It’s been a while (Spoiler: I didn’t complete the Hooptober 11 challenge).

Last year was dominated by my day job developing video games. I was the Design Director and writer on a new game called Earth vs Mars.

As Design Director I’m responsible for the overall creative direction of the game. And as writer I’m responsible for… well, the writing (and the story overall). In the case of Earth vs Mars, that’s roughly a novella-worth of words which were then brought to life by our fantastic cast of voice actors.

I also developed some of the systems, a lot of the unit AI and a bunch of other stuff I don’t remember at the moment. That all took a lot of time and attention which didn’t leave a lot of time for writing (or blogging).

The game is out now, though, and getting a good response on Steam.

We’re still supporting Earth vs Mars, but I’m also working on our next game. The scale of game development being what it is, I probably won’t be able to talk about what we’re working on for a couple of years. Or more.

But in the early days of a project things are less stressful and there’s more room for things outside of the game. In my case that means writing.

I’m about two-thirds of the way through my next book. The working title is Menagerie. I describe it as Love Actually meets The Books of Blood. It was supposed to only be a novella but the story grew and now its going to be a full length novel.

Menagerie (or whatever I end up calling it) is a stand-alone book, but I also have something lined up for fans of my Serial Killer Z series. More on that in the future.

I’m also planning on posting a bit more here.

At least that’s the plan.

[A Quick Update by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 19th April 2026]