Something that is always in the back of my mind when I’m writing science fiction is not wanting to write derivative material. With so many interesting ideas that have been popularised for decades this is often an issue. Pondering on it on the bus today however, I was reminded of how it isn’t just advances in science that influence science fiction but also vice versa. Many authors have coined terms and explored concepts which the scientific community are considering seriously now. So with that in mind, perhaps certain ideas that have become what could be considered hallmarks of scifi should not be avoided but rather regarded as what they are. Well thought out, practical examples of good hard science fiction predictions.

The next story we’re writing for the Future Perfect series (after Africa Rising which we’re currently working on) follows the development of artificial intelligence, while this area has of course been featured in a number of distinguished works I feel there is still lots to explore. Some of the concepts I’ve not encountered before and I find an interesting implementation. The characterisation of the AI is something I’ve been having a little difficulty with, Clarke’s 2001 of course is renowned for its depiction of the malfunctioning pyschotic AI, while the recent film Moon likewise features a malfunctioning AI but in a different light. With the characterisation I hope to avoid the traditional depictions and find something new, which I believe there is ample room for (I just need to find it!)

I’ve started looking at the Qt Framework. Produced by Nokia, Qt allows you to build cross platform applications and leverage some really powerful features. While Qt is primarily used for developing GUI applications it makes available a number of modules for integration of other elements, such as 3d (through OpenGL or DX), networking, multimedia and scripting to name but a few. Being able to target multi operating systems easily and professionally is something I’ve been desiring and Qt seems perfect, especially with its ability to tie into OpenGL in a straightforward manner. I’ve been going through the sample apps it comes with. It’s available under both GPL and commercial licenses, so as I intend to release my work under GPL, this works out fantastically. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Check out Qt here

My friend, Lap and I, have been writing a short story called Purity. Its a science fiction story set on a space station above Mars set over a hundred years in the future and follows the tale of a detective sent in to find out the source of sabotage which has destroyed a section of the station’s docking ring. It’s the first in a series of stories we hope to do, under the umbrella title of Future Perfect. We’ve been writing up a timeline and figuring out how the universe evolves from today to several hundred years in the future. It’s been a lot of fun and Purity is now almost on its second draft. We’re hoping to try and get the story published and already have ideas for the next two stories. Above is a picture of the station in question, Ares II, above a terraforming Mars. The picture is painted by Lap and you can check out others on his site here, the gallery will be updated as we get further and I hope to keep you posted on how it goes.

I’m currently playing through the original Mass Effect on Xbox 360 (of course.) Enjoying it so far, but the game could do with a much clearer objective system and some of the combat feels a little counter-intuitive. Apparently the sequel fixed a lot of these issues, so I’ve got that to look forward to.

After borrowing my friend’s Playstation 3, I’ve also been playing Joe Danger. I first saw the game back at Eurogamer Leeds last year where the company I worked at, at the time had a stall. I’m pleased to say I found the game very fun and the level of polish is exceedingly high.

I’ve also just started on Uncharted 2. I was blown away by the graphics, which are really, really pretty. I’m glad to see they’ve managed to keep the camera system sensibly located as you move throughout the levels. The game has a really strong narrative and I had trouble putting it down. I can see why people raved about this game.