Xymbers Slade's "From The Primordial Soup" Interactive Story/Game

Xymbers Slade, whom in the Newser's earlier days was a contributor of both stories, horoscopes based on his inworld tarot card deck, and some occasional cartoons, has been making himself busy lately. In the "Reddit forums under the pseudonym "TheDiscordedSnarl," he's set up a kind of interactive story/game that fans of "Spore" and from years ago "Sim Earth" might be interested in: "From The Primordial Soup." Here, people can guide the evolutionary development of an organism by discussion and voting.

So far, about 1.3 billion years in story time have progressed. The single-cell organism that the readers started out with has evolved into a multicellular organism. It shares the ocean with several other organisms, some it feeds upon, some that try to feed upon it.

As of now, the interactive story has 186 participants, a few of whom have contributed some artwork. It should be interesting to see how Xymbers/Discorded's game progresses as the reader-guided creature continues to evolve.

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: Burn2 "Primordial"

A primeval jungle surrounds the Playa as it was long long ago, a great lake.  On the edges here and there are hot springs and geysers, some of which remain even until today. Steam drifts from them out across the water in the same way the dust we know so well does today.  Thick mats of vegetation float upon the surface, some large and strong enough to hold sizable structures.  Other mats are less substantial. You must pick your path across the maze of them; one wrong step and you drop below into briny water.  Who knows what else has slipped below? What rests or lives there awaiting its genesis, ready to emerge in the next stage of our growth?

 Artists, builders, creative minds and hands - we invite you to claim your piece of prehistoric playa. Find your place, let the ancient soup teem with a riot of forms, colours and shapes. Plot signups are ready! Oh, and did we mention, plots are FREE! Musicians and DJs, performers of every kind - we invite you to take the stage in this weekend of reverse evolution. Bring your tunes, particles, movements and voices to touch hearts and minds and bring us all together in rhythm. People lovers, friends, inclusionists - populate the welcome area and all through the steamy expanse of water, mud and lava, to draw in those curious and even adventurous visitors and let them step through to a steamily distant past of our playa. Not least of all - Burners and visitors, come to experience a playa before time. You will soon find there are no bystanders, you will become part of the Primordial spectacle.