Game industry veteran and Twitter bot enthusiast Darius Kazemi has developed a new browser-based game, Bubble Burst Bernie, for CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The simple game is based on a running joke from the show, and marks a visible return to game dev for Kazemi, who noted a few years back that he had started identifying less as a “game developer” and more as “someone who makes ‘weird internet stuff.'”
It also represents an ongoing effort at The Late Show to integrate games into the show’s entertainment efforts, which is intriguing in light of the fact that it’s one of the longest-running late-night talk shows in America.
Last summer show representatives actually published a text adventure built in Twine, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Escape from the Man-sized Cabinet, that was written and designed (at least in part) by show writer and game designer Rob Dubbin.
Yesterday Dubbin took to Twitter to announce he had brought Kazemi “out of retirement” to help make Bubble Burst Bernie with Dubbin and artist Tim Luecke. The game itself was based on a recurring goof in which the show overlays a colorful bubble-tapping game on clips of U.S. presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders gesticulating wildly during speeches.