Inspired by Emberverse?

[raymond_bray]

Was this game inspired by the Emberverse series of novels at all.

In the Emberverse novels a bush pilots plane crashes in the wilderness due to an anomaly that makes all technology stop working. His name is not Mckenzie , but the other group of protagonists in the books are the Mckenzies and the bush pilot has a son with one of the Mckenzies.

[Raphael van Lierop]

Hello! Thanks for your question.

I honestly had never come across this series until we launched our Kickstarter and a few people in the community asked if it was inspired by 'Dies the Fire'. Since it came up, I read it a couple of months ago, and was surprised to discover the various small connections -- the bush pilot, the Mckenzies, the "change", being set in Portland, etc.

I found the novel incredibly well researched. But it hasn't been an influence, really. I didn't particularly enjoy it; found the characters bland and unbelievable, and the plotting very convenient. But I really appreciate the amount of detail he goes in to and the scope of his thinking.

There are three or four other novels, however, that have had a great impact on me and were definitely influences:

- The Road (Cormac McCarthy); this inspired me to think about taking a more literary (vs. "pop culture") approach to the post-ap genre

- The Dog Stars (Peter Heller); this inspired me to think about a post-disaster setting as a psychological landacape, and the protagonist being a pilot got me thinking about the romance of the bush pilot and how that'd be a really good role for our protagonist (and a very Canadian thing as well)

- The Earth Abides (George R. Stewart); this inspired me to think more about the long-term decline of a society in light of a major change. Not a traditional "sudden" apocalypse, but the drawn out, multi-generational impact.

I was also influenced by several movies that deal with survival in the wilderness, and the psychological trauma of isolation: The Edge, Insomnia, The Last Winter, Wrecked, The Hunter, among others.

Mackenzie's name (Will Mackenzie) comes from wanting a strong, iconic, Canadian name.

I think if I'd read Dies the Fire before starting work on The Long Dark, I would definitely have come up with a different name (and possibly profession) for Mackenzie, but I really like him as he is, so I'm glad I hadn't read it until now. Any similarities between the two works are entirely coincidental.