’ today. But I guess that’s not going to happen.”
“Oh, we’re going to release the gold candidate today,” Owen declared. “The bug is new to this build. That means it’s in one of…err…one of forty-five files. I can’t believe we made that many changes before going into QA. Son of a bitch!”
Throwing a mild tantrum, Owen kicked out and dented the sheetrock wall behind his workstation. The blow shook the high shelf holding his collection of vintage action figures and toppled a 24-inch tall Shogun Warrior robot. The toy fell backward, striking the wall. This jarred its firing mechanism and fired a gleaming, plastic fist into the air.
Mesmerized, the three spectators watched as the projectile arced gracefully upward. When it came down, it struck Owen in the dead center of his forehead.
“Oh, my god!” laughed Mitch. “That was amazing!”
Frustrated, Owen stood abruptly and pushed his seat backward. One of the chair’s cheap casters caught on a bubble in the office’s gray, marinara-stained carpet. It toppled with a crash. The unexpected violence of the gesture made it seem absurdly melodramatic.
“You think this is funny, Mitch?” snarled Owen.
“You gotta admit, Owen. It’s a little funny,” Mitch answered.
“Really? The money we made from Apoplexy is trailing off. Now it is just an old game in the discount pile. Will you think it’s funny if Peacemaker doesn’t launch for Christmas and we go bankrupt? Will it be funny when the company shuts down and all your friends are unemployed?”
Mitch tried asking Owen to lighten up, but the game designer just talked over his protests.
“I don’t think it’s funny,” Owen said, glaring. “Wait! I have an idea. Why don’t you be helpful for once? Why don’t you just sit down at my workstation and find the bug? Go ahead, Mitch. Come on. I’m waiting.”
Mitch gaped.
“Are - are you - are you serious?” stammered Mitch.
Owen nodded.
“But the bug has to be in the engine or the game logic. You can’t expect me to debug code I’ve never seen.”
Owen stabbed a finger at his subordinate’s chest, “And that is why I have you working in tools!”
“Oh, wow!” Ryan said, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, guys. I’ve made a terrible mistake.”
“What now?” Owen demanded.
Ryan remained placid.
He answered, “You see, Owen - I put up a sign in the test pit. It tells the team which Owen they should expect on any given day. This morning I set it to, ‘Game-Making Automaton,’but now I see that it should be set to ‘Full-On Pissy Diva.’”
Owen tried responding, but Ryan’s words had short-circuited his brain. He froze, momentarily. Finally, he looked to the floor and chuckled.
He sighed then turned to Mitch.
“Sorry,” he said. “The pressure just got to me and I took it out on you.”
“No, no. I get it,” said the tools programmer. “Like always, I forgive you. But y’all have to tell me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Mitch gestured toward Ryan, saying, “How does he always get away with talking to you like that?”
“Oh, I can tell you,” said the lead tester, smiling. “It’s because Owen knows that without my professional brilliance and unassailable gameplay instincts, the world would be referring to his last game as ‘Crapoplexy.”
Owen gave Mitch a chagrinned look and a shrug. Then he righted his chair and sat back down at his workstation.
Opening all forty-five suspect files in his text editor, Owen scrutinized the game code. He hadn’t had a haircut in months, which made debugging all the more challenging. Just to see his computer screen, Owen had to pause every few seconds to brush aside the sandy blonde forelock that continually fell in front of his dark green eyes.
Mitch leaned in to see what Owen was doing. The lead programmer scanned each file so rapidly that Mitch could barely make out a single line of code.
“I will never know how y’all do that,” said Mitch in astonishment.
Owen closed the last document and his eyes. He leaned back in his chair, forcing Mitch to move aside and out of the way. In his mind, Owen walked through each of the hundred different logic paths. Seconds later, his eyes popped open.
Reopening one of the files, Owen pointed to the screen. “Right here. Cole accesses my array. But… I start at 0. He starts at 1.”
“Off-by-one error,” Mitch concurred. “He’s reading from unallocated memory.”
“I hope Cole gets here soon,” said Owen. “I don’t want to make code changes without him.”
Mitch bounded into Jarrod’s office. The CEO’s workspace had the only view of the Coliseum Arts back-alley parking spaces.
He glanced out the open window and returned with his report.
“Y’all are in luck. Cole is here!”
Cole had parked his car behind the Coliseum Arts offices at the corners of B and Second Street in San Rafael, California. Exiting his vehicle, he heard the sound of gunshots emanating from the building. A horrible screeching sound followed.
“Well, something is royally cocked up,” he said aloud.
