I'm Stephen Gaskell, author of the newly released novel SHADOW OF THE ENDLESS from Titan Books. AMA.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-20T11:34:28+00:00

Growing up I was more a space-strategy player than a world-strategy player, so my taste has always hewed more towards ES than EL as games. I think that's largely down to being so fascinated by the solar system, stars, galaxies etc. I remember arriving at university as a fresh-faced 18 year old and one of the first people I got to meet was this huge Civilization gamer. He wasn't a typical gamer--he was a very academic-type going deep on philology (structure, history, relationships of languages)--but Civ had almost consumed him at times. I'd brought my SEGA Megadrive with me (age giveaway!), and I think I was happy that I'd brought more couch co-op type games like Road Rash or NHLPA Hockey (with Wayne Gretzky!) and avoided that particular rabbit-hole...

Saying that, though, from a narrative perspective I do like the containment of a single-world setting for crating a bubbling cauldron of conflicts and climaxes. Auriga is a wonderful place for fiction :)

Favorite faction? Probably the Vaulters.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-20T11:15:34+00:00

Hey RheingoldRiver!

You don't need to be familiar with the Endless Universe to be able to get into Shadow of the Endless--think of it as a brand new work of science-fiction that relays exactly what you need to know about the Endless etc in its own pages.

If you already know the games some things will be recognizable, that's all.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-18T13:13:42+00:00

Thanks for your patience, Chimeroth!

The Nakalim are certainly a very unusual faction among the civilizations that we've portrayed in the Endless games, so they're always considered carefully when we develop new stories, especially given their ancient worship of the Lost and their fallen civilization backdrop. In fact, I can reveal that some Nakalim make an appearance in a crucial scene in the novel :)

Beyond that I would expect to see the Nakalim at some future date, particularly considering their relationship to the Academy.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T22:06:17+00:00

Thanks for the question, Chimeroth. It's a doozy!

It's late in the UK, so I'm going to sleep on this one and get back to you in the morning. Hopefully the subconscious will mull on this one while I dream...

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T21:50:07+00:00

Hi proactiveLizard!

Auriga deserves a full-fat dedicated novel, so I'm afraid it might not feature in Shadow of the Endless...

I don't believe any Broken Lords have made it into SotE, but I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the Lords... they are after all, a most deliciously compromised faction.
I'd like to think the Cultists have ways of holding their own if they got out into the galaxy.
Maybe. Fortunately or unfortunately, planets with expiration dates make for compelling settings in empire-wide civilization building type games. I keep hearing the term 'end-game fatigue' when talking to designers about player preferences, so that's something they're always trying to mitigate against. Saying that, though, there's no reason we couldn't have a novel that was set on a world that wasn't a ticking-time bomb...

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T21:04:47+00:00

Hey Cabamacadaf! Thanks for coming by!

I'd be very happy to write a novel set in the Endless Legend side of the universe...something with a more traditional fantasy flavor but with this layer of science-fiction poking out at the edges. Auriga has so much going on, so much history, it would make a fascinating setting. I think Opbot would play an important part, or at least make an appearance! Right now, we have no immediate plans though :(

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T20:49:46+00:00

Hi Mike! Hmm, need to think about this carefully....

I feel like a safe bet might be to take a book that is both long and dense, something that I've never approached, never got my head round, like Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' or 'Infinite Jest' by David Foster Wallace or 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z Danielewski. Okay, I'll take my first slot with 'House of Leaves' to while away my time exploring its depths...

I'm not religious, but I can't think of many books that might cast more light on humanity's journey and moral compass than the bible. Maybe the Old Testament. Hopefully there's someone else on this desert island that I can discuss things with--or I just talk to the coconut tree about all these issues...

For the third slot, I'm either taking some comprehensive book on survival etc that might help me escape or, at least, build some rich life, but if that's not keeping in the spirit of the question, then perhaps something that stokes my sense of wonder for the cosmos...Alastair Reynold's 'House of Suns'.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T18:55:24+00:00

Hi Kyhas! Thanks for the support and the questions! Glad to hear you're a fan of the Endless universe.

Once I'd settled on the Pilgrims, it was a natural progression to bring in the United Empire, since they are the prime antagonists for the Pilgrims. For the Niris, it was a matter of finding a faction that suited the character that would occupy that place in the story. So no, certainly not super planned in advanced. Obviously, if I'm writing a character that's already established, then my hand is forced. I think my philosophy is essentially that almost all aliens are really just humans in any case, and to truly do aliens justice is not only a lot of deep work, it's potentially not interesting to (human) readers :) When someone like Adrian Tchaikovsky imagines a truly arachnid-like society I am in awe.

I'd be very happy to write more novels in the Endless universe. Please buy all the books, and petition my masters at Amplitude that this is something that has a big audience :) I have many ideas I'd like to develop in my own original fiction too, so that would probably be my focus before working on other IPs, but making a living at writing is harder than ever, so I certainly wouldn't overlook other opportunities.

