I would like to write a post about Level Zero today, and how some of the chapters are important to be through the prism of my personal life. While we will not say anything, I think it’s a little bit of fun to go through the text again and reflect.
The first act, in general, is a big love letter to the late nineties. I have started to work actively in the game development industry, and I still honestly believe this is a timeline where the industry peaked in spirit, creativity, comradery and hope for the future. We didn’t really have hierarchies; bosses were mentors and friends, and relationships were primarily based on mutual respect and aspirations. Yet the industry has started to become incredibly successful, and more people with more interests, more than just making cool games in a great company of people, showed up.
“An Offsite” is my point in space and time that has shifted my career and heavily coded with real-time events; I think it will make a few of my friends smile and a few people I know frown, but it will very quickly jump into speeding up the world of speculative fiction through Crossroads. It will set the tone for a much bigger picture as a stage in the final chapter of the act.
Act 3 is where things get dark, and reflect on how good things change to something else through complacency, circumstances and good people doing nothing where they can. Outside of some of the initial feedback, I do not see the main character as some form of my alter ego (I typically don’t do self-insertions except little funny cameos, and even if I would, my character would be Hank :), but James R will have to make some serious choices, and not all of them will be good. Some of them will, and they are very much relatable.
Act 4 will then introduce us to a world of imagination, conclusions, and cyberpunk reality that depicts how things could have become (and maybe will in some form!) and what key characters will do about it, sealing the cycle with very unexpected outcomes. There are a few surprises there as well, with a couple of my very good friends helping me with “The Hack” and the general final action sequence, but as we discussed, there are no spoilers!
Level Zero is not about anyone in particular but about all of us. It has some references and a lot of collective characters and images, but I believe it has a story to tell that will resonate with you if you are in games and deliver a couple of moments that will make you feel.
For everyone else, there is a roller coaster to ride and the opportunity to see behind the industry curtain!
Also, we have some people who have already read the book, including media, and I have to share a couple of endorsements we got from the Sun and Daily Express:
“A masterclass in speculative fiction, blending insider knowledge of the gaming industry with profound insights into corporate ambition and technological evolution. Utterly unputdownable." Chris Riches, Daily Express
"A gripping speculative thriller that takes readers deep into the high-stakes world of game development and the dark secrets lurking beneath. A must-read for tech enthusiasts and sci-fi fans alike" Richard Moriarty, The Sun
We are getting ready to share the chapters by-weekly from February and organising the second stage of the beta-reading everyone, so keep on following our news :)
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