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

Things are rough out there, folks. I'll be honest, I'd intended to blithely rattle off a list of all the things that are going wrong in the world at the moment, but even approaching the task made me want to go and have a lie down.While the youth are sloughing off the existential dread with their skibidis and fanum taxes, my generation was briefly encapsulated by a single webcomic by cartoonist KC Green in the 2010s: This is Fine.

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 a later interview with NPR last 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 senator directly referencing it in 2018—even before that, the Republican Party used the comic in a 2016 Tweet as a dig at the Clinton campaign. The Nib then had KC Green redraw the comic with the GOP elephant in revenge.

Anyway, KC Green's making a videogame about the comic now, in partnership with Numskull 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 gathering funding 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