Constellation Games

Ariel Blum is pushing thirty and has very little to show for it. He's using his computer science degree to write pony-themed video games for ten-year-olds. He hasn't met a nice Jewish girl because he's secretly in love with his best friend, Jenny Gallegos. Whenever he tries to make something of his life, he finds himself back on the couch, replaying the games of his youth.

Then the aliens show up.

Ever since he was a kid, Ariel has been secretly waiting for aliens to come to Earth and solve all of humanity's problems. Or invade and enslave us all, whatever, it's cool. But now that the aliens have actually arrived, there's a problem - Ariel's life hasn't changed. He's still writing cheesy games for little girls, and he's still getting nowhere.

But video games might just be the answer. Contact with a brilliant alien anthropologist named Curic gives Ariel access to an entire galaxy's worth of alien games, and he sets out to understand the aliens by playing their games.

The real aliens are not here to invade, but they're also not very good at solving humanity's problems. Used as a pawn by both his government and the aliens, with the future of his species at stake, Ariel will take the step that nothing on Earth could make him take: he'll decide to grow up.