like a deer caught in headlights

My first week at Dynamix, Jeff Tunnel asked me what kind of game I wanted to design.  (Those were the days, huh?)  Hedging my bets I asked, "What kind of game do you WANT me to design?"  He said I could do anything and he sent me off to be creative. 

I spent the next week cooking up an adventure game proposal that I absolutely loved.  Jeff wasn't in his office so I triumphantly dropped the 5 page proposal document on his desk.  On the way back to my office I ran into an old friend and after a few minutes of polite conversation I told him about my game concept.  He got a strange look and asked, "An adventure game about a tabloid reporter? That sounds exactly like Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders." 

Zak McKracken, Lucasfilm Games

SHIT! 

I'd certainly heard of that game but never played it.  Heart pounding, I raced upstairs to grab the proposal off Jeff's desk. But where was it???  I couldn't see it among his other papers so I frantically grabbed a handful of documents with one hand and flipped through another stack with the other.

I was just getting ready to rifle through his desk when movement caught my eye.

Sure enough, when I glanced at the door Jeff was standing there with a very concerned look on his face.  I still had a stack of his papers clutched in my hand but I couldn't put them down.  In fact, I couldn't move at all for five or six seconds as my brain comprehended the compromising gravity of my situation. It was a quintessential deer caught in headlights scenario, and my worst nightmare.

I made up a weak excuse, grabbed the document (which he was holding in his hand), and slunk out of the room, quite red in the face. I'm sort of surprised he didn't fire me.