Introducing Monad
16 years ago I started developing a browser-based game called Axongrid. I built it with an official blessing to use the Mutant Chronicles intellectual property, and it was neither great nor entirely faithful to the IP— but fun. It had around 100 players, including most of my friends from school. Then, at some point, I didn’t have time to keep supporting it. I also lost the code and database due to not keeping backups — and Target Games/Paradox Entertainment’s blessing to keep using the IP. Honestly, very understandably so.
11 years ago, as if being blessed with building a coolish career in community management on worldwide AAA game titles wasn’t enough, I started developing its sequel. This time, without any brand to support it. I created my own. I decided to call it “Dyne”. The name was in part inspired by the simplicity of Frank Herbert’s “Dune” and the global brand “Sony”, but mostly stood on its own — a simple name for an archetypal world.
I outsourced some work to a cheap offshore art agency but didn’t have the financial resources to really support it. Besides, I had a full-time job that took most of my time and energy. There were also big-budget games hitting the market that I simply couldn’t compete with. In all this distraction, I would find my leisure periods dominated by a different bemusement, and I’m not precisely talking about my occasional adventures into music composition…
…10 years ago I started writing a fantasy novel to support the game I was developing. I wrote around 300 pages and pretty much finished it. The beginning was passable. The ending was decent. Everything in-between was a mess.
Fast-forward to 8 months ago. As a few select of you know, I recently decided to learn React and Node.js. As a workbench, I started developing a game that I feel like I’ve developed over and over in life. Like, at least twice. Only this time I’m fully determined to make it significant.
Monad is a browser-based massively multiplayer strategy game based in a futuristic projection of the Dyne universe. This time —instead of steampunk fantasy — ‘Monad’ presents a conglomerative universe of all future punks I‘ve been able to conjure. The development has come relatively far. I’ve designed, developed, and implemented a lot of the core game mechanics, as well as worked with freelance artists to produce a growing inventory of art assets.
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NB: After the publication of this post, the game project was renamed from Dyne: Galaxies to Monad.
“What do you dream of becoming when you grow up?”
Children were routinely asked about their dreams as they stood on the precipice to adulthood.
This generation was the first to look to the stars, beyond their village, beyond their nation, beyond our planet, when they answered.
As soon as humanity had revolutionized space travel, it didn’t take long for us to colonize the Milky Way, let alone the solar system. The Vavruch space engine brought us leaps and bounds ahead of where we should have been; our logistical capabilities grew disproportionately to other advancements. The discovery took us to distant stars but left us helplessly behind when it came to resolving more pressing challenges and disease faced as a civilization. Perhaps this is why many chose to leave.
Exploration vessels escaped from the planet we had called home in great numbers, in search of riches, success, purpose — a second chance. Inspired by the ruthless mega-corporations that controlled the old planet, entrepreneurs sought to found new commercial empires, to forge their own.
You were born and raised on Earth, but distant galaxies are the frontier for today’s pioneers. Good luck.
