In the mid-1990's, two patrons in a video game store bicker, banter, and eventually bond. Doc (real name Michael) is a game developer with enough experience to be somewhat cynical, and Beans (real name never given) is an outsider with morbid sensibilities and a disdain for the generic titles flooding the market. The two eventually marry, found their own studio, and produce Dark Quiet Death, a unique game which becomes a minor hit. But success brings new challenges when demands from investors force them to decide how much to compromise their creative vision.
Tropes:
- Downer Ending: Doc and Beans have broken up, Oubliette Studios has dissolved, Dark Quiet Death has been largely forgotten except for an obnoxious furry mascot character introduced after the franchise had sold out to become more marketable, and the graffiti left behind by Doc and Beans in the office space now occupied by MQ seems to be an ominous omen for Ian and Poppy's own partnership.
- Meaningful Name: The name of Doc and Beans' company is Oubliette Studios. An oubliette is a type of medieval dungeon with its only door in the ceiling. Aside from suiting Beans' Nightmare Fetishist tastes, the name foreshadows that the studio will be where her and Doc's creative and romantic partnership wastes away and eventually dies.
- Shout-Out: The building fire in which 42 people died in a sweatshop, is eerily similar to the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
which killed 146 people in a sweatshop inferno. - Survival Horror: Dark Quiet Death (at least the first one) falls into this genre, although it's actually impossible by design to survive forever.
- Sweetie Graffiti: The mark Doc and Beans leave on a pillar in the studio is still visible when the MQ team moves in years later.
- Ten-Second Flashlight: Played with in the first DQD game. The flashlight is the player's only means of defense against the monsters, and it can only be turned on briefly. In the sequel, the flashlight is reduced to a mere accessory for the player's gun, then eliminated altogether.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Tells the story of the game studio which previously occupied MQ's office space, from the founders' first meeting in the 1990's to the eventual dissolution of their creative partnership. The episode also established the tradition of Mythic Quest having one of these per season.
