After Killing Hamilton, Aaron Burr Fled To Cincinnati And Plotted Treason

Now that everyone has watched Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton: An American Musical,” it might be appropriate to propose a sequel that follows Aaron Burr to Cincinnati where he treasonously plotted against the United States, because that is pretty much what he did.

Politically ruined as the murderer of Alexander Hamilton, Burr hatched a plot to restore his reputation and his fortune by snatching the Louisiana Purchase away from the U.S., grabbing most of the northern Mexico territory and creating an empire, with himself as emperor. Burr’s plan was to magnify some minor border disputes between the United States and Spain into a full-blown revolution against Spanish occupation, with Burr playing the George Washington role.

In his efforts to put this scheme in motion while not arousing suspicion, Burr made multiple trips up and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers between 1805 and 1807. His financial backer was a disgraced Anglo-Irish lawyer named Harman Blennerhassett, who owned a large plantation on an Ohio River island near Marietta. Chief among Burr’s co-conspirators was General James Wilkinson. In a lifetime of poor choices, befriending Wilkinson was among Burr’s worst mistakes. Although he was Senior Officer of the U.S. Army, Wilkinson was also a traitor on the payroll of the Spanish Viceroy. It came out later that Spanish bribes dwarfed Wilkinson’s legal army salary.

Historians still debate how tainted Senator John Smith of Ohio was in the whole treasonous conspiracy. Was he an innocent friend Burr manipulated? Or was he a willing accomplice who kept up a smokescreen to hide his nefarious involvement?

It is a matter of record that Burr passed through Cincinnati several times as he knitted together the disparate threads of his plot, and spent most of those visits at Smith’s home in Terrace Park, then known as Round Bottom Mills. Elder Smith, as he was known, was a Baptist preacher who arrived providentially in the Ohio River town of Columbia right after the minister who founded the pioneer Baptist congregation there returned east. Smith led the little church while building up a lucrative business selling provisions to the army, first at Fort Washington in Cincinnati and then throughout Kentucky and the Northwest Territory.

When Ohio was carved out of the Northwest Territory to become the 17th state in 1803, Elder Smith was appointed to represent the new state in the United States Senate. The Vice President at the time was Aaron Burr, who in that role served as President of the Senate. Smith and Burr got along famously and Smith continued to support Burr even after the fatal duel with Hamilton.

It is known that Burr entrusted Smith with large sums of conspiratorial cash, which Smith dispersed on Burr’s instructions to active participants in the conspiracy. It is known that Smith knew Burr’s whereabouts and kept this intelligence confidential.

On the other hand, Smith, in apparent innocence, wrote to Burr asking if the rumors of traitorous conspiracy were true. Burr responded by fiercely denying the allegations. Nevertheless, after Burr’s plot imploded, John Quincy Adams introduced a resolution recommending Smith’s expulsion from the Senate because of his association with Burr. The measure failed to gather enough votes, but Smith knew his clout had evaporated and resigned from the Senate.

Cincinnati author William Henry Venable published, in 1901, a novel based on Burr’s empire conspiracy titled "Dream of Empire, or, The House of Blennerhassett."  That novel includes a (probably) invented romance between Burr and a woman with the unlikely name of Salome Rosemary, who was staying with the Smiths in Terrace Park when Burr visited.

It is possible that Salome Rosemary was based on a real person because it was well known that Aaron Burr was an incorrigible womanizer and he very likely chased some skirts on his travels through Cincinnati. Venable also records a piece of possibly accurate legend about Elder Smith’s house. According to the novelist, Burr scratched something into a glass window pane of Smith’s house.

“Sitting on the porch in the Sabbath twilight beside Salome, Burr softly intoned his regret that in the morning he must part from her. Sportfully he drew from her finger a diamond ring. ‘Do you want it back after all these years?’ she murmured. ‘No, dear, you shall have it again in a moment.’ He turned to a window, and with the sparkling stylus incised some delicate characters upon a pane of glass. Then he returned the ring to its owner, who, after perusing the inscription, looked round into his face, her own radiant with happiness. The window-pane remained unbroken for nearly a century, and the writing on it was always shown to strangers visiting the old historic homestead. The cutting diamond traced two names upon the glass those of Senator Smith's transitory guests. Many a sentimental girl, pausing over the double inscription, and mildly condemning Burr, has wondered whatever became of Salome Rosemary.”