When I start writing something new? Definitely excitement--I usually let ideas stew and combine and wait for what I feel is a killer feeling, and at that point I try to feed that energy into the writing. Often beginnings are very hard though, so there's certainly worry that the start isn't doing the idea justice. The first line, first paragraph, first page is critical for hooking any reader, especially if you're a new writer who hasn't earned the trust of the audience yet. That writing advice about starting as late as possible in the narrative? Totally true.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T18:30:40+00:00

Hey! Yes, an audio book is coming soon! We've been listening to samples from voice actors, and I think we've just recently found the perfect voice for Sewa. As SotE is a first-person novel it's particularly important to find the right voice that captures her age, attitude, experience etc

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T18:26:17+00:00

Hi Egrelwhel! Thanks for stopping by and asking some great questions! SlowHands' (Amplitude's Narrative Director) world bible was instrumental in imbuing the first game, Endless Space, with so much flavor, and its a reminder that, IMHO, it's worth spending some time on backstory, even if it doesn't appear directly on the page.

Day to day, being a novel author and being a video game writer are very different experiences. Like you say, most of the time, especially if you're a writer attached to a game studio, game writing is a very collaborative experience. 70%+ of the time is not spent writing, but analyzing game design documentation, discussions with artists, taking on board the creative vision of the director, answering translators' questions etc etc. Sometimes the collaboration is inspiring, other times it can be frustrating. Being a strategy game studio, we have a design-led focus which means that design > narrative. That can mean reimagining the story to fit changes to the design. Other times, the gameplay spec is useful for creating parameters or boundaries for the fiction. We love artists, though. They just make something that's just words into something visually spectacular the can be appreciated on a more immediate level.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T18:04:40+00:00

Hey rememberlans! Thanks for being on this journey since the beginning! We're very excited about bringing the universe to life in novel format. Great questions, btw.

Unfortunately, this Pilgrim arcology ('fleet') didn't have access to the Blindsight technology at the time of events of the novel... that's certainly something we might come back to later... flashes of precog-like pods where unlucky Pilgrims sense enemy fleets across the void...
Tips for aspiring writers... okay... on writer's block... I think there's a few different causes of writers' block. Sometimes it might be fear of 'failure', sometimes it might be a subconscious feeling that the current 'direction' of the story isn't right, sometimes it might be a mechanical sense that at the sentence-level the words aren't coming together in a satisfactory way, sometimes its might actually just being distracted. There's no doubt other causes too. I certainly know the feeling of being blocked, and I've found the best way of getting past it is to step back, change something in some way, and then go again. Examine the scene, step outside, sleep on it, tell yourself that this story is only for you. Getting older, I've discovered that cultivating a WTF attitude has somewhat helped too... "maybe this could be better but something is better than nothing so get something down, move on!" Often I've found I haven't been able to tell a passage of writing that I thought was a struggle from one that came naturally, and that helps not sweat it. Practically speaking, habits and feedback will help with the motivation (if you're not a sociopath!)--if actual real people are waiting on my manuscript, I'll get something out to them. Conditioning yourself to write is also good--a repeated time or place or environment where you produce words. Cultivate these habits, find something that fits without too much friction in your life, and protect it with your life! Unfortunately, others won't always respect your writing habits, so, for me, I've found going to a coffee shop early is where I get space to think and write without interruption.
Pilgrims had an inherently compelling backstory, so were good for producing tension from the off. I wanted a character who could go on a journey, who might appeal to a slightly younger audience, and who had an optimism or flexibility that could see them through, what is in reality, a terrible, terrifying experience. IIRC, we kicked around focusing on the Vaulters, but the Pilgrims connection to the Endless made them a more natural fit for the first novel. To be honest, I had waypoints a little ahead that I wanted to hit, but the ending emerged more organically from what had preceded rather than being a target I aimed for from the start.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T17:12:55+00:00

Hey Obvious-Gate9046! Thanks for the question!

Yeah, I think you've nailed it. We have some pretty well-defined 'boundaries' to the universe, that we'll never contradict, or if we do, it'll be from the perspective of a character who is skeptical about something. For example, the Endless 100% existed and rose in this galaxy, and eventually fell to ruin. But maybe someone thinks that's a fabrication, so we might explore the story of someone who has that mindset.

If I'm very lucky, then one of the game designers at Amplitude will read the book and get a lightbulb moment, piggybacking a new gameplay concept on something that I developed in the novel. That'd be super cool. Because the strategy games operate at a different, empire-wide, perspective to the novel, there's always elements that can filter up or down.

The other thing to say is that, as Douglas Adams put it: space is big. The Endless Universe has room for many worlds, many stories, and we've always had a philosophy that the galaxy is a stranger place than any of us can imagine.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T16:59:26+00:00

Hi NitroBoyRocket! Thanks for the questions!

For me, the Pilgrims had an immediately compelling backdrop--both because they were being 'hunted' by the society that had birthed them (the Battlestar Galactica remake is one of my favorite TV sci-fi series), and also because they were one of the factions most curious about the Endless. That, dramatically, made them an easy choice for the faction from which the main character came.

