I Made Some Cover Art

[Obsidian Productions]

Last year, I briefly toyed with the idea of writing a horror novel set in the sandbox survival mode of the game, and even got as far as putting together some cover art. I figured people might find it interesting, so here it is.

[Karl Grylls]

That looks great. The black and the red are a good combination to deliever a doomed atmosphere (or "an"? Should be an when i follow the rules i learned in school, but it sounds very wrong).  I would like to know what your story will be. Great work!

[Obsidian Productions]

6 hours ago, Karl Grylls said:

That looks great. The black and the red are a good combination to deliever a doomed atmosphere (or "an"? Should be an when i follow the rules i learned in school, but it sounds very wrong).  I would like to know what your story will be. Great work!

Thanks! I'd definitely say 'a doomed atmosphere', hell with rules, an doomed sounds stupid.

I've had the inclination to write something related to The Long Dark ever since I picked it up in late 2017 and fell in love with it. The thing is, I'm a horror kind of guy. As in, 'scary monster stalking you' kind of horror. Which I feel is antithetical to the base experience of The Long Dark. The game largely seems to be almost a meditation on existential horror of entropy and slow, irreversible decay that is 'the long dark' of the universe grinding away without care or compassion, because it is literally incapable of either, as well as what it means to be a sentient human grappling with such an existence while simultaneously dealing with such mundane but absolutely necessary tasks as drinking water, eating food, and finding shelter.

And it just feels kind of downright disrespectful to write a story in that setting that boils down 'OMFG there's a scary monster trying to kill us shoot it and run!'.

[Karl Grylls]

Well it seems to me you have never heard about the Darkwalker?

That's seems to be the perfect base for your story. Nature finally outraged about the exploitation of nature (overhunting, overfishing, mining, etc) and manifested as the Darkwalker, causing technology to fail and to wear. Earthquakes, Auroras, crashing planes that dare to come to the island, extraordinary amounts of snow and blizzards.... the few humans stupid or arrogant enough to remain in the regions of the island were hunted down. Every now and then you will find them, sitting dead down at a tree, when unexpected the darkness came

 

//oh btw your cover photo from your profile looks sick! You have to post that in the screenshot thread!

Edited June 19, 2021 by Karl Grylls

[Obsidian Productions]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. I have to admit that my feelings did change somewhat when they introduced the Darkwalker. The idea is definitely something to consider, although I didn't even get to the point of mentioning that this is all largely academic because I'm so busy with other writing projects, it feels irresponsible to start up something new at this point. But I don't know, maybe I might be tempted enough to just start writing something more low-key and simple and posting it here, though I'm not sure how active these message boards are. Would people see it?

As for my profile banner, I genuinely can no longer remember if I actually took the picture, or I found it somewhere online.

[Karl Grylls]

4 minutes ago, Obsidian Productions said:

though I'm not sure how active these message boards are. Would people see it?

Whenever i'm in a similar situation, i just write 4-5 (or maybe 7) pages and post it. Just to see if it gets attention and whether people like it or not. If not: ok fine, nothing to do anymore. If yes: good, i can carry on. But only if i want ^^

[Obsidian Productions]

4 minutes ago, Karl Grylls said:

Whenever i'm in a similar situation, i just write 4-5 (or maybe 7) pages and post it. Just to see if it gets attention and whether people like it or not. If not: ok fine, nothing to do anymore. If yes: good, i can carry on. But only if i want ^^

Unfortunately I feel too guilty to do this. I feel like even if one person comes across it and gets invested, then I'll feel like crap if I decide to discontinue it and they're basically stuck with not getting to finish reading the story forever.

[Karl Grylls]

hm, maybe starting with a short story then? A closed story about 10 pages, that's it. Just like Andrzej Sapkowski did it with his Geralt of Rivia

[Obsidian Productions]

2 minutes ago, Karl Grylls said:

hm, maybe starting with a short story then? A closed story about 10 pages, that's it. Just like Andrzej Sapkowski did it with his Geralt of Rivia

Maybe yeah.

Although I've gotten so terrible about being able to do anything short. Every project I begin balloons into a 150,000+ nightmare that takes a year of work to finish if I'm lucky.

[Karl Grylls]

Haha, for me it's just like easy, motivated start but the longer it goes, the lesser i'm interested in. My projects die close to finish^^

[Obsidian Productions]

2 minutes ago, Karl Grylls said:

Haha, for me it's just like easy, motivated start but the longer it goes, the lesser i'm interested in. My projects die close to finish^^

Yeah definitely. As it continues it just becomes "OMFG I'm so sick of this story I'd rather die than keep writing it and I just start a new project?". The Hedonic Treadmill of being a writer.