Elder Smith’s house still stands. It has been owned by various members of the Lindell family for more than 80 years now. As long as they have owned the house, no window displayed Aaron Burr’s scratching. But village historians insist that, throughout the 1800s, visitors were privileged to see the inscription. At least one such visitor, a Mr. A.G. Walter of New Orleans, told the Cincinnati Enquirer [9 June 1902] that he had seen Burr’s signature – and only Burr’s signature – on that window pane:

“I visited a friend on his farm in Clermont County [sic], some years ago, and there was shown the autograph of Aaron Burr scratched on a window pane of an old house, by the great conspirator. Tradition has it that the old house on the farm was once occupied by Burr and his friends during the progress of the Blennerhassett Island conspiracy, and that Burr wrote his name on the glass during a discussion of ways and means of carrying out the plot. The nature of the tradition may be doubted, but the autograph is certainly genuine.”

Senator John Smith is all but forgotten, except for two Cincinnati streets. Today, there is only a nubbin left of Smith Street, running west of the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge ramp, and John Street, from Court north to York in the West End is barely noticed by commuters these days. Both of these once-proud streets were named for Ohio’s first and disgraced Senator, John Smith, the host of traitor Aaron Burr.

Unpacking The Elementalists Finale

I’d like to dedicate this to my dear Kane anon (and other TE anons) who have been hitting my ask box up for the last several months. I’m sorry this took forever to get out and I know it doesn’t ease the fact that they ixnayed Kane, but hopefully this makes a little more sense of TE’s abrupt ending.

Without further ado...

I’ve been wanting to make this post since Book 2 Chapter 10, but life has been hectic. TE’s finale finally forced my hand and so here I am, with a bunch of theories, points, and thoughts I've had noted since the book came back from its hiatus. First off, now that TE is officially over (😭) we now know that the hiatus was primarily used to tie up all the loose story lines and to give us a tidy ending. The writing in the second half of the book was more solid, concise, and had a clear cut vision of what the writers wanted and where the plot was headed. As much as I hate to say it, the first half of the book may have been overly ambitious. They introduced the Moral Compass, potentially two villains in Kane and Alma, and a plethora of different storylines. I had a number of people tell me through the first five/six chapters of Book 2 that they were confused with the plot because it became too convoluted and hard to follow along. I think they introduced too many elements into the story, which dragged down the arc. Let’s break down some of these individually: The Moral Compass was something we were all excited to see implemented, because it gave us the potential to be an evil MC. In the end, we know it didn’t make much of a difference, save for dialogue and/or violent options. I think this was originally something intended to be greater than what it amounted to, and part of it is the limitations of the medium that the app is and simply, resources. This also ties into…. The plot involving Kane and Alma. I don’t believe having Kane as the Big Bad was supposed to be as defined as it ended up being. The two Sources were written far more ambiguous in the beginning, with the chance that depending on your choices, you could side with either one by the end of the book and/or series. The hiatus streamlined the plot, discarding elements that were difficult to pull off, including multiple MC point of views that may have held the possibility of being evil or choosing Kane, therefore placing Alma as the antagonist. In a narrative story app such as Choices (as opposed to Lovestruck, where the routes have the same players but different stories altogether), I just don’t think this advanced storytelling would have been doable. These plots are primarily linear, and MC being evil/with Kane/etc, it would present a different set of problems, including the fact that this becomes an entirely different story while there is supposed to be one solid ending. (For what it's worth, I enjoy the MC customizability of Choices more.) Looking at the group of friends, obviously Beckett was incredibly fleshed out while the others were not as much. I wanted to delve further into our friends’ backgrounds a bit more, and I think at the beginning of the book, we were on that path. Aster and her wood nymph family was a perfect example of table setting. We had two or three scenes before the hiatus to go to the forest, and I thought the Wand Wars and their involvement against Kane was slated to be more prominent. I think the writers had something bigger planned, but how would it all tie in if players started choosing the evil choices? Again, having too many choices causes a domino effect that makes it nearly impossible to navigate when the story is supposed to end with a particular goal in mind. The chapter where we can receive the wand was a symptom of ending the book early and I think the execution of the actual Wand Wars scene was lacking the emotional punch the initial introduction of it warranted. This is unfortunate because the setup they had in Book 1 made it seem much more violent, disastrous, and full of hate compared to what was shown (i.e. Attuned just being greedy bastards). We were introduced to Shreya's Serene & Sublime business and the potential of family disapproval and lack of support in the beginning, but everything was tied up with the gala chapter. Looking back, I was curious why it was so easy to get so many financial backers this early into the series, but knowing that TE only went for two books makes much more sense why we knew whether S&S succeeded or failed. (Tangent - for anyone who didn't secure backing, is S&S successful at the end of the book?) I think Griffin, his scholarship, and his decision between Natural Sciences and Thief was also slated to be a bigger subplot. We never met his parents, despite them being brought up very early in Book 1. If TE had gone the originally planned three or four books, I have no doubt his family would've been introduced and MC would have needed to help sway his parents (and the committee for the scholarship) whether Griffin continued on the NS or professional Thief path. Doing the Griffin scenes (even as platonic friends) influenced his standing for the scholarship and not doing them made him lose out to Amy, if I'm not mistaken. Question for everyone regarding Zeph and the Thief captaincy: Does he get it in everyone's playthrough? I wonder if the writers always planned for Zeph to get the captaincy or if Griff would have kept it depending on your playthrough if they had all four books to use. Another big plot point that resolved itself out of nowhere was Atlas and MC butting heads over their Sun Source mother. I was not a fan of this storyline at all. I felt like the disagreements between the siblings was unnecessary drama that came off as forced. They tried to explain Atlas' position, and I understood where they were coming from, but Atlas was very unreasonable with their constant “who cares about mom” shtick.

