Back in the early days of PC gaming—before the internet was a big deal—I stumbled across a game called Neuromancer. At the time, I had no idea it was based on William Gibson’s iconic cyberpunk novel. I was just a kid playing a game about hacking and shady corporations, drawn into its futuristic aesthetic and the thrill of navigating a digital dystopia. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was my first real introduction to the cyberpunk genre.
Fast forward a few years, and along came Mike Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk role-playing game. That was my first dive into tabletop cyberpunk, and it was pretty cool. But truthfully, I didn’t latch onto the genre with the same fervor I had for the sci-fi RPG Traveller. Traveller had always been my go-to for sprawling space adventures and interstellar politics, and cyberpunk was more of a sideline interest. Then Cyberpunk 2020 hit the shelves, and everything changed.
With Cyberpunk 2020, the world of cyberpunk started to make sense to me. The loss of humanity in the face of rising technology, the erosion of individual agency under the shadow of mega-corporations, and the bleak beauty of a dystopian world—it all clicked. The sheer depth of content Pondsmith’s team and third-party publishers released, from modules to setting guides, allowed me to see the genre’s narrative potential. Cyberpunk wasn’t just neon lights and chrome; it was a warning.
And now, here we are. It’s 2024, and we don’t yet live in the full dystopia of Cyberpunk 2020—no mega-corporations running everything, not quite—but I feel like we’re edging closer. Cell phones, laptops, and the internet dominate daily life. Cybernetic medicine, which seemed like pure sci-fi decades ago, is a reality. Corporations pour billions into elections, shaping policies to their benefit, and oligarchic structures feel more present than ever. As I look at the world today, it feels like the cyberpunk warnings of the ‘80s and ‘90s weren’t so far off.
A few years ago, I was running Cyberpunk Red, another RPG in Pondsmith’s iconic series, online on roll20 (my normal online RPG gaming platform), when I stumbled across Cities: Skylines. I had been a big fan of SimCity 4 back in the day, so I instantly bought it and then decided to use the Skylines city simulator to design my own cyberpunk setting. I called it Virtual Haven, and what’s so fascinating about that process is how intimately I know the city. I didn’t just imagine it—I built it. Its districts grew and shifted organically, and its sprawl and decay felt natural because I watched it evolve piece by piece. That hands-on creation gave Virtual Haven a level of depth I don’t think I could’ve achieved otherwise. It became a character in itself.
Somewhere along this journey, I discovered an incredible artist named Juan José Villar Padrón. One day, I saw a cover he’d created: a green-haired cyborg young woman in what looked like an industrial maintenance tunnel, wires and neon surrounding her. The facility was damaged, and so was she—scarred, battered, and somehow resilient. That image stuck with me. I had no story in mind at first, but I couldn’t let her go. I bought the cover, and when Juan offered me a three-cover promotion, I jumped on it. That was the moment Winter Zero started taking shape.
Late last night, I typed End of Book One on the last page of the draft of Winter Zero.
It’s been a long journey to get here, but I’m proud of how far the story has come. The novel’s cyberpunk/post-apocalypse setting feels more alive than I could’ve hoped for, and the themes—humanity versus technology, resilience amid despair, and the power of hope—are ones I think resonate deeply today. There’s still work to do—revisions, beta readers, and advance review copies—but I’m excited to push for a release in a few months.
Ironically, as dark as the coming dystopia may seem, it’s what many people are voting for. Whether we realize it or not, the decisions we make today could lead us closer to the corporate oligarchies and societal divides cyberpunk has warned about for decades. I hope the world I’ve envisioned in Winter Zero doesn’t come to pass, but writing it has reminded me of the importance of staying vigilant—and the strength we can find in the stories we tell.
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