I had the idea for a game that was all about answering a question: What happens when a planet is almost terraformed, and then all the supporting infrastructure falls apart? What does that collapse look like? What does survival look like?
Escape From Proserpina is a text-only game that puts players in deadly situations based on that very question, while also allowing them to explore and find the answers to a few more: Why is Proserpina dying? Who created these ruins you keep finding? And will you make it out of here alive?
The game has three different “successful” endings based on choices the player makes, and a half dozen endings in which Proserpina succeeds in killing you. The game also features branching dialogue, different acquirable tools that affect your success, and even achievements! Because who doesn’t love video game achievements?
Escape From Proserpina
Modding:
Sid Meier’s Civilization IV & V
I’ve yet to make great mechanical mods like the Game of Thrones mods to Crusader Kings or huge game setup changes to Civilization. I have, however, created several story mods for Civilization IV and V. These mods contained entirely new maps created by me, as well as tweaked leaders and dialogues to match the stories I was trying to tell.
In Civilization IV, I created a Hunger Games mod, in which the player could play as any of the 13 districts, or the Capitol itself. I utilized the vassal system to mirror Districts 1-12 beginning the game under the Capitol’s thumb, and so in order to truly break free you needed to grow your own district as well as develop positive relations with the others to ensure the success of your inevitable rebellion.
In Civilization V, I told a whole new story, a few screenshots from which are shown here. I conceived of a game in which all of mythical lands that appear across so many human tales actually existed: the Land of Plenty, the Hidden Land, Land of Riches. And in the middle of them all: the player, the pole of the world and able to explore them all. And for the late game, secretly hidden away, never mentioned, and protected by three successive guardians of iron and steel: an 8th land. Barren, toxic, and filled with ancient ruins and precious deposits of uranium.
