Closed Alpha v.1.0 Launch...Welcome!

If you were one of the people invited to participate in the closed Alpha of TheGreenGame, welcome, and thank you so much for joining this little community.

I've been thinking long and hard about how to go about making this game for several years, for while I was busy with teaching at the University and studying for my PhD, I always had the concept and desire for what would become the seeds of TheGreenGame in the back of my mind. I thought long and hard over how best to execute my concept, and with COVID-19 raging around the globe, threatening food security, health, work, and stability, and with so many trapped at home, I realized that this was exactly the kind of strange soil in which this game was not only most needed, but could perhaps take root.

I am extremely grateful for the help of Grand Chevalier, who encouraged me early on in TheGreenGame's development and has let me bounce ideas off her. There is so much more development to this world that I am still working to prepare and bring to the players over time. As always, I am grateful to my beloved fiancee Aristocrat, who not only helps me care for the garden and constantly strives to improve the stability and sustainability of our home, but inspires and keeps me sane in these hard days.

I know and welcome the knowledge that there will be changes that should and must come throughout this Alpha to prepare for the full release. I look forward to the creative minds that, if I'm very very fortunate, will convene here and find the soil and seeds I prepared to their liking, and grow their own characters and stories and creations from that soil. A game, like a book, like any story that is told to another in whispers or laughter, can only truly live through its sharing. If you find this game and story inspires you to join your own words, art, or voice to it, I thank you. Let us gather around the campfire together, long into the cold and strange nights ahead.

For those of you who hold a Golden Mask, and know me as a DM and fellow creator from a world we once shared, welcome! I finally constructed a new home for all of us...something I've been meaning to do for almost a year now. Its a bit new. I bet you can still smell the layer of drying paint in all the rooms, and the garden outside is just mounds of piled dirt, like graves. But the ground is ready, the soil is fertile and black, and I'm honored that you accepted your invitation, and came here to plant your own gardens. Just as you did long ago, please fill this new home with art, and stories, and laughter, and warmth.

For those of you who were given the Golden Mask inviting you to the closed Beta, and perhaps have yet to even meet me, or come across my work, I extend this welcome just as warmly to you! I'm so grateful to you for taking that leap of faith, answering the call, and opening the door despite not knowing what could possibly be on the other side. I can't wait to see the gardens you plant, the characters you create, the unique way you work to rehabilitate this earth with soil and stories both.

Sincerely,

Sokolva