I think this was something that could have been more impactful if there weren't so many plotlines happening and more focus could have been given to it instead of a few screens of Atlas saying they were pissed off before storming away from MC. This was also a plotline that was directly influenced by the Kane/Alma decisions. If MC sides with Kane, it makes much more sense for MC and Atlas to be against each other as opposed to MC being good/siding with Alma.

Five major subplots were opened, but how do you seamlessly weave these elements into a 17-19 chapter book? In my opinion, you can't. Each time something new was introduced, I felt things were glossed over, despite big chunks of chapters being focused on whichever subplot the chapter was about. Throw in the romance and I think it is nearly impossible to resolve each aspect in a complete manner.

What also hurt was the pacing of the series. This was also seen in Book 1, where sometimes a chapter would span one or two days, only for a huge time jump to occur in the next chapter.

So many ideas could have been explored through the course of four books (which is what I believe they had planned), but all the different elements should have been introduced at different times. Instead, Book 2 was an amalgamation of so many ideas but not enough time, space, or resources to thoroughly hash out and have a satisfactory resolution. For what it’s worth, I don’t think it was having too much Beckett that hurt the series. He obviously kept the series afloat and was one of PB's biggest moneymakers in recent history. Despite the constant complaints on tumblr, people fail to realize that the ENTIRE online fandom (FB, IG, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Wiki) comprises maybe 0.5% - 2% of the ENTIRE player fan base. It only made sense that PB capitalized on him because their numbers dictated that the resources should be spent in that manner. The fallout from this was that Beckett was the only one who had his storyline relatively complete, and that was due to the spending power of everyone who romanced him. I think what hurt them the most was the multiple storylines and the indecision of which direction they wanted to go. They had a grand idea of the direction through Book 2 (and Book 3, let’s not lie here) but in-game mechanics and the type of game Choices is made it difficult to pull off. The app wasn’t the correct medium for what they envisioned. In my opinion, the overall story arc had the potential to be brilliant, but again, the app wasn't designed for the type of story the writers wanted to tell.

