The embodiment of 2010s existential dread could get a videogame—This is Fine: Maximum Cope opens Kickstarter funding next week

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(Image credit:Gunshow Comic 648- KC Green)

A dog sits in a burning building, then comments: "This is fine."

(Image credit:Gunshow Comic 648- KC Green.)

A six-panel comic, in which a dog says “This is fine,” sips coffee, and slowly melts.

Surfacing around the year 2013, the comic depicts a dog calmly and quietly engaging in a bit of denialism, taking a light sip of their coffee while their home’s consumed in fire. As creator KC Green explains in alater interview with NPRlast year, it’s meant to be vague, but relates to the author’s own problems discovering the right dosage of antidepressants:

“I was just like, is this OK or am I doing good? Am I supposed to ignore everything else? It kind of feels like you just have to ignore all the insanity around you like a burning house. And the comic just ended up writing itself after that.”

In case you’re doubting this comic’s impact on the cultural consciousness, here’s a US senatordirectly referencing it in 2018—even before that, the Republican Party used the comicin a 2016 Tweetas a dig at the Clinton campaign. The Nib then had KC Green redraw the comic with theGOP elephantin revenge.

Anyway, KC Green’s making a videogame about the comic now, in partnership withNumskull Games:

Folks… @NumskullGames and I are makin' a game. And we’d like to ask for your help: https://t.co/2ly2r5oGyp pic.twitter.com/nJofVhesEqSeptember 18, 2024

The project’s in its infancy, and will be gatheringfunding via Kickstarter, but it promises to be “a classic, old-school, platformer game wherein Question Hound dives deep into his subconscious to fight the monsters and demons we all similarly have running around our brain. The kind of creatures that feed off of the fear and anxiety of everyday living!” It’s appropriately titled This is Fine: Maximum Cope.

You might be wondering why a game based on a comic about sitting still and burning to death is, well, being pitched as a platformer. Burdened with esoteric internet lore about this one comic in particular, I’d like to point out that the dog who burns had some character development after the initial meme—essentially, sitting around and accepting death isn’t the main thrust.

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In 2016, KC Greenmade a follow-up called"This is Not Fine" wherein the same Question Hound realises how screwed it is, grabs a fire extinguisher, and screams “What the hell is my problem?! Oh my god jesus f*ck!” and “There was no reason to let it last this long and get this bad!”

In aninterview with Salon, KC Green said: “It was definitely a response to how weird and bad 2016 has made me feel and most definitely a lot of others. There’s a breaking point in our society that seems to be tested on a near-constant basis.” The pitch for the game—running around your mind and fighting your inner anxieties, almost reads as a prequel to this follow-up.

It’s a smidge surreal to be sitting here, looking at the existential dread an artist felt in 2016, and then to look back at the historical arc of the past eight years since and think: Wow, the room’s still on fire. TheKickstarterfor This is Fine: Maximum Cope will open its doors to funding September 26.

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