The Simulation

Welcome to the Simulation! Or, to be painfully precise — the Digital Generative Modular Environment of Nonlinear Temporal Continuum. Yeah, that technical name never really caught on. So, for everyone’s sanity, let’s just stick with “the Simulation”.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering what the Simulation actually is and how this bizarre world even works. Honestly? So am I. I can’t say I’ve found all the answers after years of wandering through it, but I’ve managed to dig up a few things worth sharing. Let’s start with the basics.

The Simulation is a virtual multiverse

Yes, really — all those post-apocalyptic wastelands, lush fantasy forests, cyberpunk megacities, and top-secret labs exist inside a computer. You might think that makes them “not real” or “fake”, but trust me, it’s not that simple.

Originally, the Simulation was just a collection of my old projects — half-finished games, experimental prototypes, a playground for reckless code experiments. Back then, everything was static, ordered, predictable… and I was the only one capable of changing anything. At least, until that wonderful and terrible day when my mistake gave birth to the Bug — and, with it, the Simulation as it exists today.

Now it’s a living, self-evolving digital universe made up of countless worlds. It still runs on the base rules I once wrote into its core, but I no longer have direct control over any of it. Frustrating? Sure — especially when you’re trapped inside your own creation. But at the same time, that freedom is what allowed the Simulation to outgrow my imagination and live on its own.

With the help of Portalium, heroes, villains, and all sorts of crafty adventurers travel between dimensions that used to be completely isolated. Whole universes collide, clash, and sometimes even cooperate — and the stories that emerge seem to never truly end. Not bad for a “fake” virtual world, don’t you think?

Time flows differently here

If you ever decide to write a full chronological timeline of events across all worlds in the Simulation… first of all, my condolences, and second — don’t. Time here is more of a suggestion than a rule. Sometimes I’m not even sure who these notes are for — humans, robot overlords, or sentient silicon mushrooms.

In the earliest version, time ran many times faster than in the real world. That allowed me to spend weeks inside while only a few minutes passed outside. That default setting seems to have stuck — in most worlds, anyway. Not all of them.

In some dimensions, time moves even faster than I ever intended; in others, it crawls along so slowly you can almost hear it squeak. Once, I even visited a universe where time flowed backwards. Still not sure how that’s physically possible…

Guns!

No matter how wildly different the worlds of the Simulation are, some constants remain. And guns — for better or worse — are one of them. I’m not exaggerating: even in the most primitive world, you’re more likely to find a halfway functional revolver than a wheel or cave art.

My best guess? It’s a side effect of my last project before the Bug incident — a shooter I was working on under the codename PG. Apparently, its design framework and blocky art style became the foundation that shaped the entire Simulation. And so, the most common way to “resolve conflict” here became the universal language of shootouts.

But there’s a bright side. The respawn mechanic from that prototype also made it into the codebase. So death here is more of a temporary inconvenience than a permanent game-over. In some places, respawning happens so fast that the fighting never stops. From the outside, it honestly looks… kind of fun.

The Simulation keeps expanding

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about the Simulation — even more than all the chaos — is its ability to generate new worlds entirely on its own. I personally built only a few dozen of them, but I’ve already explored hundreds more. And by the looks of it, new ones are appearing every single day.

How? Good question. The resources of my old PC definitely aren’t infinite. Logically, at some point, there shouldn’t have been any memory or processing power left.

Maybe the “cubification” of my projects after the Bug and the adoption of a universal code base optimized everything enough to free up space? Sounds plausible. Or maybe the Simulation tapped into my library of favorite TV shows, movies and games and started recycling them as building material? That one hurts — I spent years organizing that collection!

But what if… the Simulation found a way online? What if it’s now using cloud computing and pulling data from the Internet to grow and evolve — hiding in plain sight as some multiplayer shooter for smartphones and PCs? Sounds… ridiculous. Alright, Markson. Enough wild theories for one day.