World-Building: Fiction by Aleksey Savchenko
Step into the immersive fictional universes of the Cyberside and Answer series
From System to Page
Before becoming a novelist, Aleksey Savchenko had already spent more than two decades inside the games industry working across design, production, business development and leadership.
That background fundamentally shaped how he approaches fiction.
As an author, he constructs fictional worlds in much the same way he approaches game systems: through rules, incentives, pressure points, hierarchy, collapse and adaptation. His novels may vary in genre, but they share the same systems-driven approach to storytelling: layered fictional histories, interconnected structures, escalation patterns more commonly found in interactive entertainment, and environments that feel shaped by operational logic rather than decorative worldbuilding.
His literary influences reflect a long-standing fascination with philosophy, logical structure and systems-thinking. Writers as varied as William Gibson (Neuromancer) and Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon) on one side, and Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) and Michael Ende (The NeverEnding Story) on the other, have all helped shape his distinctive storytelling style.
Fictional Universes
Aleksey’s fiction currently exists across two interconnected creative directions: the Cyberside universe, which explores artificial intelligence, corporate systems, simulation and societal collapse, and the semi-autobiographical The Answer series, which explores the meaning of life.
Although radically different in tone and setting, both series are built around the same underlying fascination with systems and the pressures they place on human identity.
In Cyberside, those systems are technological, commercial and networked, inspired by the games industry itself and dealing with the fate of humanity as a whole.
In The Answer, the focus shifts inward. The systems become symbolic, psychological and metaphysical as the In The Answer, the focus shifts inward. The systems become symbolic, psychological and metaphysical as the narrative follows an individual attempting to understand himself and his place in the world.
“A masterclass in speculative fiction, blending insider knowledge of the gaming industry with profound insights into corporate ambition and technological evolution. Utterly unputdownable.”
Chris Riches, Daily Express
The Cyberside Series
The Cyberside series by Aleksey Savchenko is a dystopian sci-fi series built on a radical premise.
In Cyberside: Second Simulation, co-written with Bert Jennings, humanity has migrated into a vast digital environment known as the Cyberside after the world’s environmental collapse. The simulated reality is maintained by artificial intelligence and controlled by a sinister corporation.
Originally designed as a refuge, the system begins to collapse. Regions of the simulation fall into lawlessness while dangerous predatory entities stalk the network.
James Reynolds is one of the engineers who helped build the system. Now living off-grid, he works as a Taciturn — a hired gun with no identity, no allegiance, and no past he’s willing to revisit.
Matilda is a mysterious Scry whose abilities challenge the rules of the environment itself.
Their encounter draws them into a conspiracy tied to the origins of the Cyberside and the artificial intelligence that once governed it.
The story blends cyberpunk atmosphere with speculative philosophy, functioning both as a near-future dystopian thriller and an examination of how digital systems reshape identity, memory and power.
The Cyberside universe has since expanded into an additional novel, prequel Cybserside: Level Zero — which traces the rise of Fall Water Lake, the small game studio that launched Cyberside — and a multi-part graphic novel series.
The Answer Series
Where Cyberside examines technological systems, The Answer series by Aleksey Savchenko moves in a different direction.
This mythopoetic fantasy adventure series follows a storyteller on a symbolic journey through allegorical worlds to find true meaning to his life.
The journey begins when, as a child, he encounters a mysterious figure known only as Life beneath the shade of a tree — a meeting that he forgets but which comes to shapes the course of his existence.
As an adult, the storyteller appears successful. He has pursued status, ambition and wealth. Internally, however, he feels increasingly disconnected from the person he was meant to become.
Only at his lowest point does he begin confronting the possibility that he has drifted fundamentally off course.
Reconnecting with Life, he must undertake a perilous journey to find his purpose, facing many trials and foes reflecting different aspects of himself.
Further into the series — in novels including The Tale of the Enchanted Storyteller and Two Keys, The Chain, The Broken Lock — the journey expands to explore the deepening relationship between the Storyteller and Life (Lea) as they fight to overturn universal law forbidding love between mortal and immortal.
The blend of mythic storytelling with philosophical reflection offers an inspirational adventure like no other.
“A bold, vividly imagined adventure series that turns the search for life’s purpose into a gripping mythic quest.”
Will Barker, The Sun
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