How a Twitter fib led 2 studios to make a weird VR game about accounting

Weeks after making its public debut, Squanchtendo Games has announced its first project: Accounting, a comedic VR game developed in partnership with indie studio Crows Crows Crows.

As is often the case, the game has an interesting origin story. According to Polygon, Crows Crows Crows cofounder William Pugh lied to Squanchtendo cofounder (and Rick & Morty co-creator) Justin Roiland about working at Respawn Entertainment after Roiland took to Twitter last September to ask if any of his followers were Respawn staffers.

As it turns out, he was asking because he was at that very moment standing outside Respawn's offices in California, hoping to find someone who could let him in and tour him around.

"I immediately followed him, and I direct messaged him, and I'm like, ‘Oh my god, I'm right here! I'm like in the lobby!’" Roiland told Polygon. "And he's like 'Listen, I don't ... I'm so sorry, I don't actually work at Respawn.'"

Pugh, a self-professed Rick & Morty fan who lives and works in the U.K., quickly tried to make things right -- and shortly thereafter he flew to Los Angeles to collaborate with Roiland on what has become Accounting.

The game, built for the HTC Vive headset, is now expected to release sometime this month. It will be made available free of charge, much as Crows Crows Crows' inaugural game Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist was earlier this year.