Trivia / Bureaucracy

• Author Usurpation: The runaway success of Infocom's game based on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1984) made them eager to start on the sequel that they knew that they wanted to do. Douglas Adams was at that point burned out on the constant main focus on that one series which was his life for the last six years. He wanted to do something else. This ended up being Bureaucracy. Infocom agreed but really were just interested in keeping Adams happy enough to eventually get him onboard to the Hitchhiker's Guide sequel that they really were interested in.
• Feelies: The original release's box included a pencil, a letter from your new boss, a flyer for Popular Paranoia magazine, and a credit card application form. The credit card application slip was in triplicate, and the three copies were completely different - for example, where the top copy gives a checklist of assets, the bottom copy claims those same assets as gifts to the bank.
• Uncredited Role: Douglas Adams had heavy assistance from writer Michael Bywater, in the creation of Bureaucracy. It is unclear as to how much he actually contributed to the game other than the general idea, but according to other Infocom people, they had much more interaction with Bywater for this game than they did Adams.