I also think the timing and having a very short turnaround hurt, as well. Players had high expectations and when you factor in the hype around the other books that were also released on Fridays, TE lost some of its sparkle. Most players didn’t get a chance to miss it for the regular 2-3 months we’ve been trained to wait for sequels. (I recognize that I’m an anomaly and the previous three sentences do not apply to me at all.)

Even with all this, I applaud the writing team for wanting to deliver a story that was worthy of a magical world. I love all the Pend Pals (‘Motley Crue’ for me), the familiars, the side characters, loved to hate the villains, and from someone who is not into Harry Potter lore at all, I was absolutely sucked into the magick universe that the writers built. (Metal Att for life ⚙!)

If TE does return in the future (and I REALLY hope it does), I think it will be even stronger than the first two books because the world building is complete. We know almost everything we need to know now. Instead of using a Book 3 to search for Sun Mama, the family is complete, MC and Atlas are attuned to all the elements, and there are so many open-ended questions that Book 2 left us.

If they implement a time jump where MC and the Pend Pals are all post grad/mid 20s, it also gives the writers a chance to move the story from the Young Adult genre to a more mature setting. We saw this in the later diamond scenes, where the writing appeared similar in their vividness (and coding in the final scene - THANK YOU, glorious writing team) to Open Heart, Bloodbound, and A Courtesan of Rome. This removes the restrictions placed on the group of being college kids, and therefore are almost fully developed with their magick, giving the possibility of moving the story out of a university setting.

If you've made it all the way here to the bottom, thank you for sticking with me and apologies for spelling/grammar since this has all been on my phone 😂 I think this comprises almost all my notes I've been keeping for the last 2 months. Feel free to agree or disagree; I just wanted to post my thoughts on this book and series that I love so much.

Now, I'm going to go back to my holiday (don't worry, I didn't write all of this while on vacay lol) and I'll try to answer asks when I have downtime.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife - Trailer A Breakdown

“Troy, wondering what you thought about that new Ghostbusters trailer?”

Well, I’ve waited thirty years for this moment. Something tells me that my long-winded and verbose writing sensibilities won’t be able to convey my thoughts in a text message or 140 characters on Twitter. Welcome anyone that I’ve pointed in this direction. I’ve been waiting an awful long time for this. And that’s not to be dismissive of the wonderful experience and entertaining film we received just three short years ago. This is something different. But the same. Something new, but also something familiar. In one word?

Wow.

Quite a bit to unpack in a trailer revealing the first details on what has otherwise been a very tight-lipped production. Needless to say, the first real look at Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife blew me away. The direct sequel to Ghostbusters II looks to take some twists and turns, while incorporating the iconography and elements that made the original film and its sequel so popular in the 80’s. To be completely honest, it’s quite difficult to sit here and put into words my reaction to seeing a trailer for a movie I’ve been waiting 30 years to see. Excited doesn’t even begin to describe just how fun and exciting this trailer release has been. Not to mention just how special this film release will be.

But you’re not here for a review or my sentiments, you’re here for a breakdown to the trailer with a few comments and screen grabs.

Let’s do it, eh?

Hitting the Road

Right out of the gate, some stunning cinematography from Eric Steelberg on full-display here as a car full of teenage kids approach what appears to be an old mine elevator at the top of an incredible looking vista. Kids being kids, golden hour in full effect, it’s a lovely first introduction to the world in which this film will inhabit. Finn Wolfhard’s character Trevor answers a pointed question that his family has moved to Summerville because they’re completely broke. To the point that he’s getting a haircut at home by his own mother, Callie (played by Carrie Coon). We’re meeting a family on some hard times, forced to make a hard turn in their lives because of finances.

Grandpa’s “Creepy Old Farmhouse”

The family pulls up to a farmhouse and barn that looks like they’ve both seen better days. A giant barn with a collapsed roof and several silos surround a Gothic looking weather vein riddled house that may as well be out of the Addams Family. Dire circumstances have forced them to move to a family farm inherited from an, as of now, unknown grandfather. Phoebe (played by Mckenna Grace) gets out of the car with a look on her face that says it all. And those eyeglasses… well, we’ve all talked about who those look like they belong to at great length.

