Saturday 13 April 2013

New Story up at Dark Expanse

My story, Light Bringer, can be read at the Dark Expanse website. The Dark Expanse galaxy is home to a multiplayer online strategy game.




Dark Expanse© is a free-to-play, real-time, massive multi-player online strategy game of galactic conquest. Local commanders develop their resources, improve their planets, colonize new worlds, research new technologies and build space fleets while defending their territory and conquering enemy worlds. Choose your friends and allies carefully because mutual offensive, defensive and navigational capabilities can be achieved through combining forces with other commanders.

The creators have commissioned a number of writers to develop the lore of the Dark Expanse galaxy.

This was a first for me, as it was set in a shared world. So parts of the story were already in place. My story for instance was based on a gaseous species called the Methenes who had already some defined racial traits. And as other writers to were also writing stories set in the Dark Expanse galaxy we needed to co-ordinate details (which we did via a private forum).

It was a very interesting experience. The fact that I was working in an established world actually made the story easier to write. Has anyone else written in shared world environment?

I hope you like the story, or maybe you'd prefer to play the game. Either way, enjoy.


16 comments:

  1. I wonder if this qualifies? Back in the 80's I set out, in an official capacity, as a freelance writer (the mind boggles, because back then I was so very, very green).

    Combining my love of the role playing game genre, and one gaming system in particular: Warhammer Fantasy RPG by Games Workshop, I wrote to Flame Publications who were in charge of a project setting called 'Marienburg' and asked if they accepted freelance submissions. They did and promptly sent me a list of places they needed writing and designing.

    I chose two: a watch barracks and a ship's chandlers. I did the character sketches, the floor plan designs and wrote up the local lore, gossip, stats and entire background. I was lucky and they bought both.

    The company folded about 18 months later, and I never did anything else of the like ever again.

    But kudos to you, Debs, I'm so envious - congratulations for getting selected :)

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    1. My son, is such a fan of Warhammer, Mark. I mean he's obsessed with it. I've just told him about you and he thinks that you're 'cool.'

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  2. I gotta go check this out. Gamer fan fiction or anything similar (especially that used by the actual game) is just cool. Congratulations. You gonna write any World of Warcraft books? I'd totally buy those.

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    1. There's so much cross over between gaming and SF and fantasy, isn't there? The nice thing about this call was that they wanted short stories. And I do love short stories.

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    2. But yeah, if World of Warcraft asked, I'd snap their hand off!

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  3. Sounds very interesting. I hope it works out very well for you.

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    1. Hello Kathi, thanks for your good wishes. It may be that I've got something to report very soon. (I know, the dreaded Sekrit news)!

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  4. Sha-jim reminds me of Ben Gunn from Treasure Island -- enjoyed this one; well-written (of course), and I found the world-building to be fascinating, even without having played the game or read any of the other stories. I've always wanted to write Firefly fan fiction but never have -- wish Fox/Whedon would be as receptive to the idea as Hugh Howey.

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    1. Sha-jim was lots of fun to write, Milo. And thanks for the flattering link to Ben Gunn.

      Firefly is Space Western. That should be so easy for you. Write series, then people could start to wish that they could do fan fiction in Milo-Space.

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  5. That sounds fun - right up my street! I'll head on over for a read. And, quite possibly, a play too...

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    1. I love the music they're got playing on the site, Simon. Kinda fire me up for battle.

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  6. What an interesting publication. Congrats! I'll be heading over sometime soon.

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  7. Combining written fiction with an RPG is an intriguing idea. Congrats on your story!

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    1. I know, Eagle. There's such a scope for crossover.

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  8. If I like it, I'll be very tempted to buy it. It could go on my study wall (if I had one).

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