From Dust to Dreams

It feels like so long ago since I graduated from university to make games.

My first memory of the beginning is a much simpler time; when the world began its mission to support the environment instead of destroying it day after day. As the rain begins to fall here in the New Rhacotian Plain, I can remember when I realised that my talents were better spent elsewhere. It was 2010 as the Global Recession still infiltrated every corner of society, impacting the interests of both top executives and graduate like myself.

Thousands were jobless, hundreds were destitute and decades-old businesses were hanging on to what precious money they had to stay afloat. The funding of a mere fifty billion pounds to undo the growing crisis was laughable by most of us, but when people aren’t allowed to make policy to governments, what can you do?

Even back then we knew the Polar Ice Caps were melting faster than we could compensate and, yet, so many still could not accept we were heading towards disaster. New opportunities arose as countries turned inwards, scrambling to find the most efficient technologies they had to remove a dependency on fossil fuels. I was trying to secure a patent for a new solar system at the time, when I thought a new conglomerate like Enki might be an excellent way to help expand humanitarian support into multiple areas with the ideas I had. Establishing it in the Portsmouth Centre for Enterprise with one of my old teachers, Simon Brookes, it wasn’t so much a company as it was a coalition to bring people with experience from around the world together, in building projects that would benefit the Cradle of Life. The first prototype for the solar system was developed later that year; a generator meant to power a small settlement, using less material than one solar panel under mass-production for the DESERTEC Initiative. But the problem wasn’t just power. Sooner or later, food was going to be a huge issue in more developed regions of the globe and was already at breaking point in what was a massive, dusty place. What we needed was something that would get the world’s attention, to restore the pristine beauty to the 150 square miles of now-lush farm and woodland.

My second memory was in 2011 when New Rhacotis was formed: an ever expanding project and “great experiment” where Africa would be reclaimed from the desert. We had to choose an area where nothing but sand and minimal grazing land was located, but had nearby villages provided by humanitarian aid. The goal was to create a place using specific technologies from the UK and Europe, the USA, Russia and China, working co-operatively to transform this inhospitable place into a small paradise. Then we could build on what we had learnt and replicate it in other impoverished regions around the world. It was huge undertaking and something not to be performed, unless everybody involved wanted to improve the situation of inhabitants in the region. The solar system I had developed at the university were only one of a number of contributors to the project alongside Helix Wind Turbines, Bloom Box Fuel Cells, Thermoelectric Conduits, OLEDs, Smart Fabrics, Vertical Farming, Nanomaterials and Bio-Enhanced Robotics. In the end, however, the benefits would far outweigh the risks if we succeeded...

Nobody would have ever believed that ordinary people would be helping to save the world where politicians had failed, where those shunned by Oil and Natural Gas companies who thrived on disinformation were left behind because they refused to act responsibly when their support was an obligation. But we did. I suppose that’s why my old friend called me following his tenure with Alchemy; an enclave of citizens like us who put the world before their own self-interests to help those in crisis. People need hope, they need safety, and they need the right to live securely in the knowledge their children can go to bed at night properly clothed and fit with a full stomach. Not just today, but every day.