Something’s Amiss

Trevor’s tender moment with a new friend (Celeste O’Connor’s still as-of-yet-unrevealed character) is interrupted by the mine elevator they’re sitting on shakes violently and a green glow emanates from the mine below them. All is not picture-perfect Americana in Summerville as we’ve been led to believe. An entity explodes from the mine, escaping into the air and pushing the teenagers back in the process. That glimpse of our paranormal haunting kicks us into the studio and production company logos.

Bron Studios/Bron Media Logo

Interestingly, no Ghost Corps logo attached to the trailer. But there is a newcomer to both the trailer and the teaser poster released on Friday, Bron Studios. A Canadian company, Bron gets a logo right after Sony/Columbia possibly suggesting they’re a financial backer of the film or a large partner in some shape or form. A quick look at iMDB shows that Aaron L. Gilbert of Bron Media has been added as an Executive Producer to the film as well.

Earthquakes and Mr. Grooberson

Here’s our first real taste of how Paul Rudd’s character will factor into the film. He’s intrigued by Summerville’s seismic activities, given the fact that it doesn’t lie on a fault line, nor does it have any of the telltale signs of locations that should be moving and shaking. The protagonist family huddles under a table during a quake where we get a good taste of the film’s humor courtesy of Trevor with a quippy one-liner about the summer that they died under a table. So what is happening? Stay tuned. Also, admittedly I was too distracted by the beautiful lighting in the shot with Trevor to notice the symmetrical book stacking visual gag in the background until others pointed it out. Well played, set dec team. I’d expect there will be visual easter eggs like this throughout the entirety of the film.

Mystery Box Revealed

Following one of the quakes at their new home, Phoebe seemingly finds a loose floorboard and a sliding puzzle that has been left behind by their grandfather to hide the presence of a familiar ghost trap. Which Phoebe takes to school and shows off to her still unnamed friend, played by Logan Kim. The sight of a ghost trap tickles Mr. Grooberson, who connects it with the famed-Ghostbusters who saved New York City back in the 1980’s. The kids have no idea of the existence of ghosts, nor what occurred back in 1984 near Central Park. Grooberson is more than happy to educate them.

Jason Reitman Front and Center

After the ghost trap’s appearance, Jason Reitman (deservedly so) gets a card proclaiming the film coming from him as a writer-director hyphenate. The credit comes over an industrial space with a whole lot of Ridley Scott creep-factor going on. If I had one nit to pick with the trailer, it’s the producer in me that is concerned poor Jason’s credit never resolves with the “R” in Reitman not obstructed by the light blooming in the center of the frame.

A Free-Roaming… Something?

Right after Jason Reitman’s card, comes a panning shot across the same industrial space where a gelatinous blob is in the distance doing something. It’s tough to make out exactly what type of entity we’re looking at here, but it seems to appear (and move) like a microscopic organism or something found at the depths of the sea. Which I quite enjoy. A ghost that looks unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Also worth noting that the movements feel practical - there is weight and almost a rubbery movement to it just like the creature designs from the shop in the 80’s. Love it.

New York Was Like the Walking Dead

Mr. Grooberson shows Phoebe and Logan Kim’s character archival footage from the 1980’s where he remembers seeing the ghost trap utilized as a kid. The Ghostbusters were a phenomenon 35 years ago, but have been forgotten. As history tends to move on and generations aren’t impacted by the events of their elders, they’re learning about who the Ghostbusters were. Phoebe comments that her mother has never spoken of the events that took place in New York and that their father isn’t in the picture.

Of note, these two shots are incredible angles that I don’t believe I’ve seen before. Perhaps the result of Jason Reitman and his post production team digging into the mines and finding the original dailies and negative from the 1984 film for use in Afterlife?

PKE Readings and “Does This Pole Still Work?”

