Old Ideas

When I was in grad school, I was working on a novel that was meant to kick off The Solar War, a series about an alien invasion of the solar system.  It gave me a story arena in which my characters could fly to many wondrous worlds without having to deal with the inconvenience of interstellar travel.

Ultimately, The Solar War collapsed and joined the ranks of failed writing projects, but I still think back on it from time to time if only because I stuck with it longer than any other story.  While thinking up ideas for the online novel, I thought that maybe this would be a chance to resurrect it.  Me being me, I hopped onto Google to do a quick search to see if anyone was working on a title like that...

...and it turned out someone did!  Just last month, in fact, a little indie game called Solar War was released.  Same premise: humanity must fight off an alien invasion not only of Earth but the entire solar system.

I have to say I did not see that coming when I turned to Google.  Now, I'm not saying that I'm going to sue the guys who made the game.  I haven't played the game (it's not available for Mac), but from what little I've seen, it's different enough from my idea to be distinct.  So congrats to the game guys.  Big ups!

I guess I'm just scratching my head over the idea of seeing something so familiar done somewhere else.  The sensation is like seeing a woman who reminds you of that girl you date for about a month before realizing that she didn't give two shits about you.

I might still try to bring back my own Solar War idea, mixing it in with some other thoughts I've had recently.  Realistically, however, it might end up being a pipedream.  The two or three years that I spent on it the first time kind of left me a little bitter.