Though receding, Cole’s red hair was long and wavy, reaching to his shoulders and framing his face like a lion’s mane.
He lived in San Francisco, usually choosing to work from home. But now that the game was in Code Lock, Cole needed to be nearby – just in case.
He entered the side door on B Street, across from the Flatiron bar and slowly hauled his heavy tower PC up the dark stairs. A small man, Cole struggled to reach the top step. Using his hip, he pinned the machine against the wall of the stairwell, freeing his hands to unlock and open the office door. Grasping the computer with two hands, he hefted it and entered.
Three, equally sized rooms took up the majority of the Coliseum Arts office space, each separated by a wall and empty doorframe. First was the common area, with its two old sofas, coffee table, misaligned projection television and assorted computer stations.
Next came the programmer’s room, where the company’s three software engineers had set their desks parallel along the common room wall. Then came the artists’ space.
Beyond this was the closed door to the dark and mysterious ‘Test Pit.” The pit was a cramped, windowless room, barely the size of two walk-in closets. Despite its small dimensions, the pit housed seven game testers, each playing the release candidate of Peacemaker.
The two private offices were along the alley-side wall, across from the programmers. The CEO, Jarrod, had one. Miles, the company’s sound designer inhabited the second.
Passing through the common room, Cole walked to his desk and set down his burden with a groan.
“Glad you could make it,” said Owen. “Come over here and look at this.”
Cole complied. He watched Owen change a single character in an open file.
“OK?” asked Owen.
Cole slapped Owen on the back and walked away. The lead programmer took this as a sign that Cole had agreed with his fix.
Owen was mostly sure he’d solved the problem. In three hours, the game would be baked, transferred to the burn server and ready to be copied onto new test discs.
“All good?” asked the tall, prematurely graying man leaning around the wall from the common area.
“Hey, Jarrod. It is now. Found and fixed in less than three minutes,” Owen bragged to his business partner.
“Oh, look at that. Owen Nickerson is being cocky. I’m shocked,” laughed the CEO.
“All right, my lovelies! Stop your prattle. Pay attention to me, now!” called out Maxine, the Coliseum Arts Public Relations and Sales Manager as she made her grand entrance in the programmer’s room. “Dinner for the team, tonight. Eight o’clock at Larkspur Brewing Company. And my darlings, it’s the company’s Halloween event. Fair warning, either come in costume or be prepared to receive a wicked taunting!”
“I’m coming tonight, Max,” Owen replied. “But I’m going to be a little late. I’ve gotta finish the build.”
“You take your time, my love. Just as long as you’re there,” Maxine whispered in his ear, then kissed him on the top of his head.
The game build completed and verified, Owen carried the discs back to the test pit. Ryan accepted them graciously, then added a dig, “So, I just want to make sure. This version won’t suck like your last one, right?”
“If it does, it’ll be all your fault because your team didn’t find the suck earlier.”
“Oooh. I see how it is. Passing the buck, as usual,” said Ryan ominously, backing away and fading into the shadows of the test pit.
February 17, 2022
If you don’t play videogames and you don’t read books this might be your book. Author Jonathan Ackley comes from both worlds, words and pixils, and sees no reason to keep them apart any longer. So grab your posh car, head for the Arctic Circle, and if you want to save the world, Step On It! Plot twists? Of course! And right when you want them. Just read the thing. You’ll pick up some new geeky friends along the way and say hello to your Cold War nostalgia. It’s all here in a compact read that moves in the hot rush of a video game. Off By One is pure fun in times that needs fun!
December 4, 2022
A story set in the 90s revolving around a video game studio whose game gets hacked, and while at the surface this is already damaging enough, digging up the details of the hack uncovers a conspiracy far bigger than just a game.
If you're a fan of games, hacking, conspiracy, and crime, this might be a great read. More so because the author is an ex-game designer who worked on classics like Curse of Monkey Island. So in a way, you're getting a glimpse at how it felt like to work in game studio back in the day.
If you're a fan of games, hacking, conspiracy, and crime, this might be a great read. More so because the author is an ex-game designer who worked on classics like Curse of Monkey Island. So in a way, you're getting a glimpse at how it felt like to work in game studio back in the day.
March 22, 2022
Great spy story with a real-life look into the computer game industry! Intriguing characters as well.
April 24, 2022
Enjoyable read. So much going on and I times overwhelmed me but overall it was ok
May 1, 2022
This was a Goodreads Giveaway win. A lot of different characters are thrown at you right at the beginning and there feels like there are two separate stories going on. It felt incredibly disjointed for most of the book. I was so confused about what felt like two separate plot lines. Some things were never explained and it just felt all over the place.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews