In October 2026 Total Mayhem Games' wonderful co-op game We Were Here Tomorrow was released to great acclaim. Months before, Game Director Martin Mittner tasked me with writing and producing a small digital art book to accompany the Steam launch. The request came with a peculiar satisfaction: years back, I applied for the job of game writer at the studio for this very project, and was one the final three candidates. During my interview with Martin, we discussed sci-fi at great length, making it clear to me the new game was to have a sci-fi theme.
These personal details made it super rewarding to not only play and experience the final result, the We Were Here Tomorrow game, but also be privy to the design history of the game: the game documentation, Miro boards and everything else that went into the design process.
For the book itself, designer Laura Langedijk came up with the scrapbook theme. I conducted interviews with staff to find out what makes the studio and the games tick, and wrote the copy for the 24-page book.
One big challenge in concepting the book was to square the light touch of the game and game art with elements of the design and design philosophy that are a lot deeper. We found the solution in faux advertisements for key elements in the design, such as the cassette (retro-)futurism.