Phoebe seems to have found other Ghostbusting equipment and uses it to trace readings back to a makeshift shed. Presumably a continuation of the scene based on the editing, Phoebe slides down a fire pole (!!!) to a subterranean hidden space. She continues to follow readings on the PKE Meter, finding equipment including the orange piece of machinery taken from the original Ghostbusters at Columbia University, a Betamax recorder in the far distance, an oscilloscope, and a whole lot of fungi growing in jars. The camera pans over sample dishes of spores, molds and fungus collections, (subtly cued with Phoebe talking about picking through the rubble of her grandfather’s life) and then continues past a proton pack in progress of assembly.

Admittedly, this was the first moment in the trailer where I could feel my heart doing backflips. We’re seeing the past through Phoebe’s eyes and everything looks, feels, and sounds like Ghostbusters. I love it. This movie is about discovery, as we’ve heard over and over. To me, it feels a bit like we’re (the viewer - the broader public outside of us fans) are rediscovering our love for what made these movies so popular.

The Shoe Drops

This is where any other trailer would take the opportunity to pepper in the bass drops, kick in the soft-breathy cover version of Ray Parker Jr.’s theme song, or some other overused trope. But Ghostbusters Afterlife takes a pretty bold stance and tries something different. And to me, it really works. When Mr. Grooberson discovers that the ghost trap isn’t a replica and is, in fact a real ghost trap (and may be occupied still), he questions who Phoebe is, as there’s a cut to Phoebe’s hand grazing over a rack of flight suits revealing the name tag, “Spengler” barely having enough time to resolve before a smash to black.

In what is absolutely a stroke of genius of whomever is responsible for this wonderful trailer, Bill Murray’s line for the original movie as Venkman and Stantz share a bottle of Apricot Brandy talking about going into business for themselves takes on a whole new meaning: “Call it fate, call it luck, call it karma. I believe everything happens for a reason,” is said while - - to my ear - - a new rendition of the same Elmer Bernstein cue that plays under the scene swells.

A Certified Genius or an Authentic Wacko

After a “Next Summer” sell card, another beautiful Americana (c/o Calgary) vista of the Shandor Mining Company. Interesting, perhaps Ivo Shandor from the original film fancied himself an entrepreneur at one point before he became an architect? Or perhaps this is a result of his interest in metallurgy mentioned by Stantz? Perhaps he mined his own supplies for projects? Either way, I’m starting to think that Sumeriaville… ahem… sorry… Summerville might be following in a classic trope of some of the best horror stories. A town with an incredibly horrible secret. Warning signs don’t matter to Phoebe and Logan Kim’s character as they trudge ahead.

Hello, Beautiful

Meanwhile, in the narrative of our trailer, Trevor follows in Phoebe’s footsteps into the fields of the farm and finds something of his own: a beautiful (but a little rusty) 1959 Miller-Meteor Cadillac as the ground shakes again, something shatters through a row of school buses seemingly attacking Phoebe, and the town goes into high-alert. Amid the chaos, there’s a striking 20 frames or so of Phoebe staring into a horrifying fire pit of arms - lost souls? Something else? And immediately after that, Mr. Grooberson frantically tries to escape from a snarling beast that slams a foot on the hood of his automobile. Trevor’s Ecto-1 adventure continues as he turns the key and an homage that would make Laszlo Kovacs proud reveals the familiar license plate and front grill emerging from the garage and into the field for a joy ride. The ol’ Ecto has a whole lotta horsepower left in the tank.

Damn Right, This Thing Has a Gunner’s Seat

And that’s when the trailer hits us. What can and should be the most amazing surprise in the trailer (if not unfortunately spoiled for you by a few self-interested rotten apples with horrible cell phone photos) - this isn’t the Ecto we’re familiar with. Perhaps an explanation as to why it’s the ol’ Ecto-1, or maybe the car was always being changed throughout the duration of the Ghostbusters’ longevity, THIS Ectomobile looks to have been heavily modified for field work. Phoebe, with a thrower in her hand, swivels out into an attack position and we’re off to the races. The Ecto-1, with Phoebe in the gunner position, looks to be chasing the microscopic entity seen earlier in the industrial space - though some people have speculated that might be Slimer, I don’t think that’s the case. Either way… Dear Hasbro, take my money now. My goodness, what an awesome set-piece (and toyetic moment) that looks like it will be.

