Indie Developers Share Dreaded Experience on Reality Show

There are some Dews that are not worth paying.

On Monday, a some individuals went public on their horrible experience on a reality show codenamed Game_Jam, where teams of indie developers were to compete against each other to make the best games to present to judges for a chance to win the most prized drink in the gaming stereotype, Mountain Dew.

Game designers Robin Arnott and Adriel Wallick along with freelance reporter Jared Rosen all report about how cast members had cameras put to their face during stressful situations, were forced to Mountain Dew, and were ordered to do tons of ridiculous things.

The most damning moment came from Matti Leshem, who was there on behalf of Pepsi (the company who makes Mountain Dew). He reportedly asked Adriel Wallick's team if they thought they had an advantage because they had a “pretty lady” on the team. An angry Wallick told off Leshem, telling him that the advantage came from her skills.

Zoe Quinn, the only other female on the show besides Wallick, could not speak directly about the show because of a contract she signed but she did give an analogy on reality TV in general that described the disaster:

The format of reality tv shows feels a lot like you’re a fish in the following analogy. Someone goes out to the ocean with the intent of catching a fish they really love and want to observe, and putting them into a fishbowl. This fishbowl not only is incredibly cramped compared to the ocean you’re used to, but it’s got plastic day-glo green seaweed in place of the dark green foliage, neon rainbow sand where you’re used to living coral reefs, and some tiny castle with a weird dude in it that you can’t even really make sense of but the person who caught you thinks it looks really cool and ties the whole thing together because they’re used to seeing tiny castles in fishtanks.

Then, this person who caught you never changes the water and taps on the glass every five minutes.

Game_Jam had a $400,000 budget, according to reports. That's a lot of Mountain Dew.