The Thargoid Guide is Done, so Now I Wait and Sit on My Bum

It’s finally done! The Thargoid Guide is now being circulated around the Elite fiction writers’ forum so that everyone writing about our insectoid friends can start putting some words on paper, including yours truly. Playing a part in the creation of an alien race has been both challenging and enjoyable. It’s taken a lot of effort on the part of everyone to get this far, and we are all hoping that readers and gamers alike will enjoy the results when the fiction and game hit the shelves in 2014. There is still some polishing to do, but the result will be a team effort, with contributions, suggestions, and amendments provided by everyone involved along the way. Obviously this means that many of my initial ideas have been dropped or changed from the original draft as Frontier’s vision for our space-borne antagonists became clearer. I can honestly say I am not … Continue reading

‘Elite’ Game Remakes and Fan Fiction vs. The Official Version: Visions of a New Tomorrow

Rejoicing they flew: white lines, block-filled triangles, and shaded panes of colour; the sounds of the void beeping and burping in one ear before separating and enveloping them in textured audible reality. But they were cast into the outer darkness – for years nothing but a blanket of false hope to shield them from the coldness of uncertainty. It could have ended there, their humanity leached into the uncaring nothingness around them. Broken, cold. ‘We cannot die,’ a voice inside them said, ‘for if we die then The Dream will die with us as our Messiah sleeps, dreaming of rails and screaming children throwing up Slushies on the crowds 50m below. So, while He dreams of ticket sales and ice cream, we will attempt our own resurrection.’ And Alpha was born. Alpha was silent, ugly, temperamental. Alpha was no fun to play. So they emailed, forummed, read, and coded, and Beta was born. Beta was … Continue reading