Everything about this movie speaks to me. It’s playing with my nostalgia. It’s also giving us something new and the promise of the next generation discovering the Ghostbusters both on-screen and off. The fact that a main character is named Trevor for some reason immediately made me think of my amazing former boss and now guide to the next generation of comedy Trevor Albert, who was a long-time friend and colleague of Harold Ramis. Phoebe’s an intriguing character and the friendship that we saw Mckenna Grace and Logan Kim develop via social media throughout the course of the production seems to have carried over to their on-screen performances.

Of course, noticeably absent are any of the original cast members. But, as the theme of this trailer and seemingly the movie as a whole is discovery and things slowly unfolding, I can imagine that moment will be saved until the absolute very end of the marketing campaign. If the cast isn’t kept in secret similar to Mark Hamill in The Force Awakens completely. To be completely honest, I don’t want to see another frame until opening day of the film itself. And if this is the only trailer they release, that would be a wonderful mystery box. Particularly for this Ghostbusters podcast host who would have to break another TV spot or trailer down frame by frame. I get the sense that the less we know and see about this movie before the first viewing experience, the better.

But most of all - - the iconography, the designs from Stephen Dane, Michael C. Gross, and so many other artists has carried over successfully and looks authentic. This is no replica, as the trailer blatantly tells us. This is the real deal.

CEO Michael Schade about Everspace 2 and the Future of Rockfish Games

In part 1 of our interview we talked about the thrilling comeback of Fishlabs founder Michael Schade and Christian Lohr as Rockfish Games and their surprise hit Everspace, a crowdfunded rogue-like spaceship shooter for PC and consoles, which has been sold over one million units and counting. Now we look together with Michael Schade at the sequel Everspace 2, celebrated at gamescom 2019. And we talk about the future of Rockfish Games.

Making Games: Everspace 2 was a big topic at ­gamescom, not least because of Geoff Keighley’s words of praise at gamescom: Opening Night Live. It’s no longer a rogue-like, but an open-world RPG. Quite a risk, isn’t it? Michael Schade: Well, Everspace 2 is a sequel with the story picking up after the events of the predecessor. Still, we asked ourselves: Should we really call it “Everspace 2”, although we’re making a huge leap from a rogue-like to an open-world RPG? It’s a completely different genre! The team, especially, was concerned. But most outlets picked up the unusual approach, and the headlines read: “Rockfish Games says goodbye and drops the rogue-like formula to create an open-world spaceship shooter with RPG elements.” Since Everspace 2 will have procedurally generated loot items, something that no other spaceship shooter out there has done before, we also went with “Freelancer meets Diablo” which resonated perfectly with both the media and our fans.

For Everspace 2 Rockfish Games uses the latest Unreal Engine with Niagara Mesh Particles and Volumetric Lighting.

The demo of Everspace 2 already looks very polished. Why don’t you release it as Steam Early Access already, why do you do a Kickstarter campaign? First of all, we’d like to get the community on board as soon as possible. These days, trust in the developer is more important than ever. There were quite a few games released in the last few years that didn’t turn out as promised. We want to do it precisely the other way around. At the same time we released the announcement trailer, we also published a 22 minute Let’s Play, showing that the trailer was made of in-game graphics. That’s what the game really looks like already at this early stage of development. We even decided that all Kickstarter backers, who at least pledge on a digital copy, will get the Everspace 2 demo in November, this year. Our approach is unlike most Kickstarter campaigns, where backers have to wait at least a year to get their hands on a playable version.