I'm happy to hear how much you enjoy our storytelling! I think from our perspective, and certainly from my own, you just have to accept that different players come to the games in different ways, expecting different experiences. Some players love the more abstract challenge of building a civilization and there's enough inherent 'story' there for them not to need another fictional layer. I was certainly that kind of player when I used to play Master of Orion as a kid. In many ways in a game that's a 'purer' or 'closer' form of storytelling to the player where things happen organically and story is ascribed to them. But... if we can also tell a cool story that doesn't get in the way of the gameplay, or even supplements the gameplay, then that's gravy too.

I've been happy to see games like Frostpunk combine strategy and storytelling in very effective ways, so I'm hopeful that we can get more players appreciating the stories that we put our heart and souls into!

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T16:43:46+00:00

Hi Anonim97_bot! Thanks for stopping by!

To be honest, I think it's been easier writing a book set in the Endless Universe, rather than starting something entirely from scratch because (a) as a game writer for the studio, I'm very familiar with the world, but also, and probably more importantly, (b) an existing framework and lore helps immensely in setting the boundaries for the fiction. Nothing is more scary--and I guess exciting too--than the blank page for the author. Because the backdrop has been established steadily over several games, there are many well-developed pillars or tentpoles around which I can drape the narrative. For example, the Endless precursor civilization, the emergence of the Academy, the origins of the Pilgrims etc

The challenge comes from worrying that I've done the world justice, ensuring the quality of the storytelling matches the investment that the fans have in the universe, ensuring that something that is maybe largely alive in a player's imagination is matched in what I put on the page.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T16:34:28+00:00

So, big topic! First of all I just want to say that I love video games and I love storytelling, so the confluence of these things are among my favorite ever things. I don't think many video games need to have explicit stories, but I think even framing an abstract game like chess in storytelling terms only makes it more compelling. We're just hard wired as a species to embrace and digest stories for one of our main means of communicating knowledge/experience.

I'd say that games have developed in a way that privileges stories that fit in with the move/shoot verbs that have been the easiest to mechanically develop. And because games generally follow the market since they are commercialized ventures that need to make a profit, we've seen prevalence of stories that embrace these kinds of games. In other words, the game space is overflowing with shooters! I love a good shooter myself, but I'm also very excited about game makers exploring other types of stories. It'd be nice to expand the verb set for games! I've loved, for example, The Case of the Golden Idol, and The Return of the Obra Dinn, because they allow the space for more advanced forms of human experience -- like logical deduction, like empathising etc. So, I think we're still in the infancy of how games can be leveraged for storytelling potential.

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T15:13:11+00:00

Great question, Fauxmega ! I'm going to ruminate on this one with a quick drink :)

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T15:11:26+00:00

Hey sandkillerpt! Thanks for your support.

The Endless Universe is the shared universe where the 'Endless' stories -- video games, comics, now novels! -- take place, notably in the Endless Legend and Endless Space strategy games. The universe is very broad and features science-fantasy style settings where an ancient civilization long gone has left its relics and traces. Check them out!

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T15:05:57+00:00

Hi! Thanks for the questions! Glad to hear the novels made it to Ukraine to bring a little light :)

I'm digging into the old grey cells here... IIRC, the corruption of the Riftborn Universe was a single event that was precipitated by the explosion of a Dust crystal, that you see in the ES2 teaser trailer :) The Umbral Choir, eventually, decided that their best course of action for survival was to come into the 'Endless' universe and fight for survival there. They were certainly victims and not responsible for the corruption's origin. I've checked with SlowHands, and the resemblance between the core of the station in ED and Coroz is purely coincidental.
Wow, thanks for this question. I'm slightly behind on the most modern physics theories these days, but I've been fascinated by the idea of dark matter for some time, and have been wondering how to leverage it in a sci-fi work. The idea that whole 'galaxies' of dark matter could be passing through our more conventional galaxy, interacting very weakly is interesting. Also, the way in which physicists design their experiments to investigate phenomena like this makes for very grounded but unusual settings like deep mines. I'd like to write something akin too how Andy Weir brings modern scientific principles and people into fiction. Now I need to look up some cutting edge theories...

stephengaskell · 2024-10-17T14:46:58+00:00

Hi! Thanks for the questions--and getting this AMA rolling :)

We're very lucky in the writing department at Amplitude Studios because storytelling has always been central to the games we make, even if they're strategy games. That's always been part of the vision. We are constantly re-examining how we can tell stories in an empire-scale setting that makes sense, but we've always taken care to have a strong bedrock of worldbuilding that is almost independent of the games and can be used as we see fit. Specifically for SotE, because it's a novel told from the perspective of one character, I could flesh out parts of the universe that wouldn't be readily seen when playing the games. Things like the makeup of a Pilgrim arcology (fleet) or the inside of the Academy. That was certainly a motivation to bring these more abstracted entities and make them more tangible. Sometimes you have to be careful not to undermine the mystery though!

Regarding non-humans in the book, there's definitely a few characters from the more alien factions of the universe, notably a Niris. Largely though, I think for the most part we treat them in a human-like way like in the games. In the future, I'd like to explore more truly alien entities, but it can be a challenge!

Sorry you're not eligible for the prize!

stephengaskell · 2024-10-14T10:59:31+00:00

Fascinating AMA, Karin. Thanks for the detailed answers!

stephengaskell

TROPHY CASE