Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Somehow two weeks later I was sitting down with a middle aged man wearing glasses dressed in casual clothing. His leather jacket was brown and I could see him constantly fidgeting around with his fingers, telling me that he was nervous. Next to him was Sandra who I frequently chatted with after her firm agreed to take me and my company on as clients.

Outside of my office was Harold along with another man I did not know. Evidently that man was a writer who Harold would be a good fit for the new project. As for the new project I brought up the idea to the team that would be working on it. It was to make a single player role playing game based off an already established world, in this case a novel series.

When I pictured single player games that were famous, they were always ones that were based off a world another person imagined. Such was the case for the Witcher series that became one of the biggest game series in history. So when I tossed this idea to the team they took a liking to it, stating that it would be better than coming up with one on their own.

Back in 2025 one thing I liked to do to pass the time was read, not many American made novels if I were being honest. Most of what I read were Japanese, Chinese, and Korean novels, with a few American made ones. I really enjoyed the Saxon Stories as I was kind of into the whole medevial era, but I mostly liked a good fantasy story.

That’s why when I was recommended to read the Malazan series I took a leap and found myself finishing all of what was written within a few days time. I pitched the idea of creating a game out of this, and the team was more than happy to do so. They were very hyped that all of them went out to buy all the books out so far to read them for themselves.

All I had to do was contact the author of the series and invite him out. Which brings me to why i’m in my office with the man today.

“Thank you for coming out Steven, how was the flight?” I asked him.

“It was alright, but short. May I ask why you want to create a game based off my work?” Steven asked me.

Steven Erikson was a Canadian writer and the border between Canada and the USA was not that far. While he could have driven here I decided to fly him out instead to make everything easier on him.

“Originally I was not going to, I never even heard of your work until last week sometime. It was not until Martian, one of my employees told me to give it a read did I learn about it. From that point on, I fell in love with the world and characters you’ve created. Then I pictured it as a game, and found your world was suitable.” I told him honestly.

“I see. Honestly, i’ve never heard of your company either until you managed to get into contact with me. I did not know my work reached all the way here, so it brings a smile to my face to know that you enjoyed it. What kind of games have you created so far?” Steven asked me.

“None at the moment. But we are building our own, which will be released in the near future. It is still a work in progress, but it has a stable foundation. We do however have a contract with BioWare as they’ve employed us to help with their upcoming game, and we are also working with Terminal Reality fixing their game that was set to release this year, but now is slated to come out sometime next year.” I told him.

Steven listened to me and nodded his head a few times, but did not seem too confident in my companies ability.

“If you would like I could show you around. We have the latest and greatest equipment along with some brilliant minds. Showing you a bit of what we’ve accomplished for our own game shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.”

“I’d love that. I’d like to know what i’m signing up for if we go through with this.” Steven said.

I nodded and got up from my seat while letting Steven stand as well. I opened the door for him and Sandra as we both walked out. Harold was outside the door talking with a short white man with glasses that seemed to be gaining a few pounds. I started to wonder if this was a recurring theme within this industry, as i’ve met a lot of people so far fitting that same description. I tried not to think about it much, but I just couldn’t help it.

As I looked around the office I noticed my employees were of various sizes, races, and gender. Would it be bad if I added a fitness center on the lower floor? If I did that then maybe the employees would think I thought they were fat or something. Pushing that thought to the back of my mind, I lead Steven to the lead writer, Artur.

Artur was a Polish man who had a talent for telling a compelling story. He was the one that took my simple idea and made it into something grand. I still could not pronounce his last name, Ganszyniec well so I just stuck to calling him by his first name. Along with everyone else here.

At the time of our arrival he was busy talking to the writers under him, but after seeing us he dismissed them.

“Alex, who is this? A new hire?”

“No, this is Steven Erikson. Steven, this is Artur, our lead writer for our upcoming game.” I said as I introduced the two men. They shook hands.

“I stopped by to show Steven a bit of what we’ve been working on. Can I borrow a bit of your time to discuss our world?”

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“I always have time for you my friend. Where should I start?” Artur asked me.

“What do you find interesting?”

“Ahh, that’s the question. There is just too many parts in the story that are interesting. How about we talk about the plague that haunts the Kalor Kingdom?” Artur asked with a smile on his face.

“Kalor Kingdom?” Steven asked in confusion. Even Sandra narrowed her eyes at this, as she’s been to the company a few times but never really saw much of what we’ve been working on.

“It is one of the three major kingdoms on the continent of Illudor, one with hidden secrets. The Kalor Kingdom is at war with the other two kingdoms on the continent as they are all vying for power. Fun fact, the three kingdoms used to belong to an empire that was split apart by the children of the late emperor.” Artur started to give a bit of background into the history of the kingdoms and why they were fighting in the first place.

Both Sandra and Steven took a seat and became engulfed in the tale Artur was telling them. Even I listened to him speak as I never got tired of hearing the story of how these three siblings rivalry turned into a feud that lasted decades.

“Wait, so the plague wasn’t the doing of the Gray Legion? Then who started it?” Sandra asked a question that I knew many players would ask too as they learned more about the games history.

Artur grinned at that then looked at me. I shook my head and he laughed.

“If you play the game, you’ll be able to find out. The fun should be uncovering these secrets for yourself, not having me spoil it all for you.”

Steven’s eyes were wide and I could tell how interested he was in the world we created. Sandra and him both asked a few more questions, which Artur answered as long as it did not spoil anything major. After that I took them to look at a bit of gameplay.

It was models that were using the CryEngine, but it was better than nothing. The programmers were still developing the world even though we would switch over to a new engine in time. They claimed that this would be good pratice and give them a chance to build locations they’d have to create in the future.

I stopped by Eric’s desk who was busy building the capital city of the Kalor Kingdom. He was a long way from being finished but it was still nice to look at.

Eric stopped his work to show us his work and even explained to Artur what he was doing. He even played a little bit of it to show how the environment was. Which we then informed him that everything was still a work in progress and everything was subject to change. Not telling him we were building our own game engine.

“Wow, I must say i’m impressed by what you’ve shown me so far. Your world is like a novel, and how everything is being bought to life feels magical. At first I was on edge about having someone build a copy of my world, but now i’m a bit more at ease.” Steven told me as we headed back towards my office.

“Thanks, we are trying. None of this would be possible without the diligent work of everyone present, it is a team effort. What i’ve taken you around to see is our own game which will be massive. The kind of game we want to create for you would be on a smaller scale and focus on the single player experience. Meaning giving them a story and world they can fall in love with, without having to worry about other players.” I explained to him.

“Smaller scale? What do you mean by that?”

“Well, your novel is pretty large so it would be impossible to cover the entire thing in a single game. The hours needed would be immense, so we were planning on cutting it down instead. Covering the first two installments of your series, and if it does well then we could create a series out of it. Even if it does not do as well as we hope, you’ll still have an increase in sells for the novel.” I said.

“I guess that is true, and will Artur be the one developing the story?” Steven asked just as we reached my office.

I shook my head and stopped in front of Harold along with the other man he was still talking to.

“No, the one who will be the lead writer for it is this man, Richard Dansky.”

After hearing his name, Richard paused in his discussion with Harold and looked our way. He nodded his head in a greeting and Steven did the same. I quickly introduced both men to one another and their background.

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