Moving Pictures

I ground to a halt on the sequel to 'Building Mars' about a year ago, running low in inspiration, and switched to another form of storytelling: video.

I've been working on short video stories using a computer game called 'Space Engineers', which enables me to build spacecraft and set up scenes with astronaut-type characters, set them in motion, then capture the action to a mp4 video file.

Merrick Tor has a narrow escape flying across Verdanta

Here's a link to the latest in a story called 'Verdanta'. It began as a short and simple video for my son's birthday, featuring someone flying a plane over an alien planet. 

But then I began thinking, 'Where did he come from? Where is he going? Why? Who is he?' and a story began to grow. It's based on something I was doing in Space Engineers a few years ago - trying to set up a scenario that other people could play, but it became too complex and I gave up on it.

You meet some odd people out in the asteroid belt

For a little background on the world of Verdanta, join this Discord group and read the 'Verdanta' channel.

For some light relief there's also a series of short pieces called 'The Joker' following the antics of a character named Joe Grimaldi who can't help but clown around. Find the playlist here.

Joe pleads for his life - his crewmates have had enough of his practical jokes!