Hello, I’m Matt. I am just getting started in this author stuff. I have been creating universes almost my entire life.
It started in my youth when I created a percentile-based (1D100 or 2D10 percentile) pencil and paper RPG engine. This was probably my fourth or fifth attempt at making a cool, fun, fluid and flexible game engine. Previous attempts involved becoming a bug (titled “Bugsy”), another one was an interesting take on becoming a vehicle called “Cars” which oddly enough resembled Tron in a lot of ways.
This new engine was the one that stuck. The predecessors had glaring game engine holes that made characters/players way too powerful. This game engine put players into a universe that they could never outpower the GM. It was real. It was dark. It was gritty. It was “SpaceMercs”.
Without giving away too much content, it had a series of races that a player could choose. It had cybernetics. Players could purchase and upgrade their own space craft. It was a universe full of corporations because the universe was just too big for governments.
It was in this time, that I needed to come up with a backstory for my nifty RPG. So, I sat down and wrote some open-ended commentary on the events from “today” to the future. It was the first time I had written fiction. It was pretty good. And it filled the purpose of providing enough content to allow GM’s freedom to do what they wanted to do while giving guardrails and guidance as needed.
Anyway, fast forward to today. I still have the original “SpaceMercs” RPG that I wrote up in my room. I have come a long way since then. But the premise and universe of “SpaceMercs” has stayed with me. I have always been intrigued by the universe and what I could do with it.
Well, one day, I just sat down and started writing. And before too long, I had over 400 pages and nearly 100,000 words written in my first draft. On top of that, I had already outlined plots and subplots for book 2. Book 3 was starting to become a necessity. It was then that I realized, that there was way too much story here not to tell people.
I am not a writer in the traditional sense. My normal job is programmer / software engineer. This has become my hobby and I find that I thoroughly enjoy putting time into these books. I have other books and genres that I’m interested in exploring once I get the “SpaceMercs” universe established. So, this will only get more involved.
In my spare time, I spend time with my wife and kids near Orlando, FL. My wife, Brandy, supports me in everything I do and she’s been an amazing help while I got my feet dirty in this adventure.
Please, sign up for the newsletter. I will try to keep you updated as things progress. There’s a fairly long road ahead of me and I hope you will be there to enjoy it, too.
Thanks,
Matt
Matthew Scott Campbell 