I very recently picked up the space exploration and empire-building game Stellaris. Very detailed and conplex, the goal is to spread your empire across the stars, surviving the dangers of foreign powers, internal strife, and of course the rigors of space itself.
The game strikes me as perfect for a long-running journal or chronicle series, since so much of the game is random, unscripted. Like making a history for an empire in Dwarf Fortress, Terraria, or similar games, I think this could really work; what makes these games interesting to read, from my perspective, is how different each play-through can be, and how much narrative input the player can have over the story, since so little is predefined.
With any luck I’ll be able to make it something of a weekly column, putting an hour or so worth of game time into an interesting write up, taken from the perspective of a cultural, scientific, or military chronicler, interested in preserving the legacy of their species.
Hopefully those posts will be interesting to readers; I know the site doesn’t have much traffic now, but maybe in time I’ll spread the word more. More than anything I hope the journey will be an opportunity for me to flex my creative writing muscles, using the game as a guide and prompt.
I’m expecting the first few posts to be put up in the coming week(s), and thereon to being a semi-regular feature of the site, maybe every Tuesday or so.
