The Typist
3 March 1930  ·  A typing game

The rent is due.
The book is waiting.

You are a writer-for-hire in a rented attic, alone with an iron typewriter and one lamp. Copy the classics sheet by sheet, deliver on time, and keep every word the way you found it.

Invite-only while the game is in development. Invitations go out with each new build.

An iron 1930s typewriter, lit by a single lamp
One career, every desk

Save your career to an account and pick up the same desk on any machine.

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The Meridian Copy Bureau

14 Fenwick Lane, third floor  ·  Typing done by the sheet

3 March 1930

Dear Typist,

We have a commission for you: a clean copy of Pride and Prejudice, chapters I to III. Three sheets on bond, delivered by Friday noon.

Fee on delivery: $2.40. Each error is deducted at the editor's discretion.

Yours faithfully,
A. Hale, Copy Desk

Accepted
The work

Every commission
is a real book.

Public-domain classics from Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks, or your own books. Yours never leave your device.

  1. No. 01

    Open the mail

    Offers arrive as letters. Pick the book, the deadline and the fee you can live with.

  2. No. 02

    Type the sheets

    Letter by letter on your own keyboard. The machine keeps your mistakes on the page.

  3. No. 03

    Face the blue pencil

    The editor marks every slip. Clean pages earn a reputation; sloppy ones come back.

  4. No. 04

    Pay the rent

    Ink, paper and rent cost money. Miss a week and the bills pile up on the desk.

The desk

The desk keeps score.

There is no HUD. Returned pages crumple, unpaid weeks stack up as bills, and a good delivery tidies the desk a little.

The Daily Telegram

Every morningOne passage · every typist · one tryBy invitation

Typists race the same page at dawn

Each morning a fresh passage arrives by wire. Every typist in the city gets it at once, and every typist gets a single try. Speed counts. Clean copy counts more.

Scores stand in the per-book and weekly columns, or stay in your own drawer if you would rather type in private.

Typists of the week

NoTypistWPMClean
1M. Okafor11299.6%
2E. Lindqvist10499.8%
3J. Tanaka9899.1%
4H. Weiss9198.7%
5C. Moreau8899.4%
A sample board, as it might read on a Friday. Corrections cost time, not points.
A wax-cylinder dictating machine

Type what you hear

Dictation contracts arrive on wax cylinders. Real LibriVox readers speak the book; you work the foot pedal and type it down.

By invitation

Desks are
assigned by hand.

The bureau takes on new typists a few at a time. Send your application and a letter arrives when a desk frees up.

Off the record: The Typist is invite-only while it's being built. I add people with each new build and listen closely to what they say.

Application for a desk Form T-1

One letter when your desk is ready. No spam, no newsletter unless you ask.

The Typist Pro

The game is free to play.

Your career is kept on your device, and you can save it to an account to play on other devices. Pro removes the limit on importing your own books and supports the game's development. Prices include VAT where it applies.

PlanPriceBilling
Monthly$3.99Every month, cancel any time
Yearly$24.99Every year, cancel any time
Lifetime (founder pricing)$49Once

Payments are handled by Paddle, our merchant of record. Not happy? See our refund policy.

21:00  ·  The lamp is lit

Your desk is waiting.

The Typist is invite-only while it's in development. Join the waiting list and a desk will be held for you.

Join the waiting list Read the devlog