Bad Day on the Midway is a CD-ROM game written and directed by The Residents, animated and designed by Jim Ludtke, developed and published by Inscape. The game takes place in the titular Midway where the player first takes control of Timmy, an easily-amused 10-year-old boy, but is soon able to switch perspective and control to a number of different characters as they navigate through the fair. The goal isn't made very clear, as the game is considered first and foremost to be more of an interactive narrative and visual experience, but there are various ways to die during gameplay, and multiple endings can be achieved depending on which characters are left alive at the end of one in-game day. The character Timmy was later brought back in a series of short videos by the Residents in 2006. In 2012, a novel was published based on the game's story, along with a CD of "reconsidered" music from the game's soundtrack. The game was optioned by Ron Howard at Imagine Television for a proposed series to be directed by David Lynch. After two years of meetings with Lynch, the project was dropped because a script was never agreed upon. Had the project moved forward, The Residents would not have been creatively involved as their contract only gave them consulting roles in the pilot. Gameplay Bad Day is entirely mouse-controlled. The game's core gameplay mechanic is the possibility to switch control and perspective to most of the game's characters, essentially "getting inside their heads." The player always begins the game in control of Timmy, and characters must be in view before the player has the option to switch over to them. Once the character is in view, the player must simply click on them to switch over. The character currently in control of the player will occasionally display random strands of thought on the bottom of the screen, sometimes in reaction to the game's events, locations, or other characters, who will often interact with the player as he/she meets them. These thought displays serve only for character exposition, but can sometimes clue the player in on what to do or where to go next. Every character in the game (except Jocko) has a life story sequence done by a different visual artist. They aren't important to complete the game, again serving only as character exposition. Most of these stories can be accessed