How do you see the next few years, how strong do you want to grow? If you’re doing well, you’ll soon have all sorts of people knocking on your door who want to put a lot of money into your company and make it big very quickly. This is when you have to pay special attention to who your next partner is. Who you “go to bed with” for business, so to speak. You won’t be able to turn that around anymore once you have made that step. Looking back, our first venture capitalists were the wrong partners, but we didn’t have much of a choice. They never understood why we develop games, what motivates us. Of course, we want to make money, but we also want to make games that fans love — the kind of games we like to play ourselves. Games that you can actually finish and look back with joy about the hours of fun you had with while you are excitedly waiting for the next sequel or expansion. But financial investors have completely different goals. They are looking for investment opportunities where they can make at least 10x their initial investment to compensate to other investments that go bust. Typically, you won’t make such high returns from premium games, the kind of games our team was passionate about. To compete with the most profitable gaming companies in the world, you have to go F2P, but that only works if everyone is 100% on board with it. So, we will be very cautious about our next moves regarding anything beyond Everspace 2. However, we would be poor entrepreneurs if we wouldn’t take a closer look if a tempting opportunity comes along our way, even if it is outside of our comfort zone. However, we will structure any investment deal quite differently, so that nobody can ever harm our studio, our family. We’re not going to lose everything all over again, that’s for sure.

Rockfish CEO Michael Schade spoke with Making Games in his Hamburg office.

You’re a pretty grassroots democratic bunch. Does that cause any problems? We have a fantastic team that has been making great games for more than ten years together. I would never dictate them what kind of game to make, they know those details much better than I do. However, we did have several situations in the past that cost me a lot of energy. I felt that no matter how much I achieved on the sales and marketing side, it was never enough or not even recognized internally. But when I had concrete game ideas or wanted to change the general direction the team quite often just rolled eyes, and I could only convince them by pulling enough feedback from our community that wanted the same what I did. But the team and I also disagreed on some very high-level decision where I could not bring in the community (which also can be quite counter-productive). For instance, we had very different opinions on whether to continue the story of Everspace in our next game. Uwe Wütherich, our creative director, and I were very much in favor, the rest of the team was mostly against it. Uwe and I really liked our story with all its nods to sci-fi movies like Blade Runner, Battle Star Galactica, The 6th Day or The Island, and how well it fit the rogue-like format. To me it was also obvious from a business perspective that you build a sequel on the lore and the events of the predecessor. However, our team never really liked the clone-themed story of Everspace. They thought it was too generic and the hero to shallow and naïve – which makes perfect sense for a clone pilot if you think about it. But, they wanted to do something else, so I let everyone pitch their own ideas which I found even more generic and boring. At some point, I had enough. I pulled the CEO card and decided that we’ll continue the clone-themed story in Everspace 2, period. No surprise, that didn’t go down well with everyone, even our long-term story writer was not a fan, but we had to make a decision. However, I learned from our coach that entitling the team first and then overruling them is never a good idea. Some team members were pretty grumpy, others just didn’t care about the story anymore. Not good, but I was convinced I made the right call. So, we hired a story consultant who had been working on AAA sci-fi games to help us get everyone on board with the story. We found the perfect fit with Joshua Rubin, who has been working on a lot of big gaming franchises: Destiny, Game of Thrones, Assassin’s Creed. Joshua’s opinion was that of course you should keep your main characters and beloved sidekicks in a sequel, so that fans can easily connect with the new story. He also liked the clone-themed story concept and saw lots of potential. It just needed to be better executed. We’ve been working with Joshua on the story for a bit over a year now, and it has improved quite a lot. His creative talent helped immensely to eliminate the disagreements within the team. Of course, I am fully aware that great gameplay, stunning graphics, tons of content is much more important for the kind of game we’re making. However, I’ve experienced myself often enough how much an exciting story can motivate you to keep playing because you want to know where it is going, and it can also help to stand out from other games. That’s why we put so much emphasis on a captivating story.. Our ultimate goal is that each and everyone in our team will be pleased and that our fans will love ­Everspace 2. Fingers crossed!

Read also:

The Making of Everspace: Interview with Rockfish-CEO Michael Schade (Part 1)

Developing the Rogue-­like formula of Everspace

The Making of Everspace: Narratives in a Rogue-like

Michael Schade Co-Founder and CEO Rockfish Games

Joint entrepreneurs for more than 25 years, Michael and his long-term business partner Christian Lohr founded the independent PC and console gaming studio Rockfish Games, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, in 2014. Together with their seasoned team behind the critically acclaimed Galaxy on Fire series on board, the former mobile games veterans had a major surprise hit with Everspace, a fast-paced 3D rogue-like space shooter, on Steam, Xbox, PS4 and Switch.

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